HDV capture - whole tape problem

[gb_direwolf]

Hi all

I have a new Sony HC3 cam and I'm trying to work out the best method of capturing the video to PC for editing.

I used Adobe Elements 3 and captured a 60 minute tape to my harddrive. When I loaded up the file in Adobe it brought my computer to its knees. Everytime I tried to do something I would have to wait 5 minutes while the PC thought about things.

My PC specs are:

AMD 64 3700+
2 Gig DDR RAM
320 Gig SATA drive
7800 GTX video card

Is there another program that I should be using?

[bobkart]

I also have a Sony HDR-HC3.

You are capturing as HDV then, as opposed to just DV. I do this using HDVSplit by the way, that should not affect your problem though.

Your symptoms are typical of trying to deal with HD video. There are 4.5 times as many pixels per frame as Standard Definition video.

It might help to know what you intend to do with the video; Burn to DVD, burn to HD-DVD, make PC-based videos, etc.

I have authored my HDV to both standard DVD and HD-DVD. But editing was minimal and for more involved editing I had to resort to different tools than I normally use, because of the performance problem you are seeing.

[gb_direwolf]

I intend to edit the video and then burn to DVD.

Maybe I need to upgrade to s duel core PC?

[edDV]

Basic expectation is 1440x1080 HDV takes 4-6x the time to do any filtering or encoding vs. 720x480 DV. So you need 4-6x more computer speed to equal things out.

Cuts editing can be nearly as fast as DV if you use a digital intermediate format like CineForm.

Encoding to 720x480 DVD takes much longer than encoding back to HDV because of the downscale filtering.

If 720x480 DVD is your goal you have two alternatives.

1. Edit and encode in HDV, then transfer back to the camcorder tape for archive. Then use the hardware downscale capability from the camcorder to record downscaled DV to a 720x480 standalone DVD recorder in real time or to transfer back to the computer for encoding and DVD authoring. The tape remains as the HDV archive.

2. Leave the raw HDV video on tape as an archive and transfer to the computer as hardware downscaled 720x480 DV-AVI format. Then you can edit a DV version at DV speeds, then encode and author to DVD. This avoids the slow HDV edit processing.