Capture & encode MPEG-2 indirectly.

[scream151]

I've been lurking here for a while, lots of good info, but I have a foundation question I've haven't stumbled to the answer for...

If I purchase a card that has only an analog connection (they're cheaper), can I still plug in my Canan ZR-20 into an existing PC firewire port and still utilize the MPEG-2 encoder to assist the PC in MPEG processing and creation?

Or, does it have to physically plug into the encoder card to be of any use at all?

Thanks.

[andkiich]

AFAIK, no. The MPEG encoder chipsets will only be used if you are going through the video card. The firewire port will get you a high quality AVI copied from the DV camera to your computer. Then you can use CCE or TMPGENC Plus or <insert favorite encoder here> to encode to MPEG2.

[scream151]

Oh, Big Bummer! Up goes my family DVD project costs.

I was hoping to go straight to MPEG-2 without extra conversions/time/disk space.