How To Capture Video To High Resolution?

[dan_2009]

Ok, I bought Roxio so I could capture video from my Canon camcorder to a higher resolution than 720x480, which I can already do thru Windows. Sooooo, how on earth do I capture my mini-DV video to something like 1280x720 (dv-avi) or something nice like that, so I can burn a nice quality DVD of my mini-DVs? Has anyone done this?

 

thanks,

Dan

 

[ggrussell]

EMC 10 is the last version. Creator 2009 is the newest. Usually the OEM version are cut-down versions and don't have as many features. So you may want to uninstall the Dell version and install C2009. Some people have successfully installed both at the same time.

[ggrussell]

Which Canon? I have the Canon HV20 hidef camcorder and I can capture with no problem. You should be using firewire.

 

You mention DV AVI. Those are always 'standard' definition 720X480. It would serve no purpose to convert to a higher resolution.

[dan_2009]

I have the Canon ZR-10, pretty old mini-DV camcorder. I guess my problem is that I can never get a high quality DVD when I transfer my video onto my computer. It's probably because I don't know what to choose for a format and resolution. Roxio give me a choice of capturing my video at 720x480 DV AVI, or 640x480 MPEG-2. I guess I just expected to have a much higher resolution when capturing video off of a mini-DV tape since the quality is very good on the tape.......so, what are my options?? Thanks for the response by the way....

 

Dan

 

 

Which Canon? I have the Canon HV20 hidef camcorder and I can capture with no problem. You should be using firewire.

 

You mention DV AVI. Those are always 'standard' definition 720X480. It would serve no purpose to convert to a higher resolution.

 

[dan_2009]

Hmmmm.....ok, I think I just found something out. Is it true that the mini-DV tape that I have in my Canon ZR-10 is 720 x 480 at 30 frames per second??? I just read an article that stated that.....so, I want to keep that same resolution when I burn to DVD then, right?

That makes more sense now.....

[ggrussell]

You should be capturing DV AVI at 720X480. Edit in Videowave and then make the DVD menu in MyDVD.

 

I'm a bit confused about the 640x480 MPEG-2. Capture to MPEG 2 should also be 720X480. What were you using to capture?

 

You should also be using firewire to capture the video. See page 74 in your manual for connection directions. It shows dubbing from DV to DV of another camcorder, but you use the same port to connect firewire to a PC.

[dan_2009]

Yes, Firewire is the only way I can connect my Canon to my laptop. And yes, you're right, MPEG-2 was 720x480.

Ok, so here's what I do - go to "Video - Movies", then go to "capture video" and then select Canon Camcorder, then select AVI DV format in "capture settings". Then I am at 720x480.

I guess I misled myself this whole time thinking that I should be recording to some high resolution to get quality......I was wrong.

 

However....I noticed something else tonight. When I was capturing to AVI DV format I only got through about 3 minutes of my 60 minute DV tape and I was already at 750MB of disk space. How is my whole 60 minute tape going to fit on a 4GB DVD?

 

One more thing - when I hook up my Canon directly to my TV, the quality is incredible. BUT, in the past (before Roxio) when I have created a DVD with 720x480 format, and then played the DVD and watched it on TV the quality was not nearly as sharp....can you tell me why that is?

That is the whole reason I got Roxio - so I can copy a mirror image of my mini-DV tape to a DVD.

 

Thank you very much for your help so far - I have already learned a lot!!!

 

Dan

 

 

You should be capturing DV AVI at 720X480. Edit in Videowave and then make the DVD menu in MyDVD.

 

I'm a bit confused about the 640x480 MPEG-2. Capture to MPEG 2 should also be 720X480. What were you using to capture?

 

You should also be using firewire to capture the video. See page 74 in your manual for connection directions. It shows dubbing from DV to DV of another camcorder, but you use the same port to connect firewire to a PC.

 

[ggrussell]

One hour of DV AVI is about 13GB. Need lots of hard drive space. DV AVI is larger because it is less compressed. It is much faster to edit because of that. When the video DVD is created in MyDVD, that file is then compressed using MPEG 2. For best quality, only put 1 hour or less on a single 4.7GB disc. You can get about twice that on a dual layer 8.5GB blank disc. As long as you follow this simple rule, you will be getting the best quality 'possible' when burning a DVD.

 

If you go over that time limit, then the program must compress the files even more which is what causes the quality to suffer.

so I can copy a mirror image of my mini-DV tape to a DVD.

Not really possible if you want to play the disc on a standard DVD player simply because the video must be compressed. The 1 hour limit applies to ANY software. Not just Roxio.

[dan_2009]

Wow, that's a huge file. Ok, I figured out another reason I had poor quality DVDs before - when I captured my video before through Windows it would create a 720x480 .WMV file, not DV AVI like I thought. That file is less than 1 GB for 60 minutes - is .WMV compressed a lot?

 

Another problem I have is that I can only hook my camcorder to my laptop, which does not have a DVD burner, and Roxio will not let me write across my network to my 500GB external drive, OR my mapped DVD drive on the network. So, now I think my only option is a new computer. Both of my computers are almost 6 years old, so I am due I guess.

Oh yeah, AND a couple of the "Advanced" editing options in Roxio won't come up because it says I need to upgrade my video card on my laptop.

I am looking at BestBuy right now at a Dell laptop, with the T8100 Core Duo processor with 4GB of RAM and a DVD writer and 350GB HD. Hopefully that will be enough to handle Roxio.

 

Thanks for all your help - I think I am going computer shopping this weekend

 

Dan

 

One hour of DV AVI is about 13GB. Need lots of hard drive space. DV AVI is larger because it is less compressed. It is much faster to edit because of that. When the video DVD is created in MyDVD, that file is then compressed using MPEG 2. For best quality, only put 1 hour or less on a single 4.7GB disc. You can get about twice that on a dual layer 8.5GB blank disc. As long as you follow this simple rule, you will be getting the best quality 'possible' when burning a DVD.

 

If you go over that time limit, then the program must compress the files even more which is what causes the quality to suffer.

Not really possible if you want to play the disc on a standard DVD player simply because the video must be compressed. The 1 hour limit applies to ANY software. Not just Roxio.

 

[ggrussell]

Yes, WMV is more compressed and sometimes even more than MPEG 2. Be careful when purchasing laptops. Even the new ones have less capable video chipsets. C2009 may work , but in software render mode only. Most have firewire these days and certainly wouldn't hurt to double check that!

 

You can always plug that external hard drive into the new laptop for extra storage.

[dan_2009]

Yep, I did check to make sure it had firewire. The Dell Studio laptop actually comes with Roxio Creator 10 on it - is that similar to Roxio 2009 - just the previous version or something?

I plan on archiving all my uncompressed video to my external drive, but I would like to do all the capturing/editing/burning on the new laptop. That way I'll keep my laptop hard drive clean for applications instead of storing video.

 

Thanks so much for all your help....I'm sure I'll be back once I start editing....

 

Yes, WMV is more compressed and sometimes even more than MPEG 2. Be careful when purchasing laptops. Even the new ones have less capable video chipsets. C2009 may work , but in software render mode only. Most have firewire these days and certainly wouldn't hurt to double check that!

 

You can always plug that external hard drive into the new laptop for extra storage.