Some basics on simple (!) capturing, please!!

[Joan O'Hear]

I think I want to do a (relatively) simple thing...
Have a Panasonic DV Palmcorder, PYRO 1394 FireWire card, and a P4 at 2.53GHz w/ an 80GBHD and 1GB memory. I'm using ULead 6 SE that came with my FireWire card.

I'm not trying for an Oscar here, but I am recording things for posterity and would like a better result than I seem to be getting. (I know I have shooting shortcomings, and am working on that too.)

I want to
a) save 10-20 second clips and send out decent files via email (so must be a small size).
b) save compilations of these clips to CD to be played back on PCs.

Am I right in transferring from my Palmcorder in MPEG-2, then saving the email clips as MPEG-1, and the CD clips as MPEG-2?
Even at MPEG-1, a small clip was pretty big.

So...
1. Are the formats I'm trying appropriate? Are there better options?
2. Are there settings I can play with to improve size and/or quality. I realize the two are at odds with each other...it's just that there are so many options -- I don't know that I'm wasting my time with one thing that may only be making a marginal improvement.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Many thanks!

[rsquirell]

You could make it a little smaller by processing as a DVD to get the VIDEO_TS files to take to DVDShrink (freeware found on this site).

[Joan O'Hear]

But that means I need to ultimately burn it to a DVD, no? I have a burner, but some of the people who will be getting it don't have a player. I was sticking to CD to keep the lowest common denominator.

Am I wrong...when you save for optimal DVD playback, isn't it not suitable for CD playback?


(Mind you, I'm an experienced computer professional, and can do anything with images of any format and know without thinking what formats to start/end with there and why...that's what makes this so frustrating for me!)

[rsquirell]

No...you don't have to burn a DVD...take it through the process all the way to where it asks to to burn and you cancel out...meanwhile it's built a Video1 folder which contains the Video_TS folder contianing the IFO file which you import into DVDShrink. You then can open VS6SE...select the VCD or SVCD template...feed the VOB's which actually contain the video (starting with VTS_01_1) into the storyboard and create your CD.

[Joan O'Hear]

So, wither way, am I correct doing my initial capture from the camera using an MPEG-2 template?

What you're describing is a process I could do after my editing, correct? Go through the process of writing my project to a DVD, cancel...then as you describe?

Does it make a substantial difference from capturing as MPEG-2 then saving as MPEG-1, for those I want to be able to email? Or does it not help that scenario?

[rsquirell]

If you don't use the MPEG2 template your DV capture will be AVI and 4 times as large. After the capture tab is the storyboard tab where you load your capture into the storyboard window and edit, then there's effects tab to add transitions, the titles tab to create a title, overlay tab to make a video-in-video, finally you get to finish tab...click the DVD circle..a couple of minutes after it creates the MPEG2 another box pops up for the burning engine...click next all the way through the different screens and have it prep the DVD and build the Video1 folder...it'll take about 10 minutes...but then, when another box pops up with "Burn" and "OK" click "OK" and close out.

[rsquirell]

With EMail you have MB limit for attachments...just edit a short vid for that...and make it a MPEG1.

[megamachine]

In addition to the excellent suggestions above, you might want to consider using something like Video Studio (I have version 6), which lets you take an MPG 1 or 2 and render it into any number of formats at different levels of quality, which seems necessary for sending clips in email. With the 3MB, or even 1MB, limit in mind, you might get more time using WMVs or RAMs rather than MPGs. There are a lot of options for different qualities, so you can experiment and try to achieve the balance you need between file size and clip quality. That's for email, and then you can burn the original MPGs to a CD for later use. There's probably other ways.