File Size

[Twisted Flynn]

When I capture a 2 hour video from my sony handycam, the file is a whopping 20GB. I still have over 20 tapes to import and that could mean 500GB? Is there any way to make these files smaller?

 

Please Help or advise!

 

Thanks

[cdanteek]

When I capture a 2 hour video from my sony handycam, the file is a whopping 20GB. I still have over 20 tapes to import and that could mean 500GB? Is there any way to make these files smaller?

 

Please Help or advise!

 

Thanks

 

You didn't say what format you captured in? What do you plan to do with the "over 20 tapes to import and that could mean 500GB"?

 

They sell terabyte drives now and the 1/2 terabyte 500gb are at a value price. On sale about $89.00 to $99.00. Lots of folks have two or three of them...

 

cd

[Guest ml]

When I capture a 2 hour video from my sony handycam, the file is a whopping 20GB. I still have over 20 tapes to import and that could mean 500GB? Is there any way to make these files smaller?

Please Help or advise!

 

Thanks

 

You could import them as mpeg2, but that requires the computer to import and encode at the same time.

 

A better method would be to import some of the tapes, edit them in VideoWave and do a File\ Output production .... to a video file of mpeg2 best ( DVD authoring / Best ) files. One hour of mpeg2 best is around 4 GB.

 

I also agree with CD. A 500 GB second internal or external hard drive will make storing the original footage easier.

[Twisted Flynn]

Sorry to making my initial post so vague. This stuff is pretty frustrating. I originally typed a more detail post but somehow (probably due to my frustration) erased it. Let start over again. Thanks for the quick replies you guys are great!

 

I have roughly 20 8mm tapes that I wanted to transfer to my computer so I bought EMC10. The installation went well contrary to what I have read. I connected my Sony Handycam to the Dazzle adapter and ran the Capture Video funtion. The first tape I 'captured' took almost 2 hours b/c it records as the tape plays. The file was saved as an avi. file and is alittle over 20 GBs.

 

My hard drive is 250 GBs but with all my music, photos and other videos I had about 120 GBs left. I guess I was suprised by how much space a single 2 hour video could take. So I guess my question is: Can I import a video tape with a different format while maintaining the same video quality? (what little there is. these tapes are 8 years old)

 

FYI, I just fooled arpund with the Convert Video function and converted a smaller file (5GBs) to wmv format. That new file is only 115 MB. The quality seems to be lower. Does that sound right? Can anyone recommend a different format using the Convert Video Function.

 

Again, sorry for sounding like an idiot.

 

Thanks

[Jim_Hardin]

You don't sound like an idiot at all!!! You are just another that doesn't have a clue about video editing and yes that is frustrating!

 

Capture always takes as long to do as the length of play. The ratio is 1:1. The only way that would change is if the source was a digital file – camcorder that records on DVD or internal HD. (this opens the door to a different set of possible problems)

 

You captured in DV AVI which is an uncompressed format. It has the advantage of recording and retaining the highest quality possible and is the easiest edit.

 

If you reset capture to mpeg2 your file will be much smaller. It is compressed so every time you touch it, it is uncompressed then recompressed on save. Every time this is done, there are some loses. You will also find that large mpeg files bog down editors as you try to move through them because of all of the uncompressing/recompressing that has to occur.

 

Since you are just starting out, you do not want to capture all of your tapes then go back and start to edit, then go back and start to burn…

 

Capture one or 2 and work them through to completion.

 

Then decide how you want to archive… If you burn 2 copies of your DVD Movie, you can import from the archive you saved and do more editing at a later time. You can save an ISO file which is a disc image, ready to burn another copy. ISO's are harder to extract from for future editing and will use up a DVD to save them.

 

The only practical way to save a DV AVI file is to a large HD which you remove from your PC and hide away.

 

Some other things you didn't ask yet: You edit in VideoWave and save (dmsm file). You make your DVD user interface (menus) in MyDVD and add you movies (Titles) by bringing in those VW dmsm files. – dmsm files do not have one drop of movies in them! They are just 'notes' to the software telling it what you want to do with the raw clip.

 

A 4.7gb DVD will hold 1 hour of DVD Movie! Any more and it fits it on by degrading the video quality! – this is subjective but my wife sent me packing when I tried to sneak a 1:10 in on her! About 5 seconds into it and she demanded to know what was wrong with the picture!

 

Get a disc or 2 of DVD RW media! You will want to do some experiments to see how things look. RW is reusable so it is great for that! It does wear out or become unusable in time, so never use it for anything you value.

 

 

[Twisted Flynn]

The only practical way to save a DV AVI file is to a large HD which you remove from your PC and hide away.

 

Thanks for the great info. I do have a WD 500 GB that I use every 2 weeks to back up my important stuff. My initial idea was to move the avi files to the WD, however I received the following message:

 

The file 'Captured Videos 00000.avi' has extra information attached to it that might be lost if you continue copying. The contents of the file will not be affected. Information that might be lost includes:

:Roxio EMC Stream:$DATA

 

To be 100% honest I have no idea what this means. Can someone help a buffoon?

 

Thanks

[malatekid]

Just choose the Yes option to continue the copy process.

 

Here is the info.

[ggrussell]

Copy it anyway. Sound like you are using Vista. That info has nothing to do with the video data itself. I think it has something to do with Vista's indexing.