Video transfer to PC (DV vs. capturing cards)

I am currently using ADS video capturing device to transfer the MiniDV contents to my PC. I have ADS connected to between my GS-120 and PC
via S-cable (S-cable provided much more accurate & clear Mpeg-2 files
on my PC - as compared to supplied AV cable).

Since I never used the DV interface for capturing, I would like to know how is it differ in terms of video quality. With DV, can you basically choose the file formats, ie, mpg, avi, wmv, asf, etc..

Anyone who've used the both, care to share?

Capturing the DV via Firewire will give you a better quality. You are basically downloading the uncompressed AVI from your DV in which case you can then spend the time to cut/edit/re-encode into whatever format you want.

Obviously the caveat here is that you can only capture AVI from your DV if you plan to use firewire and the amount of time to re-encode that AVI to whichever format can take a long time depending on CPU speed.

So to answer your question, if I read that right, you can NOT capture to another format if you capture from Firewire without going through a capture card. Most of the time, any NLE software will just capture AVI then you render or re-encode that to another format.

The quality is the best as you can get. Better than using a capture card that encodes to MPEG-2 or MPEG-1 or whatever format for sure. However, AVI is extremely large so HD space could be an issue.

Thanks for your reply. If I can only get it as *.avi, that's another extra step for making DVD. AVI to Mpeg2 => DVD.

I remember capturing the video from Sony cam using Pinnacle 8 once. Converting the AVI to MPEG2 basically ruined the resulting video. so I bought the capturing devices. Did you not experience the degradation during the conversion (avi to mpeg2) for dvd?

The difference would be that if you captured the DV video digitally as an avi, you would control the mpeg2 conversion rather than your ADS card. This would require an mpeg conversion program and rendering time. I sometimes go with auto conversion through s-video into a Panasonic standalone recorder, and sometimes I use Canopus Procoder on avi files. The rendering in Procoder can take some time, but I can control the bitrate and how much I can get on the DVD/VCD. A better solution if you want to use an auto conversion real-time setup is to access it through firewire rather than analog s-video. That should improve the quality a tad to the digital resolution.

@ohm329

The reason why the MPEG-2 didn't look as good could be due to which software encoder you are using and what your settings are. As pvideo said, use something like Canopus Procoder and you can change the settings to give you great quality video.

I've never had issues with quality, I usually do a 2-pass VBR with 8000 kbps Max and average of 6000 kbps. However, in most ocassions, since most of my projects are short, I leave it as 8000 kbps CBR to get excellent quality throughout.

Did you not experience the degradation during the conversion (avi to mpeg2) for dvd?
No, not when creating DVD's and using TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator 2.0

Yes, when using some other encoders.

Rich

Thanks all for your valuable input. This sounds like I dodn't even need the capturing device for better quality Video. Everything may be done through software solution.

TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator 2.0 sounds good but does this provide total solution? AVI extraction to conversion to DVD burining? If yes, what's the interface, DV or USB2?

Thanks all for your valuable input. This sounds like I dodn't even need the capturing device for better quality Video. Everything may be done through software solution.

TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator 2.0 sounds good but does this provide total solution? AVI extraction to conversion to DVD burining? If yes, what's the interface, DV or USB2?

My total solution

I use TMPGEnc DVD Author version 1.5. You can download a free 30 day trial at http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html It is fully functional.

I feed it an AVI file from my hard drive, with the wizard and it creates MPEG2 files, then through authoring. It creates the DVD compliant directories and files. I save it as an .ISO file which, then I burn all the DVD's I need for that session. That is the solution which worked the easiest for me. I have burned four different DVD's and played them back on two computers and at least 2 different standalone DVD players. Some complain about the slow encoding time, but I was impressed with the quality and TMPGEnc DVD Author. I also tried Cyberlink PowerProducer, which is a bit easier (and cheaper). I bought them both.

Rich