Comments

4eyes wrote on 5/30/2007, 9:02 PM
I'd buy a dvd recorder & import the video recorded on the dvd recorder. VMS and many other video editors have this import from dvd feature(s).
Unless your into creatives proprietory devices.
Panasonic & Sony are good ones.
ScottW wrote on 5/31/2007, 6:30 AM
Take a look at the Canopus ADVC 55 or ADVC 110 - good analog to digital converters.

--Scott
owlsroost wrote on 5/31/2007, 9:07 AM
I have the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Video Editor (which is basically the Video Blaster Editor combined with a USB sound card in one box).

Pros: Very good MPEG capture quality, both from DV via the Firewire input and the analogue inputs (it will also encode to MPEG from DV files on the PC). Can encode to DV from the analogue inputs as well.

Cons: It doesn't like capturing from my old VHS-C camcorder (I get colour flashing problems) - it's OK from a VHS deck with a TBC (so it gets a nice, stable input signal). It will only work with the editing software it's bundled with or the Creative 'VidCap' capture application, so no integration with VMS - and VMS isn't the ideal application for editing MPEG files, since it re-encodes everything (no MPEG 'smart-rendering').

Tony
4eyes wrote on 5/31/2007, 8:04 PM
>>>so no integration with VMS - and VMS isn't the ideal application for editing MPEG files, since it
I've wondered about this because it does appear to take longer to render some mpeg videos.
But, if you right-click on the video (on the timeline) there are 3 selections available for re-sampling the video. I took for granted that the choice of automatic was smart-rendering enabled.

I have also noticed that at least on my system VMS does take longer to render. But the renders produce higher quality video compared to my other apps that claim to use smart-render and do render faster. I think maybe VMS is taking longer because it's doing more. Especially with high defintion video files.

If I use HD-Mpeg2 (HDV) as the source and render to a standard defintion file of 2-elementary streams to create a standard dvd the video down conversion is excellent. Others programs I've used don't even come close to the overall quality.

VMS does take a little longer but for me it's worth the wait. I render at night anyway.

owlsroost wrote on 6/2/2007, 2:46 AM
>>>But, if you right-click on the video (on the timeline) there are 3 selections available for re-sampling the video. I took for granted that the choice of automatic was smart-rendering enabled.

No - this controls what happens when the frame rates of clips need to be changed.

VMS (and Vegas) will smart-render DV source to DV output, but nothing else (as far as I know).

Tony
tomas tinyo wrote on 6/7/2007, 1:22 PM
Scott,,,,,

Thanks for the suggestions. I am assuming that all the ADVC models have output compatible with Vegas? I am interested in the ADVC 300 with the 'color restoration' feature.
note: In the key features for models 55 and 110, they specifically list the Vegas application but stops with models 300 and up but mentions that its good with various 'leading' applications.
....with those prices .......I need to make sure and find out if there are any users out there that may comment on this particular model.

thanks again everybody
Chienworks wrote on 6/7/2007, 3:45 PM
The Canopus ADVC devices all offer DV firewire output. Vegas' VidCap program sees these devices just like they were a DV camcorder. Therefore it has no trouble capturing from them.