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DVC 80 Quality Video Capture, DVD editting, HELP!

Discussion in 'DVDR' started by Quandtum, Dec 30, 2004.

  1. Quandtum

    Quandtum Member

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    I just started getting into all this and am swimming in the deep end of possibilities. I need some advice as to how focus my efforts.

    To start with, I am running Windows XP. I have Windows Movie Maker 2, Pinnacle Studio 9, and Nero 6 to work with (though each has unique issues). I got a Dazzle DVC 80 USB capture device for christmas which I connect my plain jane camcorder (tapes, not digital) to.

    My goal is to capture the videos at the best quality possible and to edit the videos in with digital pictures and mp3's to make a home grown DVD documentary.

    Using Pinnacle Studio 9 (PS9), I capture the video from the DVC 80 and make my movies. I then render them to the hard drive and use Nero Burn to create the disk. It seems okay, but you can see some pixalation in the video.

    I tried using Nero to capture the video at a DVD quality (or SVCD) quality resolution, but it drops more frames and get's jerky. I've accepted that the DVC 80 only has limited throughput, which leads me to my question.

    How can I use what throughput I have to "maximize" video capture quality (ultimately to make a DVD-Video)? Can I use something like Virtual Dub or DVIO instead?

    Additionally, I would like to move from Pinnacle to Nero, but the Nero Vision Express 3 crashes when working with AVI files. It puts the AVI into the time line as audio, but no picutre. Defect? Anyways, I was reading the Pinnacle MPEG encoder is junk, so what can I do as a work around?

    I may be getting MySonic soon too to try that, though this is getting really expensive.

    Thanks for taking the time to read all this and any suggestings will be hugely appreciated!

    Thanks!

    P.S. Yes, I have everything upgraded. DVC80 drivers, Pinnacle Studio 8 and Nero as of yesterday (12/29/2004).
     
  2. john179

    john179 Active member

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    My friend loves to make his own dvd movies and uses ulead movie maker.I use it myself it great for capturing editing.Adding all sorts of menus and music for the menus and so on.You can also burn your project with ulead.I would recomend this to anyone as its a enjoyable bit of software.Have a look at it you mind find it to be a useful bit of software.
     
  3. Quandtum

    Quandtum Member

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    Neat trick actually. The DVC 80 only seems to allow I420 output with a resolution (320xsumthin'). Anyways, Pinnacle only allows a capture of 29.97 frames per second (which I've concluded to be the maximum the DVC 80 can handle).

    Instead of using Pinnacle to capture, go get Virtual Dub. When you select the DVC 80 from devices it auto reads the above settings. The cool thing is you can set the frame rate different from the 29.97. I chose 24.396. 24 FPS is standard frame rate for most television shows and reducing the capture rate on the PC allows more time between frames to take "better" pictures. The pixalation was noticable less.

    Once the capture is done, use Virtual Dub to dub it back to 29.97 fps (making up the missing frames) and then the Pinnacle editor can think it is its own.

    In short, better picture quality at the cost of tricking the human eye.
     
  4. slopez80

    slopez80 Member

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    I had the same problem you're having. Bought the DVC80 about 2 years ago and tried using it recently on a project I was working on but it would drop more than half my frames and distorted the audio.

    I came across Ads Tech DVD Xpress. This thing is amazing. I have read over 100 reviews on it and everything that people said is true, including that it heats up after about 45 mins of use. But it is suggested that you remove the cover and it allows for hours of continuous capture.

    I purchased mine at Circuit City because I needed it asap, so I paid $105.99 for mine; however, if you are not in a rush, tigerdirect.com has it for $59.99 after a mail-in rebate and of course there is shipping which goes for about another $10.00, but in the long run, you're saving about $35. The link for tiger direct is: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=580965&sku=A03-7042

    If it doesn't appear as a hyperlink, copy and paste it to your browser.

    Good luck! Let me know how it goes. It worked perfectly for me.
     
  5. slopez80

    slopez80 Member

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  6. slopez80

    slopez80 Member

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    Also, it comes with the ULEAD software to edit your captures.
     

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