DV cam for A/V, or no... or how? Interlaced? Etc?

[mpb]

OK, since that subject line was nice and specific, I'll just lay out all my questions here... I am already proficient at conversion, authoring, and DVD creation, and now I am looking at laying down some cash for a Sony TRV-25 or 27 miniDV cam.

My questions are for anyone who already has one...

1. Is the time-base corrector on this unit the kind I want? To copy damaged VHS tapes and strip macrovision?

2. Is the resulting DV file interlaced or progressive? Is it 720x480? I just copy with firewire, right?

3. Do I just import with MS Movie Maker and save to a DV AVI? Will it actually do that? Or am I forced to save as a sh*tty WMV file?

Basically I'm trying to figure out if it's worth waiting to convert some of my other tapes that ARE in good shape and that I can feed into my ATI card if I want. But getting 704x480 etc progressive video would be a lot better than the interlaced crap I'm working with now. Even if it's done with line doubling and such.

Any info you can share is appreciated!!!!!

[yg1968]

mbp,

I have a Sony TRV25 and I like it. I have to admit that I am not knowledgeble enough to answer all of your questions.

I'll try to answer a couple of them anyways:
1- miniDV by default is 720x480 (or 576 for pal). But if your VCR tapes are low resolution, they will remain low resolution. I am not sure if they would improve tapes that have deteriorated. I would be curious to know.
2- for some reason, I seem to capture DV audio at 32khz. There may be a way to change it to 48khz. Anyways, you can easily convert 32kz to 48khz without any noticeable effects.
3-If you capture directly to your computer with the passthrough function, it will defeat macrovision. However, macrovision is enabled if you try to make a copy of your VCR tape to a DV tape. Since this is an unecessary step, this is not much of an inconvenience.
4- the DV signal gets wrapped into avi (DV) file by a number of programs. Some of these programs are freewares. These programs are actually only transfering the file to your computer. The capturing is actually done by your camcorder. The file gets transfered from your miniDV camcorder to your computer through the firewire cable.
5- I think DV is usually interlaced

Here are the specs of the TRV25 and some articles written by more knowledgeable people than me on DV.

http://www.sonystyle.ca/webapp/commerce/servlet/ProductDisplay?merchant_rn=1&prrfnbr=5...s&cgrfnbr=2081

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#DV formats

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-tech.html

http://www.dvcentral.org/stepby.html

Hope this helps,

YG

[mpb]

Those links were VERY useful! Thanks much!!

OK, it looks like it's interlaced but doubled. So I can copy the way I want to, which is good.

The Sony DV cams all have 640x480 as their video resolution. In 16x9 mode does this change to 720x480 or to 640xwhatever?

I know my tapes as VHS won't have information that can be interpreted at more than about 352x240... but laserdiscs and SVHS could. That's the reason I've been watching this stuff so carefully.

[yg1968]

The 640 by 480 is for the still images resolution. All miniDV camcorders have 720x480 (or 576 for pal) video resolution. It is inherent in the DV format.

See the table in the previously posted link:

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-tech.html