A couple of basic questions...

[vwcrusher]

What is the difference between DV capture and capturing in .avi format?

My PC can only capture analog video in MGEG2 (Sony Vaio) If I capture to .avi (via an external device -any suggestions??)and use Screenblast movie studio 3.0 to edit then render to MPEG2, then author and burn with TMPGenc Author what can I expect for quality as compared to capturing directly to MPEG2 and editing (cutting) with TMPGenc Author?

I would like the flexibility of being able to do more advanced editing with MS without loss of quality.

Thanks

[Capmaster]

What is the difference between DV capture and capturing in .avi format?

My PC can only capture analog video in MGEG2 (Sony Vaio) If I capture to .avi (via an external device -any suggestions??)and use Screenblast movie studio 3.0 to edit then render to MPEG2, then author and burn with TMPGenc Author what can I expect for quality as compared to capturing directly to MPEG2 and editing (cutting) with TMPGenc Author?

I would like the flexibility of being able to do more advanced editing with MS without loss of quality.

Thanks

It depends on what you're going to use it for and how much quality you really need.

Capturing directly to MPEG2 is satisfactory for most of us quality-wise for most jobs. Transferring DV and then using a 2-pass VBR process on it to create the MPEG2 file yields better quality, at the expense of time and file size.

You need to experiment with both and decide whether or not direct MPEG2 captures will "cut it" for you

[thecoalman]

The AVI format is just a container file and can contain many types of video including DV. DV is the format used by a digital camcorder. When capturing from a DV cam via firewire you are essentially transferring the file on tape to your computer into a AVI giving you a flawless capture, your actually not capturing just copying.

If your using a digital DV camcorder using firewire is the ideal method whether you are using AVI which would contain an exact copy of the original material or MPEG-2 which would be ready to burn to disc providing it's DVD compliant.

Which method to use depends on what you intend to do with the file. If you plan on editing it use the AVI method which will have to be converted to MPEG-2 before you burn it to disc. If you plan on burning directly to disc use MPEG-2 which will save you time.

[vwcrusher]

Thanks for the replys.

I now think I understand DV and .AVI.

So...since I do not own or really need a digital camcorder the only reason I would purchase a capture device would be to be able to edit in .avi format. Which, I think, provides more flexibility in editing and better (?) image quality than what I am currently doing (capturing and editing [cutting] in MPEG2).

Do I have it right so far?

The next question regarding experimentation is what capture device would be recommended? I did a search on this website for devices and it seems that the Canopus ADVC 100 seems to be highly regarded. Is this what I would need? As an external device, what does it connect to on the PC? Also, they also have another device that supposedly 'cleans up' analog video (kind of expensive) - is this worth the extra $$.

Sorry for all the questions; just trying to navigate thru all the complexities.

Thanks

[thecoalman]

You don't need a capture device for digital, only a Firewire connection. When you plug the camcorder in it's like plugging in a hard drive.

And yes if you are going to edit your video after capturing using AVI will give you the highest quality results. From my understanding if you capture directly to MPEG-2 and then edit it you will lose quality because MPEG-2 is used for a final product for viewing and doesn't edit very well.

Before purchasing any device for cleaning the video see what kind of results you get from the captur card.

My PC can only capture analog video in MGEG2 (Sony Vaio)

I would think that if you can currently capture in MPEG-2 that you could also do it using AVI. I'd find out if that's the case.

[vwcrusher]

I do understand that avi will yield the highest quality results. The issue I have is two-fold: 1) my PC (Sony Vaio) can only capture in MPEG2, and 2) will the results be better if I buy a capture card that captures in avi, edit using Screenblast MS 3.0 then author and burn using TMPGenc Author - vs. capturing as I am now (MPEG2) then very limited editing (cutting) and burning using TMPGenc Author.

Thanks