Mini DV Help NEWBIE

[Lucky_9]

Hi Everyone,

I have just got Firewire and now want to copy all video from my tapes onto computer and CD data disc, I would like to know what is the best freeware capturing software, I have tried WinDV but was wondering if there is any other... and also a good software that can convert the AVI files to Mpegs without any or much loss of quality..

Thanks
Lucky_9

[daamon]

Hi Lucky_9,

Transferring ("capturing"): You can't go wrong with WinDV. There are others, like DVIO and AVI_IO - I've not used 'em coz I found WinDV suited me perfectly.

Encoding AVI to MPEG, in no particular order:
TMPGEnc Plus
Cinema Craft Encoder
Mainconcept MPEG Encoder
Canopus ProCoder
Quenc
WinAVI Video Converter

The above are regularly used and have their fans. Some are better than others in terms of price, speed, (perceived) quality. Try 'em and see what you like...

As for little or no loss of quality, there's always some loss of quality when encoding - it's inherent in the process. It's just a question of what you like...

Hope that helps...

[Lucky_9]

Thanks daamon