Which sw does best-quality capture?

[shira]

I have a camcorder with a firewire connection into my computer.

My Windoze computer has several different video capture programs available:

1. Windows Movie Maker
2. Intervideo WinDVD Creator
3. Adobe Premier
4. Roxio DVD Builder

Any recommendations on which of these would work best with my firewire capture? Which gives the best quality, the fewest dropped frames? Is there anything else you think does a better job than the ones listed above?

Some of what I need to capture is 16:9, if that makes any difference to the recommendation. I'm not seeing configuration options to set 16:9 aspect ratio in the settings screens for some of these - does that mean they wouldn't work with 16:9 if they don't have a place to specify it?

[redwudz]

Simple answer, none of the above. Firewire transfer is the same as copying a file from one drive to another. It really doesn't make much difference what you use. They all work the same.

The key to quality DV to DVD or other formats is the processing and encoding after transfer to your hard drive.

I use one of the cheapest transfer programs around, WinDV. It's freeware. After the video is on the hard drive, then that's where it takes a little work for a quality end product.

I usually run it through VirtualDub. I use VD Mod most of the time. There I apply filtering or color corrections as needed, along with editing, then frameserve the output to the encoder. I use TMPGEnc Plus encoder most of the time. Then author it and burn to DVD.

If you do extensive editing, there are quite a few good editors available. I am not a fan of all-in-one programs for DV to DVD as they are too inflexible. Better to use custom tools or programs if you want the most control of your final output. Just my opinion.

EDIT: If I had to make a selection from above, it would be Adobe Premier.

[edDV]

All will work for Firewire DV transfer. Adobe Premiere will offer batch capture if that is important.

If computer resources are a problem, just use WinDV which is a simple DV transfer program that sits over DirectShow. It uses few resources compared to those other bloated programs listed.

16:9 is flagged in the camcorder and transfers at the same 720x480 pixel resolution as 4:3 so there is no difference for transfer. The flag indicates which pixel aspect ratio is used during display, editing or encoding.

[lordsmurf]

WinDV

[FulciLives]

When you do a DV type capture ... or transfer really ... via FIREWIRE there should be no real issues at all little alone A/V sync issues.

However some people do have such A/V sync issues. It probably has a lot to do with the exact hardware config of their computer etc.

So you very well may not NEED this but there is a program called ScenalyzerLive and some who otherwise have had DV transfer issues with other programs have found that they have NO problems when using ScenalyzerLive.

The reason for this is somewhat mysterious but the "story" I heard was that most DV capture programs make use of "routines" in the WINDOWS operating system whereas ScenalyzerLive does everything with it's own "code".

I don't know if that story is true or false I just know that I've seen enough people have issues with other DV capture apps ... then use ScenalyzerLive ... without issues.

But like I said you probably will not need it. Few seem to have issues with DV capture/transfer.

There are FREEWARE programs that do DV capture/transfer such as DVIO for instance. That seems to be a popular one.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman