Newbie Capturing MiniDV - What format?

[new2314151]

I am interested in converting my Sony MiniDV (DCR-TRV22) home movies. When capturing via firewire, I have a choice of .avi and mpeg2. I assume I want .avi since the file sizes are larger and the quality is better (based on what I've learned so far). However, I am not sure of the best format to convert the final files to for storage and viewing. Should I convert them to mpeg2, mpeg4, H.264, .wmv, or leave as .avi? What are the tradeoffs? I do not want to sacrifice quality, storage space is not an issue for me. Although the original video is standard definition (720x480), is it possible to upconvert to HD (1920x1080)? If possible, I would like to save them in an electronic HD format for viewing on an HDTV (1080p). I would prefer to keep the files electonically for viewing, but would also like the flexibility of transferring to an storage medium (DVD or Bluray) for sharing with family. I'm not sure that all of the conversion options are supported on most of these types of players.

 

On a related note, I have Creator 2010 Professional which comes with SoundSoap. I was hoping to use this to minimize the "motor hum" from the camcorder. Should I apply this sound filter before or after converting the file format? Does it matter? Apologize if this topic belongs on another forum. Please advise.

 

I have 40+ hours to capture, convert and "soundsoap" (not sure what order), and only want to do it once. Any help from the experienced would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone help with specifics or point me in the right direction? Thanks!

[bimicher]

I am interested in converting my Sony MiniDV (DCR-TRV22) home movies. When capturing via firewire, I have a choice of .avi and mpeg2. I assume I want .avi since the file sizes are larger and the quality is better (based on what I've learned so far). However, I am not sure of the best format to convert the final files to for storage and viewing. Should I convert them to mpeg2, mpeg4, H.264, .wmv, or leave as .avi? What are the tradeoffs? I do not want to sacrifice quality, storage space is not an issue for me. Although the original video is standard definition (720x480), is it possible to upconvert to HD (1920x1080)? If possible, I would like to save them in an electronic HD format for viewing on an HDTV (1080p). I would prefer to keep the files electonically for viewing, but would also like the flexibility of transferring to an storage medium (DVD or Bluray) for sharing with family. I'm not sure that all of the conversion options are supported on most of these types of players.

 

On a related note, I have Creator 2010 Professional which comes with SoundSoap. I was hoping to use this to minimize the "motor hum" from the camcorder. Should I apply this sound filter before or after converting the file format? Does it matter? Apologize if this topic belongs on another forum. Please advise.

 

I have 40+ hours to capture, convert and "soundsoap" (not sure what order), and only want to do it once. Any help from the experienced would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone help with specifics or point me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

If space is no problem then capture to DV avi - it will keep the best quality. There is no point converting to anything - you do not improve quality and in most cases will lose quality.

[Jim_Hardin]

Aren’t these discs already in a DVD format?

 

If so they could simply be imported with Video Copy & Convert or added to VideoWave with a click.

 

[bimicher]

Aren't these discs already in a DVD format?

 

If so they could simply be imported with Video Copy & Convert or added to VideoWave with a click.

 

Jim, the "Sony MiniDV (DCR-TRV22)" records to tape

[Jim_Hardin]

Jim, the "Sony MiniDV (DCR-TRV22)" records to tape

Opps!!! My minds eye saw MiniDVD… guess I am going to have to get it glasses

[sknis]

On a related note, I have Creator 2010 Professional which comes with SoundSoap. I was hoping to use this to minimize the "motor hum" from the camcorder. Should I apply this sound filter before or after converting the file format? Does it matter? Apologize if this topic belongs on another forum. Please advise.

 

I have 40+ hours to capture, convert and "soundsoap" (not sure what order), and only want to do it once. Any help from the experienced would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone help with specifics or point me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

Have you tried cleaning the audio with the audio clean up in Video Wave? Add the AVI file, go to time line and show hidden tracks, select "Native". A new track will open showing that audio. Double click on that and see if you can get rid of the hum that way.

 

Sound Soap will not work with mpg2 files. I'm not sure if it works with AVI files (I think it does) but I can't test it now. Try this. Open Sound Soap (after you go through their (less than easy) registration process and add the AVI file to it. Do the clean up. Select save and select to save the audio track as a wav file. Name it and put it in the same folder as your video. Open Video Wave and open the native track as above. Select it (single click) and then mute it using the speaker icon. Now add that wav file to any of the other audio tracks. Take care that you are at the start of the video. It should line up exactly.

 

Now do any of your editing making sure that that audio track is selected along with the video track.