I have been reading and reading on this complicated subject (DV) and while some things get clearer, other things do not.

One question I have is when to convert the data comming from the digital camcorder? What we are looking at is doing a "live" feed via firewire into a computer of an activity. Putting this data directly onto the computer, so it is almost immediately available for viewing.

For people to see this, we would burn it to CD for them. (Gets to another question: Which format should we burn in so can play on PCs and DVD players?)

Data storage is becomming a serious issue. With a planning factor of 100mb per 1 min of video, we very quickly ran into hundreds and hundreds of GB of raw data. Another post on this forum got me to looking at the Pinnacle Systems Studio DV card, and its ability to capture and convert simultaniously. This seriously reduces the data storage requirements we would face.

Yet I am confused -- as with still photographs, you want to minimize the number of times an image is converted. Seems to me that for maximum quality, I would not want to convert something until the various clips are brought together (we are providing multiple views of the same event). Right?

The intention of these videos is to enable athletes to evaluate their performance to make improvements. So resolution and full screen viewing is crucial.

The main questions that remain for us are: storage of the data and final output format. If you can help me figure out when to convert the data, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you
David