Problem Capturing DV

I have converted a lot of videos in the past but i'm fairly new to capturing DV. I have searched the forums but I don't have a lot of time, so I apologize if I ask any questions that have already been answered elsewhere.

I have a Sony DV Camcorder. It came with a usb cable and I haven't had any trouble transferring video so far. I don't have a capture card, I just use my onboard usb port.

I want to ultimately copy my videos to DVD. I first tried using the software it came with, called Picture Package. I tried transferring the video to my HD in .avi format. The first problem is it only transfers 10min segments so it's a pain in the butt. Second, the video and audio are out of sync. Since the video is uncompressed it won't play on my PC until I compress it. The video quality is also pretty bad. I have spent hours messing with it and decided to forget the lousy software it came with.

I have been reading about third-party capturing software and tried out a few programs.
When I try using WinDV it gives me an error saying "Can't find DV output pin."

I am somewhat familiar with Virtualdub and read that it works fairly good for capturing DV. I followed a couple guides in the 'How To' section but I ran into several problems. No matter what options I pick I can't ever select 720x480 (for NTSC). I always get an error saying its incompatible with the DV device. I have the Main Concept DV Codec 2.4.16 because I read it's great for retaining quality during transfer. I can't ever use the codec because of compatibility reasons. I followed a lot of the guides but the quality is still pretty bad. When I watch the video on my 32" TV the image is a lot bigger than on my 17" monitor and it looks quite a bit better.....

So here are the questions that might help me out.

1. Is firewire (IEEE 1394) important for any reason pertaining to video quality/compatibility?
2. Will a capture card help with video quality/compatibility?
3. Does anyone know a good, 'up to date,' guide on capturing DV using Virtualdub or another good program?
4. Does it make a big difference, quality wise, if I was to leave my video uncompressed during capture and compress it afterwards?

I just want my videos to be decent quality and in sync. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Just to add it's irrelevant what program you use to transfer the footage as long as you are transferring as DV-AVI via firewire, as daamon mentioned that's all you are doing is transferring it. Similar to copying a file from one folder to another, the only difference being your computer need to be capable of writing the data to disc as fast as it's being received which just about any computer made now or in the last few years is capable of doing. Looking at your computer specs you should have absolutely no trouble either tranferring or viewing the transferred video.

Don't judge the quality on your monitor, the video is interlaced and your monitor is progressive. The software you are using to view it will either deintelace it on the fly or leaves it interlaced... no matter what it does it will never look as good as viewed from a TV. Get a RW and author a few test discs with short segment.

Im running windows xp pro sp2. The 10min segment doesn't have anything to do with file limit capacity. I think it's just something stupid the program does.

Thanks for all the good information. I see a lot of articles geared towards using WinDV. Daamon, I tried using WinDV (see above) but got an error. Do you know what it means?

I will continue to look for a way to "capture" the video. Thanks.

Originally Posted by 12Quidkidinnit

Firewire has a higher data transfer rate than USB, so yes, it is important. With USB, it's not unusual to get a lot of dropped frames when capturing.
Raw AVI footage can look quite grainy compared to MPEG and DVD quality.

What format is the camera you're using ? If it was a PAL model, and you wanted to capture in NTSC, could this cause the error message about it being incompatible with DV device ?
10 minute segments ? What file system is your hard drive. FAT 32 has a file size limitation which might account for the 10 minutes, whereas NTFS doesn't have this limitation.

I've only ever used Premiere Pro 1.5 for capturing, so I wouldn't know if the software can make a difference to quality. Windows Movie Maker 2 will capture AVI. Have you tried that to see if it's any better ?

"The way I see it is that there is no right or wrong" way to capturing.

Sony DV cams typically transfer video as single field CIF 352x240 over USB and as high quality 720x480 with PCM audio over IEEE-1394 (aka Ilink Firewire).

CIF is intended for use in Netmeeting and other webcam apps.

Which do you want?