yeah...I searched online and found the best deal to be at emscomputing.com ...$288 dollars + shipping ...I ordered it Wednesday night and received it this afternoon...with shipping (2 day) I paid $304...best deal around...

Very cool..thanks. You'll have to let us know how the quality is when you use it. I've heard the SF guys talk about it greatly. But I want someone else to let us know what they think - quality, ease of use, etc.

>>...I just bought the Sony DVMC-DA2 to use with my VHS-C analog camcorder...with the media converter hooked to the 1394 card should the scene detect work since it is converted to a digital signal?
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NO It detects the "data code" from DV tape. Even if you transfered to Dv tape first, it still wouldn't pick up the scene changes. Either manually capture clips as needed or do one big capture and use the split feature in Vegas to break it up.

Craig H.

so is the problem possibly that there is an error reading the "data code" from the DV Sony camera?

Scene detect kicks in with breaks in the DV time code, so if you recorded a big long video from an analog source to DV, don't expect scene detect.

So, if I read the replies correctly, VF scene detect only detects BREAKS in the continuity of the DV Time code. Only DV tapes with unrecorded gaps would cause a scene break during capture.

Am I understanding correctly?

Caruso

I've figured out why the scene detect wasn't working...my friend recorded a tape in his Hi-8 Sony camcorder and I popped the tape in the Sony with I-link to capture on my 1394 card...so there is no DV time code stamp on his tapes...what bothers me is that I have an old Pinnacle analog capture card with some cheesy Pinnacle editing software and THAT has scene detect even when capturing from an analog source...I'd use that software to capture but I've been having problems with the Pinnacle drivers...Does anyone know of any capture programs that have scene detect for ANY video analog or digital? It would make my life a whole lot easier because I work with hundreds of very short clips so it's tedious to capture it all...

I just found a capture program that has scene detection for both analog (optical detection) and digital (time code detection)...it's called Scenalyer Live...it's pretty cool...I tried it out and the captured clips works fine with Vegas...it's got a cool time lapse capture feature which is an added bonus...

I've been playing around with it and the optical scene detection isn't perfect...any fast camera movement is recognized as a scene change...it's about 85-90% accurate though and I sure as hell can't complain...it's saved me HOURS already...

another added bonus of Scenalyzer for DV users (not me) is that you can capture a DV tape in 5 minutes and you can index a DV tape then select only the scenes that you want to capture...I'm not so sure you can do that with SF vid cap because I don't have a DV camera...I may be wrong...but those features make me want to save up and get a DV camera...

the reason I am cutting up each clip into its own file is because I am organizing footage to make a SERIES of videos...I won't be using all of the footage in one video...I'll be working on small 5-10 minute sections and piecing them together to make three 40 minute videos...I'm not sure which clips are going to each video yet...I hear you about that semi-editing thing...it really helps...I've been trying to improve my shooting as much as possible

I just tried the scenalyzer tool. It works great! I like how I can let scenalyzer auto-detect and capture all of the scenes while I go off and do other things (with low wear and tear on my MiniDV camera). Then, after it's done, I went thru and quickly scrubbed each scene, renamed it and delete the duds. Pretty slick. I went thru two 45 minute MiniDV tapes last night. I let SA capture/scene detect each tape unattended (with no lost frames). Then, once the captures were complete, it took me less than 10 minutes a tape to rename the scenes and delete the duds. Nice program. I ended up registering it since the demo sticks a logo randomly inside the captures. Cool! Thanks for pointing it out! :)

Scenalyzer sounds like a worthy program. Would be curious to know what it costs.

For $60 - $150 you can purchase one of the Pinnacle products - Studio DV or Studio 7 - both of which include scene detection. The detection scheme is user selectable . . . manual (no scene detection . . . unless you manually press the space bar during capture) or timed (you set a capture interval which will cause the program to note a scene change every xxx seconds), or auto (program will note changes in contrast as scene changes . . . probably 90 % efficient on most videos, including analog).

If scene detection is important to you (it isn't to me) this program does a good job, and, in addition, you get a robust (if inexpensive) program that includes Pinnacle's titling program (very good), good set of FX (Studio 7), excellent capture/print to tape functionality (perhaps the best in the prosumer software lineup), and (again, if it's important to you) the ability to line up endless rendered avi's (no 4gb limitation) on a timeline for print to tape.

Until I purchased VV, I was a big fan of Pinnacle's 'Studio' products. Still have great respect for them.

For me, though, Vegas just feels more professional, more flexible, added capabilities (unlimited audio/video tracks, for instance) than Studio.

Hope this response is useful to you.

Caruso

By the way, I just captured some new footage this morning using Vidcap2.5. First time I had captured using this version on footage actually shot on the DV Cam (not dubbed and not analog). Scenes were detected just fine . . . actually makes more sense to detect via time code than via contrast of video content (that's how Pinnacle does it).

Works fine.

I love VV.

Caruso

Scenalyzer also works great for stills...another feature I like (haven't tried yet) is the print to tape using multiple rendered avi's...this helps me a great deal since my drive is not NTFS formatted...a forty minute video is surely greater than 4 gigs...so I edit my video in sections (which are less than 4 gigs) and then I can put them in the order I want in Scenalyzer and print to tape...plus I can rearrange the order of the avi's...it's very flexible...