video camera

joejon wrote on 2/22/2006, 2:21 PM
I've had a Digital8 camera for a long time. When capturing video the files are in .avi. Is that compressed at all? In looking at the mini dv cameras, I'm having trouble finding info about what they record in, is it .avi also or mpeg2? I'm wondering, if it's mpeg, how can the picture quality be better than with .avi? These are probably stupid question to those of you who are up on all of this, but I've learned that it's a good choice to ask in this forum for it's wealth of knowledge. Also, what about the new high definition stuff (of course the lower price range for me)? Does Vegas (v4) handle that and what format is that recorded in? Thanks for any info you can offer.

Comments

Jsnkc wrote on 2/22/2006, 2:28 PM
If you are capturing in Vegas then they are AVI-DV files which are compressed. Capturing from a MiniDV camera will give you the same AVI-DV files in Vegas.
David Jimerson wrote on 2/22/2006, 2:29 PM
MiniDV is bit-for-bit identical with what you've been recording on Digital8. In either case, yes, it's compressed.

It's not actually on tape as .avi -- your NLE puts an .avi wrapper around the DV so it can be used. Mac editing software will put a .mov wrapper around it, but it's still the same info.

Vegas 4 will handle HD resolutions, but it won't capture it.