SO much confused by all this capturing and compressing software sony, everything, different, software

andy

hello everybody, i know someone will close this thread, couse i see the answares in so many places... but I AM CONFUSED.... everybody talks about capturing and compressing and using so many different software, i just need the folowing:
1.i have firewire cable
2.i have sony digita8 DCR-TRV280 model
3.the software that comes with it sucks
4. i am looking for a software that does everything at once, dependless of the moneycost
5. it must capture hole tape while simuntaniosly compressing to some format so i dont need 60GB disk space for every 1 hour uncopmressed film

and i have some extra questions:
1.the recorded movie on the tape looks so much clearer and better on the miniLCD display on the camera, then on the computer, even after captured on max quality using least copression and max resolution, how can this be...

is adobe premier ENOUGH for all this.... i really dont want to go through this capturing-gt;encoding-gt;copressing-gt;compressing second time with another software... long and painfull process for just some unprofessional-home video

Hello roise_r,

your questions are very basic, so I recommend to read the guides, stickies, and some threads here.

Regarding your list:
1: Great.
2: Ok.
3: Agreed.
4: There's a bunch of good software available. If you are willing to spend the money, you may like Adobe Premiere. Vegas is not bad either. I like Ulead MediaStudio Pro, which is available for a low price nowadays. Even the 100$/€ consumer products are good enough for what you intend to do, e.g. the Magix software, or Pinnacle Studio, Ulead VideoStudio, and a few more.
5: Through firewire you capture DV, which your camcorder should deliver even from analogue Hi8 sources. You need 12-13 GB/h (DV is compressed at a ratio of 5:1). DV is ideal for editing, and all NLE software support it. You may compress to DVD-compliant MPEG-2 after editing, and some of the programs have DVD authoring software included (e.g. Ulead VideoStudio).

Extra questions:
The small LCD display has a resolution which is lower than that of the video recorded. That means the video gets downsized for display, which hides noise and artefacts. It would not look as good if you'd see the same resolution on a large display - the picture would be blurred. On the computer you see the real picture with all the dust and dirt... If you are not satisfied with your DV picture on your PC, you may have set the decoder's output resolution wrongly. Click Start gt; Run, then type quot;mplayer2quot; (without the quotes), and open your DV AVI file in Windows Media Player. Click File gt; Properties and move to the Advanced tab (I hope that's what it's called in English; it's the rightmost tab). Then click on quot;DV Video Decoderquot;, and click on the quotropertiesquot; button. You see a quality tab, and the decoder should be set to the first option (full 720x480 / 720x576). Tick the checkbox to keep the full resolution as the standard.

Adobe Premiere should be enough for what you are asking for, except that it does not have DVD authoring software included as far as I know. But for your purpose I'd say it's just too expensive - I'd say go for the 100$/€ software.

bb

Along with bb#8217;s excellent suggestions I would also recommend Ulead VideoStudio as a good video editor to start off with.  It#8217;s more intuitive for someone just getting started in video editing than the more advanced and costly programs.  It can also capture your DV cams video directly to MPEG2 to save hard drive space although this is not recommended if you are concerned with having your final MPEG2 (then DVD) look its best.  As you get your feet wet in video editing it can also do more advanced functions like frameserving using the freeware program Debugmode to programs like Avisynth, amp; VirtualDub for more advanced editing, and filtering.  When you mention that the DV AVI does not look very good on your computer screen two things come to mind.  The DV AVI video is interlaced, and you will want to keep it that way if your final goal is to burn it to DVD for TV viewing.  But for now when you are watching it on your computer you will see motion lines in pans, and high action scenes, this is normal and will look correct when playing your edited final DVD on your TV.  Also video appears darker on the computer screen than it will when you view it from a completed DVD on your TV.

thanks guys, i am a little calmer now about the loss of quality...  to bad that adobe premiere doesnt support DV to DVD, couse a friend of mine owns it... but i will try it now anyways just to be sure... i will try also the unlead videoStudio...  do you mind if i have any questions in the future, to direct them to you also... ?

roise_r: premiere does support dv -gt; dvd (pro v2 has even some pretty advanced authoring options.)

products/premie...tures.html#nf3

@ roise_r, feel free to as me if you have any questions, but you can also ask the other members of this community.  There responsible for teaching me most of what I've learned about video/audio editing.

What about Virtual Dub's capturing feature? I've never used it, but how is it?

VDub doesn't support DV capturing. You can use for example WinDV to capture the clip from the tape.

VDub can be used for editing though.