Best Capture Setting for HDV Camcorder in UVS 11?

robgold · Post by **robgold** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:46 am

Hi, I am a newbie and have a question about the best setting for capturing video from my Sony HDR-HC3 in order to make a DVD. I am using VS11 Plus on a Windows Vista computer. I read in this forum that it is best to capture the video into VS in the .avi (dv) format and then save it as an .mpg2 file after editing but before burning. However, with my camera set to output the video in its native format, VS only lets me capture the video as an .mpg file. I then changed my camera's output setting to downconvert the output from HDV to dv and VS let me capture it as an .avi file.

I guess my question is, will I get better DVD quality if I set the camcorder to output the video without converting to dv and let VS capture it as an .mpg file, or should I set the camcorder to convert from HDV to dv, capture the video as an .avi file and then convert the file to .mpg2 after editing? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:52 am

The least steps in rendering the better.

if your final output is mpeg2 and your native capture is mpeg2.... then the answer is simple.

Someone else can answer about High Definition capturing and output project settings

ocular · Post by **ocular** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:07 am

Glad you can get your Ulead VS 11 to capture from HC3. I can't - get message

"Unable to switch to capture mode. Check if your video capture driver is working properly 15023:4:2". The Capture Video icon is greyed out but the Sony HDV Device is recognised and I can control the camera with the play buttons from VS 11+. WinXP SP2 Intel 3.0 1 GB ram previously had VS 10+ installed.

But getting back to your question. It is best to allow the HC3 to downconvert - turn the Ilink on via the camera menu. With VS 10+ and presumably VS11+ you can dapture the DV camera output directly as DVD compliant MPEG2. Set the Capture options to 760x560 (PAL) lower frame 9500Mbps (Maybe too high a bitrate for some DVD players) 16:9 and then you can capture on the fly and then use the mpeg2 in your DVD author program or VS. Setting this up to capture as mpeg2 has nothing to do with the project settings. This is much faster than rendering Raw HC3 HD MPEG2 to DVD compliant MPEG or capturing as avi. My observation is that the DVD produced from the direct capture is as good as if not better than rendering HD MPEG , but it is only SD.

robgold · Post by **robgold** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:52 pm

Thanks for the advice. I am still a little confused though. According to the "suggested workflow by SJJ1805" thread, it is best to capture in a lossless format such as .avi and then save video as an mpg2 file after editing. Your advice about having the HC3 downconvert the HDV video to a dv file makes sense, but wouldn't I be better off capturing the video into VS as an avi file as SJJ1805 suggests and then save the video as an mpg2 file after editing (but before burning)? I am just trying to reconcile your suggestion with that of SJJ1805's recommended workflow. What are your thoughts?

By the way, I had a lot of difficulty capturing from the HC3 into VS until I changed my computer's video driver to a prior version. Just a thought.

ocular wrote:Glad you can get your Ulead VS 11 to capture from HC3. I can't - get message

"Unable to switch to capture mode. Check if your video capture driver is working properly 15023:4:2". The Capture Video icon is greyed out but the Sony HDV Device is recognised and I can control the camera with the play buttons from VS 11+. WinXP SP2 Intel 3.0 1 GB ram previously had VS 10+ installed.

But getting back to your question. It is best to allow the HC3 to downconvert - turn the Ilink on via the camera menu. With VS 10+ and presumably VS11+ you can dapture the DV camera output directly as DVD compliant MPEG2. Set the Capture options to 760x560 (PAL) lower frame 9500Mbps (Maybe too high a bitrate for some DVD players) 16:9 and then you can capture on the fly and then use the mpeg2 in your DVD author program or VS. Setting this up to capture as mpeg2 has nothing to do with the project settings. This is much faster than rendering Raw HC3 HD MPEG2 to DVD compliant MPEG or capturing as avi. My observation is that the DVD produced from the direct capture is as good as if not better than rendering HD MPEG , but it is only SD.

ocular · Post by **ocular** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:04 am

My workflow HC3-->ILink downconvert on-->DV--> Videostudio captures as DVD compliant MPEG2--> editing MPEG2--> remux MPEG2 via VideoReDo-->DVD Author.

I can't comment on the technical aspects of this but it works. And it is relatively fast of getting HD MPEG onto a DVD for viewing in a DVD player. I believe that editing in MPEG2 is not ideal but VS should handle this as this has to be done when dealing with the raw HD MPEG2 captured from the HC3. I make sure that I always run the edited MPEG video thru VideoRedo which seems to fix up any audio sync problems before authoring.

SJJ1805 comments welcome.

ocular · Post by **ocular** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:01 am

If you are doing significant transitions and editing of MPEG with smart render ( which means only the non compliant video will be reencoded) then there is a bug that has been around for a long time but only recently has been documented and sent to Corel for technical support.

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... &start=120.

Some argue that it is better to go thru an intermediate codec such as DV to edit before final output to prevent these transition distortions from showing up in the final clip.

robgold · Post by **robgold** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:33 pm

Well I tried it both ways and prefer the quality of the resulting video when I capture as an avi video, although there seems to be very little difference. Thanks to everyone for their assistance.