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Capturing with USB or FireWire

Discussion in 'Digital camcorders' started by baedaebok, Jul 19, 2008.

  1. baedaebok

    baedaebok Member

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    I'm trying to capture DV from my camcorder to the PC. I've attached the camcorder to the PC's USB jack. But the PC won't capture. I've tried this with 5 different capturing programs (Ulead's VideoStudio, Nero, Windows Movie Maker, TPMG, DVlab). When I click capture, the camcorder video appears in the software's window. But it captures nothing. Would Firewire do a better job?
     
  2. PFloyd

    PFloyd Regular member

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    Firewire is the only way to do the job. You do have a MiniDV camcorder, right?
     
  3. baedaebok

    baedaebok Member

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    PFloyd, I did start downloading videos from my camcorder using Firewire. All the software started working and the picture quality looks better. I tried using Windows Movie Maker but it only makes WPM files (or Windows Media Files). I couldn't find a way to make MPEG or AVI files. Next, I tried (and am still using) Ulead VideoStudio 2 trial. It downloads into MPEG files which is OK. I can't seem to download into AVI files with this software. What is the video file format that is best for highest picture quality (size is no problem) -- AVI or MPEG or something else?
     
  4. PFloyd

    PFloyd Regular member

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    Download WindDV. It's free. The only capture tool you will ever need.
     
  5. baedaebok

    baedaebok Member

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    How can I combine (or link) 54 avi files to make one large avi file? create one AVI file from 54 AVI files? When I captured from a 90 minute DV tape, WinDV created 54 avi files (totalling 13GB). The size is rather large but it is OK. When I captured from the same 90-minute DV tape, Ulead's VideoStudio produced one MPEG file (totalling 4 GB).

    The purpose of downloading all these tapes onto a hard-drive is so I can safety store them in a hard-drive format with possible future use (editing & authoring a DVD). Would it be easier to edit and author a DVD from many (54) smaller avi files or from one big avi file (13GB total)?
     
  6. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    Capturing as on .avi file is what you want to do. You have to tell WinDV not to break it into a separate .avi file at each point where you stopped video taping, and started again.

     
  7. baedaebok

    baedaebok Member

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    How do I tell WinDV not to break up the captured video into many avi files? The WinDV interface looks very simple. Does the "Config" button allow me to do this? How?
     

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