Trying to create a miniDV -> VideoStudio workflow, help!

[firstkickatthecat]

Hi everyone,

I've been using VideoStudio for several years and been very happy with it. I'm trying to work with video shot on a Sony professional quality DV cam and I am having a heck of a time coming up with a workflow that doesn't exceed the processing power of my PC. Here is what I have done ...

1. I shot these music videos in standard definition 16:9 widescreen to miniDV. Audio track 1 is from the engineer's sound board, audio track 2 is from the camera mounted shotgun mic. The video and audio turned out really well and I want to preserve as much of the audio/video quality as I can.

2. I captured video from the camera using firewire and a Mac Mini directly into iMovie. Again, the capture went really well, excellent quality. (The Mac Mini is old, only has an 80Gb hard drive, cannot install anything newer than MacOS X 10.4, and it is borrowed, so editing on the Mac itself isn't going to happen.)

3. I export the DV video into an H.264 .mov file. One hour of video works out to about 10Gb. Again, the audio and video quality is great.

4. I copy the H.264 .mov file to my PC via shared folders.

5. I import the H.264 .mov into VideoStudio, and now the problems start. While I can edit the video, preview playback and rendering is impossibly slow.

Questions:
1. Can anyone recommend a better codec or format to export to on the Mac Mini? Something that VideoStudio will work with that isn't such a resource hog?

2. Am I doing something really dumb, perhaps misunderstanding something that is causing my problem?

If any of you folks can share your experience, it is very much appreciated.

Mike in Ottawa

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Mike

Mini DV type Camcorders produce DV-Avi files at 13 Gb per hour.
I’m assuming you are using this type of camera, with Mini DV Tapes.

Capturing from such is similar to transferring the data, there is no recoding of the video, what you have in camera is what you get, DV-Avi.
These are probably the best and easiest types to edit using Video Studio

I do not understand why you converted the files to H.264??????

Read my guide to DV-Avi from the link below, explains the workflow I use.

[GuyL]

Take the captured file off the MAC in its native format (DV) and use that to edit. Don't export it to another format, keep the native format to edit. Export the finished product to whatever format you want in the end.

[Ken Berry]

The only problem with that is that Video Studio does not recognise the .dv format. I know -- I've tried. Nor does simply changing the extension from .dv to .avi work. In fact, if you have captured on a Mac, you have to follow's the OP's workflow. And the problem there is that VS doesn't like the .mov extension very much either!

I would recommend instead recapturing completely with VS in DV/AVI format, and taking it from there.

[firstkickatthecat]

I tried to import .dv into VideoStudio and no-go, which is why I started trying other things. VideoStudio won't even see the .dv files until you try to import with an "all file types" filter. Then, if you select the .dv file, it says the format is invalid.

I ended up in H.264 because of my inexperience with codecs .... it was the one that seemed to preserve the quality of the original the best.

It is starting to look like if VideoStudio doesn't like .dv, I had better start looking for a Mac.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Mike in Ottawa

[GuyL]

Thanks for clarifying, Ken. I did not know that capturing DV on a Mac was not transferrable to a PC. Your learn something new everyday.

[Ken Berry]

firstkickthecat: VS LOVES DV -- it just doesn't like it as .dv...! You could equally do as suggest and capture it as .avi (dv) on a PC... Since you intended to edit on a PC, I cannot see why you would be unwilling to capture on one...

[firstkickatthecat]

firstkickthecat: VS LOVES DV -- it just doesn't like it as .dv...! You could equally do as suggest and capture it as .avi (dv) on a PC... Since you intended to edit on a PC, I cannot see why you would be unwilling to capture on one...

I have always edited on a PC and my HDD camcorder that records into MPEG and loads files onto my PC has worked beautifully for several years. For this project, I was able to use a prosumer grade Sony camcorder that requires firewire, and that is where the problems start. I have had nothing but problems using DV cameras with firewire. I tried to capture from a consumer grade camera once using firewire and it was nothing but a hassle with drivers and software and in the end, I got a friend to capture it on a Mac. For this project I decided to skip the hassle stage and used a Mac Mini to capture the DV. My reaction was, wow. On the Mac you just plug it in and it .... works!

While I am sure there are PCs out there that capture .dv fine, mine has just never been one of them and I don't want to be constantly fighting with it. While I am sure VideoStudio "loves" .dv, the workaround to get it to do this trick has never been apparent to me.

I have bought 3 versions of VideoStudio, one from ULead and two from Corel and have made over 100 quality movies for my website and will always use it with my MPEG file based camcorder. No that I have access to a really good camera, I am opting to take the path of least resistance. My brother in law gave me a second hand copy of Final Cut Express last night, it installed perfectly and I was able to adjust the audio mix and perform some color correction right away. For $20.00 I can get the MPEG codec from Apple and transcode all of my MPEG videos as well for use on the Mac.

I hate to say it, but the world of video editing on Mac is pulling hard ....

MT

[Ken Berry]

Sorry you have experienced problems with DV on a PC. If the PC comes with a Firewire port or card, and you have a firewire cable, then normally everything is absolutely straightforward as Windows itself installs the necessary driver/codec. Windows Movie Maker itself uses it, you see...