camcorder to PC

[nomisage]

@CSULB71

I got the firewire/iLink cable from amazon and hooked up the digital camcorder with "pass through", popped in a Hi8 tape and connected the cable to PC. Windows7 automatically installed all the drivers. Got winDV and started capturing right away. Did an initial test to see the result of 1min capturing. There is no audio while capturing but it is there when you are done. Also, file size is huge. 3min recording is about 1gig. I did a 2hr recording that came out to be around 26GB. Hooking up the VCR to the camcorder also works. Very satisfied!!

Now I need advice on compressing the file.
I use VirtualDub: x264 multipass @ 2000kbps and lame mp3 128kbps CBR.
is there any difference if I use a different encoder such as xvid?

[CSULB71]

nomisage:
Glad to hear the transfer worked like it should. Yes, DV makes large files, ~13GB per hour. You can use the Xvid codec, but x264 is supposed to give slightly better quality results for the same size file. If you want a DVD as the end product, there are other apps that will make DVD-compliant MPEG-2 files (VDub outputs only AVI). I usually use AVIDemux to make any needed edits, convert to MPEG-2 (using Auto/DVD default settings), then do further DVD processing with other apps. (depending on whether I want menus, etc.)