I thought I remembered the ability to capture video from a DV camcorder using Firewire in Vegas Pro 19 (different than screen capture). But in my current copy of Vegas Pro 20, I don't see the option (even in preferences). Was this completely removed in 20?
Here's my recommendation. It's free now too!
Thanks "jetdv". I'd forgotten about Scenalyzer. I was playing around with WinDV and it seemed to be working.
Question 1: I'm assuming that these all capture to AVI uncompressed. Right? So would there be any A/V quality difference between...say.....Vegas Capture, Scenalyzer or WinDV ?
Question 2: Did VP19 have Vegas DV Capture? I swear it did.
Thanks for your help.
Uncompressed is 250 Mbps. A Firewire capture utility captures the DV-AVI stream, which is 25Mbps, so the compression ratio is 10:1.
Short answer: Yes, all the Firewire utilities (including VirtualDub) capture exactly the same thing. The DV capture utility went away in Vegas 20.
VEGAS removed DV capture, as it is obsolete. Can't even get a computer with firewire anymore, and there are free tools that offer to do it, so no need to bloat VEGAS with features only a tiny percentage of users even have use for.
If you had VP 19 and want to use it again you can download it and the serial number from your account and reinstall it. I have 19-21 installed side by side here.
@fr0sty and folks:
Well, I have a lot of great firewire gear (for instance: High Resolution Slide Scanner). But this simple job requires converting old 8MM tapes. New Computer? This is my solution and it works great with the right software. For that I'll probably just use one of my older versions of VMS or VP. I certainly don't need the features of VP 20 or 21 for a basic transfer that I can do with Handbrake or possibly ffmpeg for everything. But easy is better/time is money.
My "solution" is a set-top DVD-RAM recorder (Panasonic, Magnavox).
Advantages: Built in hardware noise reduction, which is better detail (jmo) than DV capture + NeatVideo, already in MPEG-2 format (smaller file size).
Disadvantages: Physical media (DVD-ROM or -RAM), net Chroma Subsampling 4:1:0 rather than 4:1:1, you have to go to Goodwill to find a working unit or spend a lot of money.
P.S. I like your Full Wave Bridge avatar.
4:1:0? I know Mini DV is 4:1:1 (which explains its terrible color), but I've never heard of nor can I find any evidence that 4:1:0 even exists.
4:2:0 (NTSC DVD) + 4:1:1 = 4:1:0
It's slightly destructive to the reds, as if it wasn't so already.
PAL DVD is actually better in chroma subsampling and vertical resolution.
It's slightly destructive to the reds, as if it wasn't so already. PAL DVD is actually better in chroma subsampling and vertical resolution.
Probably one of the main reasons in during the 1970s/80s that the initialisation of NTSC being sometimes sarcastically given as meaning "Never Twice the Same Color".
Question 1: I'm assuming that these all capture to AVI uncompressed. Right? So would there be any A/V quality difference between...say.....Vegas Capture, Scenalyzer or WinDV ?
@MMiles NO. They capture to DV-AVI (which is much smaller than "uncompressed"). It will be about 13Gig per hour.
All three should capture the exact same file. It's basically just copying the data from the tape to the hard drive.
I really like the simplicity of Scenalyzer. We used it for years at our church until we started capturing HD as it was easy for everyone to understand how to use.
"Capture" in DV is a bit misleading. A DV file is compressed as it is recorded in the camera. When you use firewire with a DV camera, you are basically copying the file with error correction and proper information to make it a computer video file. It is considered Uncompressed because nothing has changed from the camera information (other than error corrections). Vegas and many other apps were able to render without recompressing as long as no changes were made (titles, etc) to the video. Firewire was one of the early hardware solutions to handle transferring video at the high bitrates needed for real time.