Using Windows Movie Maker to capture from miniDV, I notice that the quality is not as high as the original tape, and also that the quality suffers again when I convert the WMV file (created by Movie Maker) to a DVD using DVDSanta or Winavi. Is there better capture software than Windows Movie Maker? Is there better translation software from WMV to DVD? Is it better to capture to an AVI format than WMV?
This is a duplicate post that is also found in the DVD Video Authoring forum. Check there. I answered your question.
As long as you capture in DV-AVI over a Firewire connection it does not matter which software you use. Moviemaker can also be used, but just take care of the right settings. Check this article: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/tutorials/moviemakermistakes.php
Ahhh! I see the light! Thanks so much for this. It is the answer I was seeking. BAD WMV! "The wmv format is a heavily compressed format. By using it, you are already losing quality right in the start of the process." I am presently looking to use Ulead Videostudio. I understand that this software can capture and output to AVI. Am I, though, losing a good deal of quality by using a USB cable instead of firewire, even if I save the DV transfer in AVI format? The problem I have is that I have no firewire port on my motherboard and no spare PCI slots to add one. :/
In the Movie Maker advice given at: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/tutorials/moviemakermistakes.php It is stated that the second option: Digital Device format DV-AVI should be selected to avoid creating a WMV file. However, this option is greyed out for me and so I cannot select it in Movie Maker. Is this because I am using a USB connection for capturing DV? Will I have the same problem with Ulead Videostudio?
Correct. If you use USB you cannot capture in DV-AVI with Moviemaker. This is not very usefull anyway. If you use USB you are capturing in relative low quality and it's quite useless to blow it up in a high quality codec. If you realy want to capture in high quality, you should use Firewire. If your camcorder connected through USB is recognized by a capturing program is a matter of trying. That you managed to capture with Moviemaker shows means that it apparently is succesful in recognizing the driver that you must have installed. Other programs may as well, but there is no guarantee. Check this: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/transfer.php
Thank you, you have been very helpful. I shall have to sacrifice one of my PCI cards and get an IEEE/firewire card immediately.
Ok, I now have a firewire port and cable, and DV->AVI is working a treat, good quality. I was just wondering if all DV capturing software is the same in its capturing functionality/quality and therefore whether I should bother looking at any other DV capturing software, since Movie Maker works ok?
Yep, as stated in one of my posts earlier in this thread, it does not matter which software you use if you capture DV-AVI through Firewire. Actually, capturing is not a very appropriate word for this proces; transfer is better. The thing is that this proces is a real tranfer of digital data, just like copying digital data from one place on your hard drive to another. So, Moviemaker is as good as any other solution to do this. By the way, there are a couple of nice freeware utilities that you can also use. You will find a couple on http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/downloads/freedownloads.php Personally I like WinDV very much. The nice thing is that it does not take any system resources and you can keep doing other things on your computer (within limits) while transferring video without much risk of dropping frames.
Thanks again, friend. I have been playing around with WinDV and the AV 2 setting produces 5 large, grey, flashing blocks (like huge pixels) on the AVI output file, for some reason. Is this known about? AV 1 is fine, but I understand that AV 2 is better quality. Is that correct?
I have never experienced nor heard of the phenomenon that you describe, so I don't know what is going on. But no, type-2 is not better quality than type-1, so if type-1 works OK for you, just stick to that. Again a usefull reference to understand: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/techinfo/avi.php
Hi I have been using wmm for some time and find it to to be ok,I would like to know what is the best way of storing dvds to your harddrive? I convert my mini dv home movies to avi files via wmm,and burn to disc via nero, now I want to keep backups on my hard drive in a compressed form if possible, that is safe and losses no quality, is that possible, our should I keep them in avi files for best quality. thanks for your help.
Of course you acn just store the content of the DVD itself on the hard drive. If that takes to much space and you think of compressing: you can save the movie as an MPEG with lower bitrate or convert to other formats (like DivX or so), but the quality will go down. Far the best option to archive your movies after editing (apart form storing on hard drive) is to record it back to tape. Just save the edited movie as DV-AVI and then put it back to tape.
Thanks for your reply, have you heard of rat-dvd? its ment to store up to 3 dvds in good quality, but can u burn them back with the same quality?
you can convert it back with the Pocket DVD Ripper which convert DVD to WMV/WMA/MP3 you can google the software
