Video Capture software?

Rotti · #1 07-13-2006, 07:05 PM

Anyone do any video captureing from a DV camcorder? I would like to put my home movies on DVD but I'm having a hard time getting high quality video captures. My video capture card is a WinTV card. I'm using the AV out on the camcorder and going into my capture card and soundcard. WinTV comes with a capture utility but so far the results are not great. Anyway just wondering if anyone can suggest a really good all in one program for this.

kirk · #2 07-13-2006, 08:49 PM

I used Windows Movie Maker to capture video direct from my DVD Camcorder, and I also used it to convert some old VCR tapes to DVD (only two so far, Live Without a Net and a Paul Gilbert video.)

I put the VCR directly into my TV Tuner Card (ATI) and used the WMM to convert to DVD. Few things to keep in mind, VCR tape quality is poor to begin with, so the end result isn't DVD quality, but it is very watchable.

Windows Movie Maker is part of XP I think. I know for sure that I didn't buy it. It does give you quality options, you can edit clips and add menus, effects and sound tracks.

Hope this helped. Give it a shot, but don't erase the original until you're happy with your resutls.

JESTER700 · #3 07-14-2006, 02:10 AM

Best bet with a DV cam is to capture with a firewire card. It's not really a capture, but a file transfer - no degradation. Then you can use software to encode to MPEG very accurately, with filtering, frame accurate editing, etc.

Realtime capture involves either a good hardware encoder (maybe the WinTV is; I dunno) or a good CPU and realtime encoding software.

supermau · #4 07-14-2006, 10:58 AM

I'm a Final Cut Pro editor and I'd recommend a Mac with at least iMovie. There's Adobe Premier on the Windows side. I don't know much about low-end solutions but your computer has to have enough balls (Memory and Processor Speed) to handle DV as well as plenty of HD storage space. I use external Firwire enclosures to capture video to.

That probably doesn't help you much but getting into video editing even on the most basic level can be a big deal in terms of having the right hardware and software to get it done.

Rotti · #5 07-14-2006, 03:53 PM

Here's my rig. I have a DV camcorder, a WinTV card. (probably the weak link) My pc is a windows based computer. AMD XP2200+ overclocked a little. 1 gig of ram, plenty of HD space, M-audio 24/96 sound card, and an Geforce 5900 vid card. So the pc should be powerfull enough? I guess what I really need is a firewire card instead of the wintv card. So far I've tried Windows movie maker, Virtuldub, Intervideo WinDVD creator, and WinTV 2000. So far the results are okay but not as nice as what I see on the camcorder lcd screen. Not as smooth and fluid. I'm getting the best results with WinTV2000, and now I'm just experimenting with all the different codecs for video compression.
Maybe someone could recomend a good codec to try.

Rotti · #6 07-14-2006, 03:54 PM

Supermau, I'm going to check out Adobe Premier.

guitvai1 · #7 07-14-2006, 03:59 PM

I just picked up a Lite-ON DVR hooked up to my TV. It allows you to hook a DV to the front of it and record directly to a DVD. CAN $159 at Costco.

Jaden · #8 07-14-2006, 04:05 PM

Ive used loads of software for this but nowadays I just use Nero vision.
its part of nero ultra edition and with the rest of the sofware you get you can master DVD etc etc...

JESTER700 · #9 07-14-2006, 04:53 PM

Adobe Premiere is a standard, and well respected. There should be a cut down "elements" version, I think.

I prefer Sony Vegas, and there is a cut down version of that, too.

The real-time recording of a DVD recorder is cool, but you still get MPEGs from it, which isn't great if you plan on editing.

IMO, $20 for a firewire card to see how that works out is a no-brainer. DV does take lots of room - 14GB per hour!

Rotti · #10 07-14-2006, 10:16 PM

$20.00 for a firewire card? I didn't know they were that cheap.

JESTER700 · #11 07-14-2006, 11:41 PM

$11 and up shipped from newegg.

Rotti · #12 07-15-2006, 09:25 AM

Cool, well I'm going to try that.

nickcoumbe · #13 07-17-2006, 08:45 AM

I use a standard firewire card. Capture in Windows movie maker or Adobe Premiere, then use Premiere to edit.

Works fine for me. Does your camera have a firewire out?

Rotti · #14 07-17-2006, 10:12 AM

I think so. The camera is a Canon ZR200. It has AV, DV, and USB outs. I think the DV out is a firewire port. Not 100% sure though.

shredmaster · #15 07-17-2006, 04:18 PM

for you, if your camcorder has firewire port (dv out is the same on canon's i'm almost positive) then drop $30 on a firewire adaptect card if your pc has no firewire already. hook yourself up with adobe premiere version 6.5, 6.0 minimum. you'll be set. use pc or mac, whatever you want. i have been using pc's with adobe's line for a handful of years now. your pc is fast enough and remember to never capture to your C drive! you need a 2nd drive for that.

currently i'm using roughly 890 gigs for capture with 4 gigs ram P4 3.6 processor and maxtor break out box for capturing analog and firewire (you only need the firewire port on the pc.) i need the maxtor stuff for the intense stuff i'm doing....no rendering time 90% of the time. this is one of the pc's we use. the others are very similar.

i can't remember who said it up above, but if you are using firewire, it is not a file transfer, it is a real-time capture since you are using dvtape. a file transfer would be if you are recording video and audio directly to hard drive, which they sell....sweet little units...kinda look like an ipod but cooler. they are about $800-$1200 a piece. kind of a lot BUT well worth it if you have 10 hours of video to capture and you don't want to waste 10 hours in real time.

any other questions, let me know or get ahold of me at sarproductions.com

Steve