Capturing from camcorder

[Confused Chimp]

I've been reading bits and pieces from this site for a while now and it seems there is no simple answer to anything (much).
I just want to be able to edit and record onto DVD the footage I've taken with my MiniDV cam corder. I have got VirtualDub and was intending on using it to capture the footage from my camcorder via the AV in on my graphics card (XFX GeForce 7800GT).
Is this the simplest and beswt way of doing it? or is it better to use a USB connection or Firewire connection?
Is there better software to use?
The software that came with my Cam corder (Sony DCR-HC96E) doesn't seem to be very good at all and seems to output to a very small resoultion.
I don't mind manually putting settings in, just don't have that much time to be fiddling with it.
I know it maybe asking for the moon on a stick, but am looking for the best results with minimum effort.
Any help?
Cheers
CC.

[yoda313]

I don't have dv but my understanding is the best way to do this is to use firewire. Than you take the avi and edit it and convert to mpg. Then you can use any dvd authoring program you want.

[edDV]

IEEE-1394 (aka I-LINK, aka Firewire)

You need a cable and you need a 1394 port on your computer. Links to cable and card vendors are repeated countless times in the forum archives. Figure $20 if you apply shopping skills.

A simple capture-transfer program is WinDV.

What you get is a first generation digital transfer from your camera or tape to a DV-AVI file.

Programs like Virtualdub are not native DV format editors. They use a "Video for Windows" codec like Panasonic to decode DV into RGB for every frame. The advantage of this generation loss and colorspace conversion is you get to use the wealth of filters availalble with Virtualdub or avisynth. Other methods allow you to stay in YCbCr to preserve color space but this is getting a bit advanced for a newcomer.

Alternate approach is to use a native DV editor like AVID, FCP, Premiere or Vegas (or their feature limited consumer versions). These editors may work in RGB or YUV components internally but the math is correct and all conversion is hidden from the user. They give a virtual native DV path to the user. Every frame that is not altered by transitions or filters is passed to export with no change. In otherwords a DVI-AVI export file or frameserve from the timeline will contain first generation frames that are identical to the frames on the DV tape. Where transitions or filters are used, these frames (or parts of frames) are decoded and processed to internal formats (saved as temp files). On export these temp files are encoded to the export format (e.g. DV-AVI, MPeg2, Divx, etc.).

I blend the two techniques myself. I use Premiere or Vegas for basic editing, transitions and filtering. When I want to use Virtualdub or avisynth filters for a clip, I will export that clip to RGB32, YUY2 or YUYV and work on that file externally. Then re-import into the DV project. Often, I process external elements in Virtualdub or avisynth before import into my DV native project.

Bottom line, you need to establish a work flow that matches your needs.

[edDV]

...I know it maybe asking for the moon on a stick, but am looking for the best results with minimum effort.
Any help?
Cheers
CC.

Minimum effort.
Buy this program ULead Movie Factory 5.
http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm

It will allow you capture DV, author a DVD and burn an image or a DVD.

[peter06]

Here the best results: Camcorder > Firewire > PC > .avi > Edit > encode to DVD mpeg > burn.