Home Video Capture

[Jac26]

I am in the preparation stages of creating a movie slideshow which will incorporate home videos, family pictures, music, and sound effects. I am going to put the final movie onto a DVD which should be able to play in anyone's DVD player. Right now, I am trying to figure out the settings I should use to capture my home video.

Which format should I use to capture for highest quality and to be able to edit? I have an external so disk space is not a problem.

Also, I know it will be shown on both wide HD televisions, as well as square televisions. So should I set the ratio to 16:9 or 4:3? Or capture it twice using each setting?

[Herve]

hello

Also, I know it will be shown on both wide HD televisions, as well as square televisions. So should I set the ratio to 16:9 or 4:3? Or capture it twice using each setting?

first, a DVD is StandardDefinition, not HighDefinition
so the quality will not be "perfect" on HD screen

about aspect (16:9 or 4:3)
all HD TV are 16:9
some cathodic TV (and not "square" TV ) are 16:9
DVD handles both aspects

so, make a DVD in 16:9 mode, it will be more compliant with all TV (and if you want, you can request a "special tip" to the DVD player: a full screen display from 16:9 streams on 4:3 TV. This function is available in the settings of your DVD player, it's called "PanScan")

I am in the preparation stages of creating a movie slideshow which will incorporate home videos, family pictures, music, and sound effects. I am going to put the final movie onto a DVD which should be able to play in anyone's DVD player. Right now, I am trying to figure out the settings I should use to capture my home video.

the simplest way is to use iMovie, import your photos, add music and give the result to iDVD.
No special setting, iMovie will do it itself.

bye

[Jac26]

it's called cathodic? Got it 8)

I am going to be using Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 to edit the video, pictures and insert all the title cards, effects, and narration. I'm familiar with Final Cut but have never used iMovie. Is there anything iMovie can do that Final Cut can't?

I bought the EzCAP Mac USB Video Grabber to connect my VCR and my very old camcorder to my iMac (although I just found out that USB capture devices capture in lower resolution than firewire devices). I downloaded VideoGlide as the driver for EzCap and it only gives me certain options under "compression type." Here they are:

Animation
Apple Intermediate Codec
Apple Pixlet Video
Apple VC H.263
DV-PAL
DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
DVCPRO-PAL
DVCPRO50-NTSC
DVCPRO50-PAL
H.264
JPEG 2000
Motion JPEG A
Motion JPEG B
MPEG-4 Video
None
Photo-JPEG
PNG
YUV422 Codec

I thought AVI was the format to use for editing the footage, but it is not in the list. Is there a similar format to AVI I should use or should I just click on "none" ??

Is it possible to use the DV format with a USB device? Will that actually work?

Also, which decisions do I have to make in this initial phase? Which settings do I have to be sure of before I start editing the video and pictures? And what can I change when I'm done editing? I know it's a broad question but this is the first time I'm doing this and I don't want to have finished weeks or months of editing and then realize that I have to start all over because I set the video to the wrong format. Thanks for your help...

[lordsmurf]

"Is there anything iMovie can do that Final Cut can't?"
Other than annoy you and treat you like an idiot, no, nothing off the top of my head. FCP is professional software, iMovie is for soccer moms and kiddies.

FCP is a great choice for what you want to make.

4:3 or 16:9 is more a decision based on the SOURCE than the destination viewing screen. Are your source videos in widescreen? If not, then you'll be making 4:3 DVDs.

AVI is Windows, MOV is Mac.
YUV422 Codec should be uncompressed. I would use that.
Next best choice is DV, though it is compressed.

[Jac26]

thanks so much!

my sources are mostly VHS-C and VHS videos, but I also have 1 recent party that I filmed on a mini DV that I'd like to incorporate. I'm not sure if it's wide screen but I know it was a standard definition camera.

[edDV]

thanks so much!

my sources are mostly VHS-C and VHS videos, but I also have 1 recent party that I filmed on a mini DV that I'd like to incorporate. I'm not sure if it's wide screen but I know it was a standard definition camera.

If you have access to a MiniDV camcorder, you can capture DV to iMovie directly via Firewire.

[Jac26]

I actually already captured the mini DV via firewire.

What I really need help with is the analogue converting. I need to know what I am going to need besides a digital analogue converter to enhance the image and sound of the analogue before I digitize it. Do I need a converter AND a video proc amp?

[edDV]

Lordsmurf has a full website devoted to just that.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/

How many hours of VHS-C are you talking?

I'd get it professionally transferred with a pro level frame sync to an external HDD (Quicktime file).

For final cut pro you need to decide on your edit format. Some options:

Uncompressed 8 bit 4:2:2 (RAID required)
Uncompressed 10 bit 4:2:2 (RAID required)
DV (8bit by default)
Apple Intermediate Codec (8bit 4:2:0)
Apple ProRes Intermediate Codec (10bit 4:2:2)