what's the absolute best way to transfer mini dv to my pc...

[kidrocklive]

ok, I think i'll try my friends out and if I have any problems with anything i'll be sure to ask you guys. Thanks again for all your help and i now know I don't need a firewire card too, so that's a plus

[kidrocklive]

is there a difference between the 4m and 6m firewire ports? like is one better than the other?

[lastepic]

Originally Posted by bigwurock

if you are going to use the dvd for yourself...not adding new audio or anything..might want to just go out and buy a standalone dvd recorder...capture will not be the best as vegas but still will be good..but might just save alot of headaches + is really easy to do...

To be honest, this is as good a way to go as any - the conversion the standalone will give you should be every bit as good-probably better - than any software encoding done later. You could then transfer the DVD onto your PC and edit it if you so wished.

[kidrocklive]

i could see how it would be easier, but i don't see how it would be better

[Evenreven]

Originally Posted by lastepic

You could then transfer the DVD onto your PC and edit it if you so wished.

Can you edit dvd-video after it's encoded? I thought that would mean converting to another format for editing, and then RE-ENCODING again to dvd-video (producing a shitty image)?

[saltman]

stand alone is not better in any way other than it is easier. the menus are gonna suck and the highset bitrate of most is lower than what you can properly set if you know your calculations relative to bitrate and length. It has a default and doesn't adjust accordingly. Not to mention it's gonna put random chapter marks in that are not gonna match the songs. I don't think they're a good idea and you won't be happy with the product.

[onemanguitarband]

Originally Posted by lastepic

To be honest, this is as good a way to go as any - the conversion the standalone will give you should be every bit as good-probably better - than any software encoding done later. You could then transfer the DVD onto your PC and edit it if you so wished.

I'm no expert on digital to digital conversion of video, but on principal I don't think this is true. I know when I transfer Analog > HD via my Canopus capture device, it takes about 12 Gigs per Hour of video. Then I have to compress that to get it on to dvd (which takes hours of encoding time, on a pretty fast computer). I know I've done comparisions between the same video source transfered to a standalone unit vs. the same video source transfered to HD and comped to DVD size. The HD transfer looked MUCH better. I would have to imagine the standalone player would have to encode and compress on the fly even though we are talking about a digital to digital conversion as well, unlike a good computer interface.

All I can really say, is I wish more people had the Canopus Twin100 for conversions....too bad they cost more than most people are willing to spend.

[AAR.oner]

salt & oneman...

kidrock--use yer buddy's comp that has vegas...its only a one-cam and yer using the in-cam audio right? it'll be pretty easy...i'm sure one of us can walk you thru capturing and exporting

the TwinPact oneman mentioned is *really nice* for analog > comp...hell, even if folks would buy an ADVC model from Canopus, i think they'd see the difference

[ssamadhi97]

Originally Posted by AAR.oner

the TwinPact oneman mentioned is *really nice* for analog > comp...hell, even if folks would buy an ADVC model from Canopus, i think they'd see the difference

Yeah, especially on difficult sources where the ADVC300's LTBC comes into play (the TwinPact doesn't have one).

[kidrocklive]

I got the uncompressed avi of the dv tape on my pc. it's like 10gb. What's the best way to convert the avi to mpeg2 now? I noticed some options don't even have audio, it's just the plain video, what's the point of that?

[saltman]

most non-proffesional encoders are not very good at what they do. it is best to encode the video and audio stream separately to get the best quality. If it's in Vegas video you just select a loop region, and go file>render using this thread as a guide

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...t=14003&page=1

read the entire thread... noting there were some errors in the calculations at the beginning.... 8000-8200 vid and pcm audio is gonna be your best settings.

[onemanguitarband]

Originally Posted by ssamadhi97

Yeah, especially on difficult sources where the ADVC300's LTBC comes into play (the TwinPact doesn't have one).

I could be wrong, but I believe the TwinPact does have LTBC, this is a quote about the TwinPact100 (I couldn't paste the rest, the formatting looked messed up).

Digital Line Time Base Corrector (LTBC) – Detects images with strong horizontal jitter and employs powerful correction methods to repair the jitter

And I believe this is in the manual somewhere as well.

[kidrocklive]

so the best way for me to put this onto a dvd is to do audio and video seperate. How exactly do I put the audio and video together once I get into architect?

[kidrocklive]

also what's the difference between DVD Architect NTSC Video Stream and DVD Architect 24pt NTSC Video Stream?

[AAR.oner]

in DVD Arch you'll import both the mpeg2 video file and the LPCM audio file, synch them in the timeline, and then build.

24p is the frame rate of film [24fps]...you'd only use that if you were gonna be printing to film...just choose the standard NTSC option [which, fwiw, is probly 29.97fps]