Comments

rmack350 wrote on 7/21/2003, 8:30 PM
Conversion of DV to MPEG is processor intensive.
Editing of MPEG is processor intensive. You wouldn't be happy editing this.

Vegas is primarily a DV editing system.
Data from a DV camera is simply data dumped onto the PC and wrapped in an AVI file header. It's simple to capture and it's relatively simple to edit.

You might find that the microsoft windows media 9 encoder can do this for you (I don't really know). Generally you either want a hardware encoder or a fast system that you can leave alone as you capture and encode the media.

Might look at an osprey or digital Rapids card perhaps.

Rob Mack
clearvu wrote on 7/21/2003, 9:10 PM
There are other programs out there that do capture directly to mpeg2. For example MYDVD. And while you CAN use these files within Vegas, and unless you have a VERY powerful system, you will find editing slow and awkward. But it still works, I have done so succesfully. I would, however, recommend AVI files.
kameronj wrote on 7/21/2003, 10:15 PM
I do use firewire capture from my digicam (to AVI).

Older VHS Videos that I don't want to transfer to digital tape - I compress directly to MPEG1 via a Dazzle Video Creator product.

The footage is flawless - looks great. Nice and crisp. I have edited without any problems in VV. I have a pretty decent processor (P4 1.6 Ghz, buttload of RAM). Have never had any problems editing with MPEG.

Heck, I have never had problem rendering with MPEG1 or MPEG2 that I converted from other file sources (DIVX, AVI, MOV) using a little converter called "EasyX Video Converter". So I guess I must be one of the lucky ones.

Absolutely no complaints or problems editing with MPEG and VV.
mikkie wrote on 7/22/2003, 8:47 AM
As Rob wrote, it's pretty processor intensive...

Also requires a codec optimized for speed, which generally means a trade off in quality - haven't seen anything MainConcept when it comes to encoding on the fly.

The new pinnacle boxes are supposed to accept analog or DV and output mpg2 - otherwise most of the stuff I've seen takes an analog source, uses mpg2 as an alternative to DV - according to adamwilt.com, quality is about equal at the same bit rates, and if capturing all I frames. In my experience I'd have to agree.

Problem is, capturing at such a high bitrate, and all I frames to boot, you still need to re-encode to have something you can distribute unless you're a cable company, so you're really not saving any time or work. Capturing at your final bitrate to mpg2 is generally much poorer quality then what you get using Vegas, or as some prefer, TMPGEnc.

And, when importing mpg2, still advise at least trying the dvd2avi -> vfapi route.