Video Noob!

[PUnitBabyDaddy]

My dad has a Sony Digital 8 Handycam (DCR-TRV250) and he films my cousin's band gigs in clubs and theatres. Not really lit all that well all the time. He does use a tripod at some points and I believe pans while connected to it. Well he's not the computer person as I am but I never needed to know anything about what I am about to ask so I am a complete and total noob...

What I'd like to ask here is how should I go about capturing the video? As of right now USB is our transfer method. From what I've read that seems to be pretty weak. Firewire that much better? RCA? We don't have any drivers or any type of video capture or editing software installed just yet. I've read about a lot of different programs and bookmarked their guides.

If any of you use this camera that would be awesome! Basically I am lost in everything. What drivers (if any) are needed, capture program and possibly what settings to use. I'm not totally new to finding help in forums so I will continue to use the 'search method' and hopefully learn as I go. Please provide any info you think will be helpful to us as we intend to put the gigs on DVD and I will be in another forum section soon after I get this step down, LoL.

Thanks,

PUnitBabyDaddy

[SomeoneElse]

I don't have that camcorder, or any other camcorder actually, but according to the specs I found you should be able to get the video from it to the pc using firewire.

RCA

Capturing to RCA from you camcorder will lose quality.

You need a capture card to capture it.

Try to avoid this at all cost unless you have no other option.

USB

If you don't have a firewire port but have USB, then use USB.

This will keep your video it its digital format which is better than capturing via RCA cables.

Firewire

If the computer supports firewire, use it.

It's faster than USB 1.1 and will keep your video digital.

Usually automatically supported in WinXP Pro (at least my ADVC100 is).

As for software, there is a lot of free stuff out there, you just have to look. Some stuff is better, some isn't, you just have to know what you want.

Here is a small list of what I use when working with video:

Capture: WinDV (free), VirtualDub (free), Scenalyzer (paid)

Editing: VirtualDub (free), AviSynth (free)

Rendering: FreeEnc (free), MainConcept Mpeg (paid)

DVD Buring: Tmpgenc DVD Author (paid)

Check out these sites for video rated info:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com

http://www.doom9.org

Also, make sure to have lots of space with working with the DV format. It takes about 25MB/sec so a 30 minute clip can take around 7GB of HDD space.

Hope this helps,

SomeoneElse

[Jeremy]

Get a FireWire PCI card with a TI (Texas Instruments) chipset, or if you know someone else with a very recent motherboard it might have onboard FireWire built into it. Yes, USB transfer for DV is crap. Once you have your FW card and cable, use WinDV to capture. You'll need a DV codec also. I suggest you use the Panasonic DV codec.

As for the FireWire Drivers, here you go.

[PUnitBabyDaddy]

WoW! I thank both of you that replied. I have a laptop with built in FireWire so I'll try to find the specs and look at what type it is or whatever. I will also be evaluating the programs that were suggested.

I still intend to get my dad to buy a FireWire card or a better motherboard (his is crappy).

Thanks again!

Would still appreciate anymore tips or suggestions as well.

[PUnitBabyDaddy]

Okay, I've got a firewire cable now and downloaded WinDV. I tried a few samples and came up with many different size files. I could get 30 seconds anywhere from a few MB's to well over 100 MB's. Which is the better setting(s) for say video that is between 35-50 minutes. I am looking forward to putting the videos on DVD and I know that size will grow even more so I need some help with this, please...

Thanks again,

PUBD

[Mercury_22]

Hi!

Check this out http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm as for video editing use CyberLink PowerDirector http://www.gocyberlink.com/multi/download/trials_4_ENU.html