Best Codec for capturing DV??

carrspaints wrote on 12/16/2004, 4:11 AM
Hi everyone. Just trying to find out which codec is best to use to capture DV tape to my hard drive? At the moment, it seems I have 2 options available in Vegas 5.0b - "Digital Processing Systems Video Capture Codec", or there is an option in Vegas (under Preferences) to select Microsoft DV codec.

Can anyone advise if any of these 2 are any good? Is there a codec available (prefeably one that doesn't cost a fortune) that will capture my video at best possible quality? Oh - one last thing, if there is another better option available, is there anything specific I need to do with Vegas for it to use that particular codec when capturing. Thanks in advance.

Comments

farss wrote on 12/16/2004, 4:27 AM
Once the camera has recorded the video, that's IT. The codec is the one the camera uses, well assuming you;re going firewire to the PC!

All Vegas's video capture does is make a bit for bit copy of the video recorded on the tape, the choice of codecs only comes into play when you render out, for that it's a no brainer, the Vegas codec is the best there is by a nose. But when you go down multiple generations those noses add up. Also unless you've done something to change the video, again Vegas makes a bit for bit copy so for straight cuts the codec issue is irrelevant.

Hope that's made it clear.

Bob.
Spot|DSE wrote on 12/16/2004, 7:27 AM
If you're using analog input, and need to use the capture utility supplied with the analog card, you'll do best to select the Microsoft DV format. While it's not the best, coming from most analog formats, you'll not notice a difference, and in terms of editing/workflow speed in Vegas, this is the best one you have access to.