Is DV and analogue the same when it comes to compression?

[kapa7]

I have been trying to compress my home videos using divx and mpeg1, however the quality is very poor. I have tried every piece of software I can find to capture, edit and compress and the results are always the same.
A friend of mine captured some of my video using his analogue capture card (a fairly cheap one) and the quality (after it was compressed) is far superior. I have a pyro Basic DV fire wire. Does the quality of digital video vary with different fire wires or is analogue better for compression?
Any information is appreciated as I have spent weeks on this problem.

Thanks!!!!

[setarip]

After capturing from, I presume, VHS, as part of your conversion/compression process, you have to deinterlace the resultant file to obtain any decent quality. Your capture should be done at 29.976fps and at as high a resolution as you can obtain without dropping any frames.

[kapa7]

I am capturing from my Canon MV30i camcorder. Frame size 720 x 576, 100% quality and 25 fps (I'm using PAL, not NTSC)

[johnbmx4christ]

i do not have fire wire yet..but..i have a mini dv..and its funny cause i noticed the opposite..i have an analog cap card..i noticed when i use an analog cam it looks totally great and when i use the digital cam it looks like crap.i have seen some friends' vids with thier fire wire and it looks great..so i am looking forward to it.
from what i've seen the digital is supposed to be better for compression.is your friends computer better?did you try the same software your friend had?i use 1 program to cap...a different one to edit ..and another one to compress.usually the best capture software is whatever came with the card.i know you said 100% quality , but is it "uncompressed"?

[kapa7]

Yes, we both used the same capture software and it was uncompressed. I'm waiting for a reply from the manufacturers of the fire wire card, to see if they can enlighten me?

[GuitarDaddy]

Keep in mind: It's the camcorder that is doing the DV Compression - not the firewire card. The card is merely an I/O. Think of your digital camcorder as a A/D converter, and the card gets all the 1s and 0s into your PC.

In the case of a an analogue capture card, IT is doing the A/D conversion within the PC.

So the determining factors are the quality of the convertors. Cheapie digital camcorder = poorer DV. High quality analogue capture card = Great DV. Cheapie old capture card = poor DV. Latest model DV camcorder = Great DV.