Capturing and Burning Software

[blplhp]

TDK1044

In one of your responses in a recent thread (#15084), you wrote,

You're wise to use VS that way. I've found that the best way to use VS is to edit and render with it, but to capture and burn using dedicated software.

Currently, I am using VS10+ to capture, edit, render, DVD author and burn. I just recently bought and installed DVD MF5+ and intend to use it now for DVD authoring and burning instead of VS10+, but still intend to use VS10+ for capturing, editing and rendering.

Your quote intrigued me, however, about using dedicated software for capturing. Does VS10+ not do a good job in accurately capturing DV_AVI from a camcorder and transferring to the computer? What capturing software do you use or would you recommend that costs a reasonable amount of money? Also, what software do you use for DVD authoring and burning?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[TDK1044]

DVD MF5+ is excellent for DVD authoring and burning. As for capturing, I'm really set up for analogue capture using the ADS DVD XPRESS DX2 device. I'm one of those people who have had no problems with capturing and editing MPEG2 footage, and the DX2 is an excellent box that does all the hard encoding work for the PC and therefore the captured end result is very good quality MPEG2 NTSC DVD pictures with LPCM audio. The only problem I had with MPEG2 picture quality initially was if I rendered the same MPEG file multiple times a slight softening was noticable, until I discovered (with the help of JC Hunter) that disabling 'perform non square pixel rendering' solved that problem and allowed up to 5 renders of the same MPEG file with no quality loss. Obviously, I enable 'perform non square pixel rendering' for the final render to create the completed MPEG2 video file.

I think VS10+ will capture and render DV-AVI files with no problem, Brian. In my posting, I think I was making the point that Video Studio has always primarily been an editing tool rather than a capture and burn tool.

Regards,

Terry

[Ken Berry]

I would have to agree with Terry that VS in its various versions is quite good at capturing, and indeed I use it almost exclusively to capture my DV footage in that same format. Sometimes, though, I have used WinDV, a small freeware program dedicated only to capturing DV and exporting it back to camera in the same format. While VS can, in some circumstances, drop frames, WinDV appears almost always to avoid dropped frames.

My main complaint about using VS for capturing, however, remains as it was when I started out with VS7. And in fact it has nothing to do with capture quality at all. It is the to me silly insistence of Ulead on its own weird naming conventions for captured files. I understand the logicality of it (at least to the Ulead designers). But to me there was not, nor does there remain, any excuse for not giving the user the choice of his/her own name for files right from the beginning of capture. Instead, one has to jump through hoops to change file names after the capture is well and truly over. WinDV allows you to establish your own naming convention...

[blplhp]

Terry and Ken,

Thanks for the advice. So far, I have captured 4 projects worth of 60 minute DV_AVI footage off of my DV camcorder with VS10+, and have not had a single dropped frame (knock on wood). The video quality looks very good, in fact, I can't see much of a difference between the original source footage and the captured files. So I'm satisfied for now using VS10+ for capturing. I agree with Ken that their file naming structure and inability to let the user preset the file names before the capture is very frustrating.

I look forward to using DVD MF5+ for authoring and burning. I'm hoping, and it sounds like from other users' comments, that DVD MF5+ will allow me to have more authoring edit capabilities than VS10+.

Thanks.

[jchunter]

I consistently get great results, in Video Studio 9 and 10+, in all phases of video editing, with every format of video that is in the camcorder mainstream. Capturing, Editing, Creating video files, Burning, all work for me first time, every time, for DV and mpeg2 standard and high definition, jpeg and bmp stills, etc. etc. Smart-rendering reduces re-encoding losses and speeds up creation of video files.

Moreover, VS 10+ does a good job of creating video files using the newer highly compressed formats such as Divx, Xvid. The ones that don't work well are due to bugs in the codecs e.g., WMF HD, Mpeg4 HD, H.264.

I can only credit my consistent success to meticulous property management at every phase of the process, along with a lot of bug fixing over the years by Ulead.

IMO, if you "mix and match" editing software, you are asking for trouble because, when things go wrong, it is difficult to determine which program is at fault. You have to deal with multiple Tech Support groups, who like to engage in finger pointing.

[andrewt]

I consistently get great results, in Video Studio 9 and 10+, in all phases of video editing, with every format of video that is in the camcorder mainstream. Capturing, Editing, Creating video files, Burning, all work for me first time, every time, for DV and mpeg2 standard and high definition, jpeg and bmp stills, etc. etc. Smart-rendering reduces re-encoding losses and speeds up creation of video files.
.

I totally agree with you John

I use Video Studio from capture to burning a dvd with no problems.
Yes I can use other software to improve the content, more menu's for example, but the quality I get from VS is excellent.

Trevor Andrew

[sj1805]

The problem with the world of computing is that not everything is standard.
Things are manufactured by a variety of hardware manufacturers and software engineers.

Go back in time and you will find that in the early days of consumer computers you had things like
Commodore 64
Dragon 32
Spectrum 48

And many many more. They all had their own programming language.
Machine code instructions (all those ones and zeros meaning on/off) varied from one machine to another. You couldnt write a program on a spectrum and get it to run on a Commodore 64 and so on.

Computer peripherals - things like printers, tape decks - floppy drives when they finally arrived, would only fit one machine. Your Commodore 64 Floppy Drive would not fit a Dragon 32.

Along came this fellow named Bill Gates who invented the Windows Operating System. It was very popular with consumers and was taken on board by the computer industry as a sort of standard. Newly built Computers had to conform to various specifications so that the new Windows Operating system could run.

Now we began to see hardware being built that could fit more than one make of machine. If you bought a printer it would now fit your Packard Bell or your Dell or whatever you happened to buy.

There was and still is another serious contender - the Apple Mackintosh.
However Windows took 90% of the Market and the Mac the other 10%.
In recent years another contender has appeared - Linux.
Linux comes along in a number of flavours
Red Hat
Mandrake
Suse
and a number of others.

Anyway we are getting off subject.
To bring us back to the original comments about capturing with one software and editing with another etc.

Some users have no problems doing everything start to end using one application such as VideoStudio or MediaStudio etc.

Others do not enjoy this luxury because even though everything Windows Based is now supposed to conform to set standards, things are still built by different hardware manufacturers.

Take for example a Hauppauge TV Card. Has anyone yet been able to get a Hauppauge TV card to work with VideoStudio 10?
There wasnt a problem with Version 9.

There is a classic example of having to use different software to capture should you wish to use VideoStudio 10 to do your editing.

Sorry guys but just because it works for you does not always imply it will work for everyone. I have advised before and repeat that advice
use whatever software you have available to you. There is no need to stick rigidly to one product. All pieces of software have strong and weak points.

Another example is audio editing. I tend to export my audio track, edit it with Audacity and then re-import the audio.

[blplhp]

Thanks for everyone's opinion and advice.

I think I will use VS10+ for its strength in capturing/editing and will use DVD MF5+ for its strength in DVD authoring and burning. At least, these two software programs are from the same manufacturer and compliment each other.

Thanks.