What is the optimum setting for capturing a PAL video?

KYS · Post by **KYS** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:46 am

Hello,

Can anyone tell me the optimum settings to capture PAL videos from my DV tapes on my PC with regards to Project Settings & Preferences?

Thanks.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:11 am

There are no optimum settings. In a sense, you are not even capturing from the DV tape, merely transferring the video to your computer at the same (high) quality level as is on the tape. The only choice you need to make is whether to capture using Type 1 or Type 2 DV encoder. Type 1 is the more common and causes no problems usually. The video and audio are captured in one stream.

Type 2 is more demanding of computer resources, capturing video and audio in separate streams, though still only in one file. Professional video editors prefer Type 2 as they have the rather expensive programs that can make use of the two separate audio and video streams. And indeed, some programs, work best with type 2 (such as Adobe Premiere Pro); some will *only* work with Type 2.

Video Studio works equally well with both Types, and I have to say I have never noticed any difference in quality between the two types -- most probably because there is no difference.

Users who have computers which are not overly well resourced, however, often find that when using Type 2 encoder, the resulting captured video may be jerky and/or the audio will be broken up. Try out both types and see whether you can notice any difference. But if you have any problem with Type 2, change to Type 1 and the problem will go away.

KYS · Post by **KYS** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:56 am

Hello Ken Berry,

Thanks for the reply. Since I do not want to use seperate streams, I will adopt type 1.

Now, what I wanted to know is, the Project Setting Parameters as well as some settings in Preferences specific to PAL system. Like bit rate and Lower field first, etc.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:32 pm

Again, since you are using DV format, you do the editing in that format. In other words, no changes necessary. So you set the project properties to be 'same as first video' (after using File > Preferences > General > Show Message when inserting first video clip.

Once you are finished editing, though, you have to convert the DV to DVD compatible mpeg-2. So you go to Share > Create Video File, and you either choose one of the set DVD templates (high quality = 8000 kbps = 1 hour of video on a single layer disc) or else use Custom to change this to fit more on the disc (6000 kbps = good quality = approx. 90 minutes; 4000 kbps = average quality = approx. 2 hours. You will fit about 10 or 15 minutes more on a disc for any of these settings if you use Dolby or mpeg layer 2 audio.)

For any DV project, field order is Lower Field First throughout, including in the mpeg-2 settings.

KYS · Post by **KYS** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:16 pm

Thanks Ken Berry.