Convert analogue camcorder tape to pc

[ManUtdFans]

I have loads of old analogue Sony V8 tapes want to convert to digital files store in my pc.

I tried to capture it found the size is really big, ie. 1 GB per minute (640x480 avi files).
As the price of harddisk is dropping, so it is not much a big deal. I have about 25 tapes 90 minutes each, so I might need 2TB harddisk to fill that up.

Just a question, for this case (640x480 avi no compression), so you think I should use video capture software to compress the file during capturing to make the size smaller? Or save it with no compression, then do another compression after saved into the pc?

Thanks

[zoobie]

DV-AVI cap (720x480) is a bout 13gb per hour
fine for editing/playing on computer

[ManUtdFans]

Is this DV-AVI has compression during the video capture?

[edDV]

This would depend on capture device. There are capture devices that capture and encode in hardware to DV format or MPeg.

The way you are doing it works with a sufficiently fast hard drive or RAID separate from the OS drive. In the past most used the Huffyuv codec to slow bit rate for slower drives (~40GB per hour). Once captured, you may choose to apply filters or edit. Most people will then encode to MPeg2 interlace for DVD. I suggest you use sufficient bit rate (usually "1 hour" or ~9000+Kbps) for camcorder video to preserve quality. Consumer camcorder video is very noisy and if handheld very shaky. Both of these characteristics make compression difficult.

[ManUtdFans]

So is the uncompressed video capture in my case (captured as avi) 1 GB hard drive storage space per minute video is normal?

[edDV]

So is the uncompressed video capture in my case (captured as avi) 1 GB hard drive storage space per minute video is normal?

Straight uncompressed capture to a single drive requires a sustained ~145 Mb/s (~18MB/s) capture rate. Internal SATA or external eSATA drives should be able to maintain that rate but may start to loose frames on the back half of the drive. Fragmentation and disk indexing will cause drops. Single drives are faster at the beginning and slow linearly to the end. It may be a good idea to partition the drive so the fast end of the drive can be more easily defragmented. The key to uncompressed capture success is to isolate the drive from any OS processes.

A two disk RAID 0 averages and doubles the sustained capture rate. One drive is written from the beginning while the other is written from the end. The result is a constant sustained rate over the full capacity.

Most people would consider uncompressed capture to a single drive risky but it can be managed. Most would use the Huffyuv lossless codec or use RAID.

[ManUtdFans]

I had converted a mini DV tape to my pc in avi format, 5 minutes of footage occupied 1 GB, sounds reasonable. The resolution is 720 x 526. So is this the max resolution that I can generate?

[edDV]

I had converted a mini DV tape to my pc in avi format, 5 minutes of footage occupied 1 GB, sounds reasonable. The resolution is 720 x 526. So is this the max resolution that I can generate?

Are you chaning the subject? You said you are capturing analog camcorder video. What is your capture method?

MiniDV camcorders connect via Firewire (IEEE-1394) as a digital stream at ~13 GB per hour to a file.

[ManUtdFans]

I had converted a mini DV tape to my pc in avi format, 5 minutes of footage occupied 1 GB, sounds reasonable. The resolution is 720 x 526. So is this the max resolution that I can generate?

Are you chaning the subject? You said you are capturing analog camcorder video. What is your capture method?

MiniDV camcorders connect via Firewire (IEEE-1394) as a digital stream at ~13 GB per hour to a file.

Hi,
I think I mistakenly added this. I should have started a new thread.

[edDV]

I had converted a mini DV tape to my pc in avi format, 5 minutes of footage occupied 1 GB, sounds reasonable. The resolution is 720 x 526. So is this the max resolution that I can generate?

Are you chaning the subject? You said you are capturing analog camcorder video. What is your capture method?

MiniDV camcorders connect via Firewire (IEEE-1394) as a digital stream at ~13 GB per hour to a file.

Hi,
I think I mistakenly added this. I should have started a new thread.

"PAL" DV capture is 720x576 for 4:3 or 16:9 same as DVD. That is the maximum resolution.

When played 4:3 aspect ratio, 720 is horizontally expanded to 768x576 for square pixel display..

When played 16:9 aspect ratio, 720 is horizontally expanded to 1024x576 for square pixel display.

This too is the same as DVD.