analog to digital

[timwerx]

I bought a wonderful (but expensive) little black box made by Canopus which converts analog video and audio to digital. The PC "sees" it as digital video, captures it as such (pure DV with no compression or the waiting that goes with it). After that, I can play with, edit, tweak, burn to DVD, whatever.

Works great.

[timwerx]

Sorry, I meant this to be a reply to anyone asking about getting video from tape into their PC or onto disk. Don't know how it ended up here.

[L-R-C]

Actually you are ahead of me. I'm really new at this and trying to be ahead of the game as much as possible before my computer arrives so that I can convert my vhs into dv. I am in fact looking for an external capture device not included in the dell system I ordered. Thanks.

[L-R-C]

From what I read so far, I'm a little intimidated by the amount of problems that come up with digital video. Are these the exception or the rule? Am I "threading" in dangerous waters? What can I do to or where can I look to minimize the problems that come up? Any heads up is welcomed.

[timwerx]

Not Dangerous....

Certainly not dangerous. Maybe expensive, probably aggravating at times, but not dangerous. I think the most important thing is patience. Don't set "deadlines" for yourself. Don't sit down to the PC expecting to turn out a perfect masterpiece on the first try... or the second. I've been doing this for a little over a year now, and still continue to learn new, interesting, and helpful tidbits.

Since you have access to forums like this and online tutorials, etc., you can learn by doing (and stumbling) and eventually come up with a way that suits yours needs.

Take it a step at a time.

Anyway, first, you want to get the best quality video into your PC. For that, I think a separate analog-to-digital converter works the best, and not a "capture card." High-quality digital video (DV-AVI) in your machine will be easier to work with and give you the most options for use later on: save on PC, put on the web, send to people, put on videotape, or make a DVD.

The drawback here is that you'll need LOTS of hard disk space, because one hour of pure DV takes up around 12 GB of space. I recommend (as many others) an extra, external hard drive which is dedicated to video work, of at least 120 GB.

Then you'll want to make sure your connection can handle the high bitrate for capture, which means an IEEE 1394 ("firewire") connection, or one using a USB 2 port.

Once you have the above, and are successfully importing raw, high-quality video into your PC, you can tackle the next step, which will probably be editing.

If you don't have the space for raw DV, and/or want to start "playing" with digital video sooner, you might want to get familiar with Windows Movie Maker, which is on your PC (if you have XP). Many of the "old hands" will scoff, but WMM does a good job when working with short movie clips and video that needs high compression for the Internet while retaining good quality. Anyway, experimentation can teach you a lot. When you capture, use the "high quality for local playback 2.1 Mbps NTSC" setting. There are those that say its quality matches full DV while only taking up 1/15 the space. If you are interested in using Windows Movie Maker, the best online tutorial I've found is here:

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/wmm2.asp

Movie Maker is a good tool to learn digital video editing on, I think. Since it's built for XP, you won't have many of the incompatibility problems and crashes that other programs can cause. Then, when you realize its limitations, you can move onward and upward to newer challenges, headaches, and fun.

Best wishes.