Capturing DV tape as MPEG-2

I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school
function and want to capture them in my computer for editing at a
convenient time. Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI, WMV,
etc. But it will take up 100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras
were operated by amateurs and the stage lighting was poor, I
think storing them in AVI would be overkill. OTOH, I would like
to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure about the
quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm wrong
here), but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will
let me capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right
direction?

mianileng wrote:
I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school
function and want to capture them in my computer for editing at
a
convenient time. Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI,
WMV,
etc. But it will take up 100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras
were operated by amateurs and the stage lighting was poor, I
think storing them in AVI would be overkill. OTOH, I would like
to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure about the
quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm
wrong
here), but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will
let me capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right
direction?

Sorry, I meant to post this in alt.comp.freeware and posted here
by mistake. But I'm sure many of you here will be able to give me
useful suggestions too. So my request stands.

mianileng wrote:
mianileng wrote:
I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school
function and want to capture them in my computer for editing at
a
convenient time. Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI,
WMV,
etc. But it will take up 100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras
were operated by amateurs and the stage lighting was poor, I
think storing them in AVI would be overkill. OTOH, I would like
to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure about the
quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm
wrong
here), but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will
let me capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right
direction?

Sorry, I meant to post this in alt.comp.freeware and posted here
by mistake. But I'm sure many of you here will be able to give me
useful suggestions too. So my request stands.

If you are going to be editing them then save them in AVI and convert
to MPEG after editing. Every conversion is a generation loss, and in
MPEG so is every edit.

Google "AVI MPEG converter free" and you will find a number of
options.



--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:01:17 +0530, "mianileng"
wrote in :

I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school
function and want to capture them in my computer for editing at a
convenient time. Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI, WMV,
etc. But it will take up 100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras
were operated by amateurs and the stage lighting was poor, I
think storing them in AVI would be overkill. OTOH, I would like
to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure about the
quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm wrong
here), but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

MPEG-2 is a poor choice for storage because it's nowhere near as
efficient as more modern compressors like the various MPEG-4 options.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will
let me capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right
direction?

It's not free, but Nero Vision (included in the Nero Suite, which isn't
terribly expensive) makes conversion to high-quality MPEG-4 dead easy.
Apple QuickTime Pro likewise.
--
Best regards,
John Navas
[PLEASE NOTE: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

Ï "mianileng" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
...
I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school function and
want to capture them in my computer for editing at a convenient time.
Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI, WMV, etc. But it will take up
100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras were operated by amateurs and the
stage lighting was poor, I think storing them in AVI would be overkill.
OTOH, I would like to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure
about the quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm wrong here),
but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will let me
capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right direction?

First of all, you have to get a firewire card to connect your camcorder with
your computer, there's no other efficient way. My firewire card (PCI)
included a cd with Ulead video studio 8, which is excellent for basic
editing. The mini DV tape itself that your camcorder uses, is no larger than
14 GB for an hour, in the DV (or DV-25) format, and when I connect my
camcorder in my comp and have Vid studio open , it automatically selects DV
as capture format, being ~14 GB for an hour, with no quality loss. Then I
selct share, make disc and I can fit 1 hour on a single layer disc, and more
if I select a lower bit rate.

HTH.HAND.



--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr

On 14 Dec 2008 22:19:11 GMT, Marty Fremen wrote
in :

WMV format typically uses a proprietary Microsoft MPEG4 codec I think,

WMV is not MPEG-4.
--
Best regards,
John Navas
[PLEASE NOTE: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

John Navas wrote:
On 14 Dec 2008 22:19:11 GMT, Marty Fremen wrote
in :

WMV format typically uses a proprietary Microsoft MPEG4 codec I think,

WMV is not MPEG-4.

But you can trust MS to try to make it proprietary! (Well, Apple, too.)

--
john mcwilliams

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:20:27 -0800, John McWilliams
wrote in :

John Navas wrote:
On 14 Dec 2008 22:19:11 GMT, Marty Fremen wrote
in :

WMV format typically uses a proprietary Microsoft MPEG4 codec I think,

WMV is not MPEG-4.

But you can trust MS to try to make it proprietary! (Well, Apple, too.)

Unlike Microsoft Movie Maker, Apple QuickTime Pro can output standard
MPEG-4 (and 3GPP).
--
Best regards,
John Navas
[PLEASE NOTE: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

On 15 Dec 2008 01:23:42 GMT, Marty Fremen wrote
in :

John Navas wrote:

On 14 Dec 2008 22:19:11 GMT, Marty Fremen wrote
in :

WMV format typically uses a proprietary Microsoft MPEG4 codec I think,

WMV is not MPEG-4.

Up to WMV7 they were using implementations of MPEG4, it's not clear what
WMV8 and WMV9 use though. I get the impression that a lot of proprietary
codecs are based around MPEG4 though.

MPEG-4 is a collection of codecs, not a single codec -- typical MPEG-4
is ASP (Xvid, DivX), similar to H.263, better MPEG-4 is AVC/H.264
--
Best regards,
John Navas
[PLEASE NOTE: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

"mianileng" wrote in message
...
mianileng wrote:
I've borrowed several MiniDV tapes covering my kids' school
function and want to capture them in my computer for editing at a
convenient time. Windows Movie Maker lets me do this in AVI, WMV,
etc. But it will take up 100+ GB in AVI and since the cameras
were operated by amateurs and the stage lighting was poor, I
think storing them in AVI would be overkill. OTOH, I would like
to avoid a serious drop in quality and I'm not sure about the
quality or versatility of WMV. So I thought capturing them as
MPEG-2 would be a good compromise (please correct me if I'm wrong
here), but WMM doesn't do mpeg-2.

I didn't have much success searching for a free tool that will
let me capture in mpeg-2. Can anyone please point in the right
direction?

Sorry, I meant to post this in alt.comp.freeware and posted here by
mistake. But I'm sure many of you here will be able to give me useful
suggestions too. So my request stands.


Mini DV to AVI will be around 13Gb per hour so if you only have a "couple"
of tapes just record direct with firewire, edit then convert to MPEG2 or
whatever format and then delete the original files if you need the room.