To Filmboss and Baldrick

[jbitakis]

I did a thread about 2 weeks ago about how I used WMM to make a dvd presentation using pictures and video. I had mentioned that the video came out blurry. You said that where I screwed up was saving the WMM project as a WMV file before converting to dvd.
So I went back from the completed WMM project and saved it as DV-AVI. It came out as a huge 7.8gb file, then using FAVC I converted it to dvd and burned it. Well, the pictures came out clearer but the video was the same. Then I went back and closely looked at your posts.

This statement by you: "Just to be clear: you must stay in the DV-AVI realm for capturing and editing, NEVER making a wmv file at any stage".

Well, it turns out this is why the video is still bad. When I captured the video from my mini dv camcorder to the computer, it must have captured it as a WMV file. (I went back and checked my source files for the project).

I will have to watch this next time I capture my video. I used WMM to capture my video. Does WMM capture as a WMV file automatically?
James

[freebird73717]

Try capturing with windv.

[yoda313]

I don't have a dv camera just analog so I can't test to verify. However I found this in the help menu in windows movie maker:


Digital device format (DV-AVI)

Specifies that your captured video will be saved as DV-AVI file with an .avi file name extension. This capture option is only available if you are capturing from a DV device, such as a DV camera or DV VCR. This video setting is designed to be used if you want to edit the captured video on your computer and then later save it back to a tape in a DV camera or VCR using the Save Movie Wizard. The quality of the original video is retained when you choose this setting, so the movies you record retain their original video quality when recorded back to DV tape.

However, video files saved with this setting can be quite large. For example, each minute of video saved at this setting can consume as much as 178 MB of disk space. Therefore, verify that there is enough available disk space on your hard disk to accommodate the amount of video you want to capture.



Upon connecting and setting up a capture from a dv camera you should be presented with the option of saving the video as dv-avi. That is how you'll want to proceed.

EDIT - also please make sure you are connected through a firewire connection (ieee 1394). That is the way you will be transferring to get the dv-avi option.

[filmboss80]

Hi jbitakis! Sorry to take so long to respond to your post (I check this site sporadically through the day).

I have never used Windows Movie Maker to capture footage. For capturing footage originated on my MiniDV camcorders, I either use WinDV, the Adobe Premiere capture utility, or Enosoft DV Processor. I capture as Type-2 DV avi, as this is compatible with most editing software. (WinDV and Enosoft DV Processor are free. Find them in the Tools section of this site.)

Windows Movie Maker is primarily designed for people who want to view videos on their PCs or send clips out over the internet. Thus, WMV is a highly compressed format to save disc space. Yes, DV-AVI requires much drive storage, but once you finish editing, you can convert for DVD; and when you are happy with the final output, the DV-AVI files can be cleared off the hard drive.

Yoda is quite correct about the firewire interface. This transfers minidv video data exactly as it is recorded without any conversion.

Added note: If you prefer to edit with Windows Movie Maker, you can always import DV avi files that have been captured with a utility like WinDV. Just remember what I said before: Stay in the DV-AVI realm -- including when you save your edit project.