Help: Transfer videocam-minidv to pc

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 10th, 2006 02:05 AM

As for video quality, here's a few samples of what you can expect. These are all stills from Divx files that were made from different sources:

Here's one from MiniDV through firewire. It was actually downsized from 704x480:

This one was captured fron DirectTV via the ViVo (ATI Rage Theater) of my video card:

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 10th, 2006 02:06 AM

More samples:

This one was a conversion of a vhs movie and captured via my Hauppage WinTV tv tuner:

This one is footage from my 8mm camcorder captured via the ViVo of my video card:

**picantorange** · April 10th, 2006 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by 3kster

Di ba ang south bridge, 133 MB/s lang? Plus taking into account the transcoding into the format you want by the CPU, even using the highest CPU frequency available, you will still be limited by the PCI transfer rate which uses 33MHz. Unless your using PCIe, of which at x1, can handle ~500MB/s. Then again, you will be limited by the HDD transfer rate at around 100~133 MB/s for IDE and SATA at 150 MB/s

And DV rate is what, like 200MB per MINUTE.

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 10th, 2006 05:43 AM

Originally Posted by picantorange

And DV rate is what, like 200MB per MINUTE.

It's very close. Recording DV footage is more or less 12Gb/hr which is ~12288MB/hr, ~205MB/min, or 3.41 MB/sec.

A pci firewire card should be enough although I still prefer built-in firewire on the motherboard.

Add: As for firewire cards, I still prefer Maxtor's own firewire card which they recommended for their own external firewire hard drives. Ours have captured flawlessly since we bought it back in 2000.

**3kster** · April 11th, 2006 12:27 AM

Originally Posted by picantorange

And DV rate is what, like 200MB per MINUTE.

corrected yourself there.....this was your previous post, and realtime at 200MBs wold really be "awesome".

Originally Posted by picantorange

Yep, na-mention na yung firewire and software needed. You'll also need a cavernous drive, since the data rate of DV is about 220 MB/s.

Just want to add, ATI has an "all-in-wonder card" (AIW) that can cater to both digital and analog in. Nvidia has an equivalent of ATI's AIW cards so does Matrox (its correct, its spelled as Matrox, not Maxtor) Marvel chips but ATIs solution is still the best. ATI's AIW cards are a "PVR/capture card/"graphics card/TV tuner all in one but its pretty expensive and you can only opt for this if you have setup your PC as a multimedia center/HTPC. ATI has other product line up you can choose from aside from their AIW line.

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 11th, 2006 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by 3kster

Just want to add, ATI has an "all-in-wonder card" (AIW) that can cater to both digital and analog in. Nvidia has an equivalent of ATI's AIW cards so does Matrox (its correct, its spelled as Matrox, not Maxtor) Marvel chips but ATIs solution is still the best. ATI's AIW cards are a "PVR/capture card/"graphics card/TV tuner all in one but its pretty expensive and you can only opt for this if you have setup your PC as a multimedia center/HTPC. ATI has other product line up you can choose from aside from their AIW line.

You have to remember that the original poster just wants to get footage from MiniDV and possibly 8mm to the computer. An ATI AIW video card as a solution, borders on the extreme especially with price due to features the user may not use. The next best thing would be Video In/Video Out (ViVo) which doesn't add much to the overall price of a video card. The main disadvantage of both is that when it's time to buy a new video card, that's it for them.

A pci firewire card (for MiniDV) can be carried on to the next computer although most new motherboards have firewire built-in. Same goes for a pci tv tuner card/capture card (for 8mm and other analog sources). My Hauppage WinTV PCI tv tuner card went through 4 pc's and still works fine. Not bad for a $70 initial investment (back in 1998). The same goes for my ($40 back in 2000) Maxtor firewire card which went through those same 4 pc's before I ended up with ViVo video cards and built-in firewire.

**picantorange** · April 11th, 2006 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by 3kster

corrected yourself there.....this was your previous post, and realtime at 200MBs wold really be "awesome".

Haha, sorry. I stand corrected - by myself.

Yung firewire card ko ewan ko kung anong tatak. Kasama lang nung bumili ako ng miniDV cam.

OT: Sarap mag-edit!

Kakatapos ko lang i-edit yung music video ng mga pinsan ko dito. LOL.

**IIE** · April 11th, 2006 09:50 AM

use tv video card captured, if your using local pc, but if your have macintosh no need na , dahil built in na yun captured card nila, and after that sabi nila use different software kung ano type mo and kung ano mas mabilis na software.

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 11th, 2006 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by IIE

use tv video card captured, if your using local pc, but if your have macintosh no need na , dahil built in na yun captured card nila, and after that sabi nila use different software kung ano type mo and kung ano mas mabilis na software.

Macs have firewire built in which is fine for a MiniDV camcorder. But, to capture analog video like 8mm, he still needs to buy a separate capture device.

iMovie HD is normally part of every Mac (like our Mini here). It's decent and easy enough so long as you work with DV files. But start working with analog files or mpeg2, and iMovie HD becomes a pain. What would be effortless with pc video editors like Ulead Video Studio, Vegas, or Pinnacle Studio is very laborous and time consuming with iMovie. An example would be importing different types of video files to iMovie, be ready for a looong wait. In contrast, a video-editing app like Ulead Video Studio will import those same files almost instantaneously.

If the original poster will work exclusively with DV files, then, a Mac with iMovie would be fine. But, if he's going to work with both DV, mpeg2, avi, etc, it's best to do video-editing on the pc.

I rarely use iMovie HD on the Mac. But, I do make heavy use of iPhoto. iPhoto is awesome for making video clips of picture slideshows. Whenever I have to include slideshows of photos in my homemade dvd's, I normally make the QT file in the Mini with iPhoto, burn it to cd with Toast, then import it to my pc and dropping the file into the timeline of the pc video editor.

**3kster** · April 12th, 2006 12:22 AM

Jun, just some questions, i know majority of us have multisytem TVs, but on my editing software, theres a selection on what system to encode, so what system do you usually use? Correct me if i'm wrong, but one system has better refresh rate and another has higher resolution? Which would be good for DVD playback? can i pick both?

Picanto-range, my firewire card also came with my videocam, but latest DV videocams right now don't bundle this, so I guess swerte tayo. That stayed with my old pc and my latest pc has a built in one. Regarding editing, he-he-he, sarap panoorin ng pinag hirapan, i usually send copies to my relatives just to show off what I've done, tapos yung content, eh secondary na lang