Is there a size limit on usb/firewire external hard drives? also what setting to capture minidv video at?

[niwi7]

I have 2 hard drives already in my computer and just got a digital movie camera


those videos take up alot of space (187 mb per minute if u do the super high quality setting...)

im looking to get an external hard drive (with ports for usb 2.0 AND firewire bc i dont know which 1 i wanna use rite now...)

i know theres some kind of limitation with windows xp where u cant get an internal hdd higher than like 137gb w/o changing some hard setting or something

is there a size limitation on external drives?

also...if anyone knows about minidv cameras....what bitrate/fps/resolution should i capture at? there are like 20 differnet settings and i dont know which one to choose...my ultimate goal is to covert to mpeg and burn back to a dvd-r

 

[Utterman]

Windows XP without SP1 is limited by the 137 gig max harddrive/partition size. Once SP1 has been applied to XP, it is capable of reading at a higher limit.

 

[oldfart]

For DV capture, you should capture in the native DV full quality format. This is ~ 13 Gig for 1 Hr. The file is an AVI using a DV codec. This gets you best capture quality, and easy editing since you are in AVI format still, and a good file size. From there, you encode to MPEG/DVD or whatever you want the final format to be.

 

[tiap]

I have heard of a lot of problems using externals especially usb. I use 120gig wd se. I have 3 set up as master and a dvd burner as a master., using an additional promise controller. No problems at all. Go to dvdrhelp.com and read your brains out. Place is full of video gurus.

 

[niwi7]

thanks...alot

what program do most people use for capturing/editing/making movies for video

im using windows movie maker 2 right now

and the settings that looks the best quality to me are like

High Quality Video (NTSC) which is Variable Bitrate, 720x480 FPS 30, WMV Format
High Quality Video (Large) which is Variable Bitrate, 640x480, FPS 30, WMV Format
DV-AVI (NTSC) which is 25 MBPS Bitrate, 720x480, FPS 30, AVI Format and this 1 takes up 178mb per minute (the other ones take less)


so i guess DV-AVI is the true dv high quality one..correct?

 

[tiap]

I use 720x480 mpeg2 (dvd quality) You have to convert it to this for dvd recording. It takes a long time to renencode so only do it once. This topic is not easy for the beginner. Many many variables to consider.
GO TO dvdrhelp.com The experts are there with beginners tutorials, forums guides etc. I read for probably 60 hours before I started to really get a grip on this. They suggest programs, hardware, media etc.

 

[Ionizer86]

I capture using virtualdub and the huffyuv codec (I think it comes out to 16GB per 2 hrs). Then I take TMPGenc and create DVD compatible mpegs and author/burn them with Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2.

For res, I use 352x240 (IIRC) since I'm only capturing from an analog Svid source, and I set the bit rate to 3000 for vid and 96 for sound. It comes out almost as good as the Hi8 tapes that I've converted.

 

[oldfart]

Well, it depends on what you are trying to do, WMV is Windows Media Video. Are you trying to make a movie to play in Windows Media player?

What is the final format of the video you are going to make? WMV, DVD, (S)VCD, MPEG/1/2...etc...etc. There is no single answer. I always capture as Full DV quality, then convert to whatever I need afterwards. For me, that is normally DVD and sometimes WMV.

I never tried Windows movie maker. I guess that explains the WMV format setting. I use Pinnacle Studio 8. DV-> AVI seems like the right one I guess.

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
I capture using virtualdub and the huffyuv codec (I think it comes out to 16GB per 2 hrs). Then I take TMPGenc and create DVD compatible mpegs and author/burn them with Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2.

For res, I use 352x240 (IIRC) since I'm only capturing from an analog Svid source, and I set the bit rate to 3000 for vid and 96 for sound. It comes out almost as good as the Hi8 tapes that I've converted.

That doesn't apply to DV capture.

 

[niwi7]

thanks alot

my main goal is to burn it back to a dvd

so what do you reccomend?

 

[oldfart]

I would have to install that program and see how it works. Are you going to do any editing of the video before you make a DVD? Can it convert the captured file to MPEG2 or directly to DVD?

 

[niwi7]

the windows movie maker is pretty basic and just lets u edit it etc and then save it as an avi or wmv

yes..i would want to edit the video before just converting it sometimes
whats a good program that does everything i need to do in 1 program?

right now how i see it is taht i would hafta capture the movie in windows movie maker 2 (best quality dv to avi) then use TMPGENC with the dvd mpeg2 settings from dvdhelp.com or whatever that site is...and then follow the guide to burn it to a dvd

so is there a program that does all this in the same program?

 

[niwi7]

bump for all in 1 prggy lol

 

[oldfart]

Pinnacle Studio 8

 

[niwi7]

thanks!
i downloaded the trail version to test her out


when im capturing it says u can capture at
DV Full Quality
or
MPEG Full Quality

what are the differences? is one of them better quality than the other? which format do i need to burn to dvd?

 

[oldfart]

Full DV quality is an AVI file with a DV codec. To edit (well), the file needs to be an AVI. Editing an MPEG file can cause problems. You edit the AVI file, ad chapters, menus and such, then render to DVD.

Do you want to just capture and make a DVD or do anything with it before you burn it?