ADS Pyro DV Quality Question

[fjpenney]

I am tired of trying to capture DVD quality video from my camcorders (both VHS-C and Mini DV) using my ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV. The quality isn't as good as I want and I continually encounter format issues when I try to bring the captured video into an authoring program. I am now considering two options: 1. buying an ADS Pyro ProDV for $150 or 2. waiting for the ADS Direct to Disc drive due out in June for $499.

I am using an AMD 1.8GHz Thunderbird processor and a Pioneer DVR-A03 DVD burner.

I would appreciate hearing from people who are using the Pyro DV. Is the quality excellent, good or fair? Should I buy the card now or wait until June and spend the $499.

For more information on the Direct to Disk Drive go to http://www.adstech.com/media/mediafiles/PR_PYRODVDrive.htm

Thanks in advance for your responses

[holistic]

Greetings fjpenney

First i must ask .Just HOW is this DV Drive going to help ?
I will allow you, from what i read, to store just DV format files no more !

You will still need to re encode the DV file to the MPEG2 (DVD spec) if you wish to author DVD's.

As for your VHS-C problem - a suggestion : Dub the tape to your MiniDV then simply export the DV video stream through firewire to your computers harddrive. Any firewire card can achieve this.
By 'capturing' the DV data stream you are already most of the way there for DVD spec - since nearly all MiniDV cameras i have seen have (NTSC for me !) 720*480 video , 48kHz audio.
As has been mentioned before the M$ DV codec is crap - get the MainConcept one
http://www.mainconcept.de/download/download.shtml

If you have a 1.8 Ghz Tbird i will extroplate and guess you have a fairly current drive setup - say 30+Gb ATA 100 or better ! This will do you for at least 90 minutes of DV video.

[fjpenney]

My problem is capturing at DVD quality. I have captured from my Mini DV camcorder using the MS codec and the quality was very poor. Getting the video from my VHS-C camcorder to my computer is not a problem as I can go through my Mini DV camcorder as you stated.

My computer has a 60GB, 7200rpm drive so space is not a problem.

My thinking with the ADS products is that they would solve the poor quality capture problem. If I use the direct to disk drive I would assume that the video has been converted to avi or mpeg. Writing the video to a DVD is not a problem if I can get an appropriate format video file. I have tried MyDVD, DVDIt, Ulead VideoStudio and Ulead DVD Workshop with varied results. The biggest problem I have with authoring software is getting a video file format that is accepted by the authoring software.

Have you captured using the Main Concept codec? If so, how do you rate the quality of the captured video file? Also, what file format does it capture (avi, mpeg, etc.)?

[fjpenney]

holistic:

I have downloaded the codec but would like to know which capture program you would suggest.

[bertmartin]

Why don't you try Sceneanalyzer. It captures AVI type 1 or 2 and automatically opens new files when you reach the 2G limit. I thought a DV transfer via firewire was codec independent? Not sure about this however. Maybe you are loosing quality after the capture.

[fjpenney]

I'll try that.

I downloaded Moviexone this morning and tried a capture from my mini dv camcorder but the frame drop rate was atrocious. I didn't have much time to play with the program so I don't know if there are settings I could adjust to minimize the percentage of dropped frames.

[holistic]

" Have you captured using the Main Concept codec? "

Yes - But i must add all digital stuff has been done on my brothers computer ( he uses Premiere)
I got Ulead Video Studio 4 with my video card but have not used it's Dv features yet because i only have a Hi8 camcorder. All my experimenting done on my bro's machine with his sony D8
I am looking at the - Canopus ADVC-100 for my video needs , so i will update you when i get into DV big time on 'MY' machine.

" My thinking with the ADS products is that they would solve the poor quality capture problem. If I use the direct to disk drive I would assume that the video has been converted to avi or mpeg .... "

DV is NOT a capture it is basically a 'file' transfer . From what i understand (my bother trys to explain it to me ! ) , the computer 'sees' DV as a form of .AVI. From what i see here the biggest issue is NOT the file transfer of the (D)igital (V)ideo but more so the encoding to MPEG2.

I would suggest using 'avisynth' to frameserve from your editing application (if it allows this) to TMPEGEnc - mpeg2 encoder.

I cannot even begin to start with a TMPGEnc tutorial as i am still experimenting myself but there are plenty of sites around (start here to the left of screen) but it is one of the best encoders around for mpeg2

[fjpenney]

I just tried Scenalyzer and again the video quality is terrible. My ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV card has a 1394 port on it and that is the one I am using to connect to my mini dv camcorder. Given that every capture program I have used resulted in terrible video (likely due to a high percentage of dropped frames), I think it may be worth the money for me to get a firewire card and go through that. I noticed on this site that others have had similar trouble when they used the same card.

TMPGEnc is not a problem for me - I have used it numerous times and am comfortable with it.

[fjpenney]

I just installed a 3-port firewire card and again I am getting terrible quality video. I performed the test in Virtualdub and my computer passed with 0% dropped frames! The only capture that looks semi-good is from within Windows Movie Maker with a 384kbs capture rate. This quality video is only suitable for a web site. When I select a high frame rate in Movie Maker I get a very jerky video.

Capturing video should be this freakin' troublesome!

I tried Virtualdub and AVI_IO but they don't see my Panasonic mini dv camcorder even though other programs do.

If anyone has a suggestion on what the possible problem is I would appreciate hearing from you.

[TOMMO]

I use the Pyro firewire. Dleted the Adaptec capture codec that is installed with Video Studio. Used the updated Microsoft DV codec, capture through Premiere, Media Studio - whatever. captured to a dedicated second hard drive. No frame drop, excellent quality. No problem

[fjpenney]

Thanks Tommo.

I may have found a solution. I have installed a 3-port firewire card and I am connecting my mini dv camcorder to this card instead of the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV. Last night I downloaded the trial version of uLead Video Studio 6 and that program is capturing good quality video from my camcorder. It's interesting that uLead DVD Workshop would not capture similarly good quality video.

Hopefully the various capturing software will soon catch up with the hardware issues that many of are dealing with.