I have an internal 30 gig and an external 120 gig Firewire.. can I format them NFTS and leave my 12 gig drive with OS and software at FAT32 ??
How would I do that ?

Depends on your OS. If you have W2K or XP, the answer is yes, the OS drive can stay at FAT32 and the video drive can be changed to NTFS. If you have nothing on the video drive you wish to keep, just format it. Otherwise, use the built-in FAT32 to NTFS converter.

So, if I'm capturing from an analog device such as a VCR then I cant have mutliple segments or have it roll over into a new file once it hits the limit?

It depends on how you are capturing. If you have an external A/V -> DV converter such as the Canopus ADVC-100, then you really are capturing DV and VidCap will roll the files over automatically. If you are capturing through a video card such as the ATI All-In-Wonder or something like that then you're not capturing DV and you will have to manage the capture manually.

Chienworks,
Thanks! Thats exactly the info I've been searching for. Crap. Sucks though. Means more money I have to spend. I suppose I can do it manually though.
That means I'll have to stop recording then piece it together myself right? Sounds like a lot of work. Oh well.
Thanks,
Chris

Chris, before i got an external DV converter box i was capturing in analog with a Hauppauge WinTV card. When i knew i was getting close to the time limit i'd look for some sharp video event, such as a door closing, or light turning on, or closeup of someone winking ... some sudden and obvious change in the picture. I'd capture a second or two beyond this, then rewind the tape to a few seconds before it and start capturing to a new file. After loading the clips in the timeline it was pretty easy to find that event and trim both clips to it, then butt them together. With a small amount of care and practice this can be done quite fast and easily.

One thing to watch out for, since the captures are done discontiguously (sorry for the six-syllable word!) there is no quarantee that the video frames will quantize (line up with) the audio the same on both clips. So when trimming to the nearest frame to the event (as described above), the audio may glitch up to a 30th of a second. Sometimes i found it better to add or remove an extra frame to keep the audio more intact.

Chienworks,
Thats for the advice. I'm capturing lives concerts from video tape so I can just cut the recording between songs and get them close that way. Yesterday I used the iuVCR program and it rolled over but when I put them in the timeline, there was a gpa but it was in the middle of the song and thats not good enough for me. This way, I can at least make it skip or whatever between songs. I was thinking about instead of putting them on the same timeline, moving the next clip into a different track (?) and kind of get them cloe there to see what heppens. Maybe even run it long and overlap them to make sure they sync up. Not sure if it will work and I probably just confused the heck out of you.
Those DV converters are all firewire arent they? That means I'd have to get a firewire card installed too. Man, this can be costly!

Chris, your two track idea will work fine, just make sure that you trim a bit off the beginning of the "next" track each time, since i'm pretty sure the first few frames of each capture will be garbage.

The best converter box out there right now is the Canopus ADVC-100 at about $290, and yes, you will need a firewire card. You can get a generic one for about $25 as long as it's OHCI compliant. You will also need a firewire cable for about $25.

Yeah, I hope it works. Need to figure out how to trim now! hehe.
It'll have to work until I can afford a converter and card. So, if I get this converter I wont even need the ATI capture card right? I suppose I can take it back to where I got it if I decide what I want to do soon enough.
It's been a pleasure...
Chris

Well, if the ATI capture card is also your main video card, then you may want to keep it. If it has analog out then it's also handy for playing games & DVDs or MPEG files on the TV. I really don't recommend it for printing to tape though; you'll use the external converter for that if (no, when!) you get it.

I would definately uninstall all the ATI software at that point though. It clutters up your system something awful.

If you can beg, borrow, or...buy a DV camcorder, they will sometimes have Analog to DV converter capability. I have a Sony DV8 camcorder that allows me to input an analog signal into the camcorder (from the VHS tape, for instance) and output it to the Firewire card (and into the computer) in DV format. It works great!

Also, I purchased a brand new Firewire card and cable from eBay for $25. It works perfectly!