I'm trying to capture DV from my camcorder to the PC. I've attached the camcorder to the PC's USB jack. But the PC won't capture. I've tried this with 5 different capturing programs (Ulead's VideoStudio, Nero, Windows Movie Maker, TPMG, DVlab). When I click capture, the camcorder video appears in the software's window. But it captures nothing. Would Firewire do a better job?
PFloyd, I did start downloading videos from my camcorder using Firewire. All the software started working and the picture quality looks better. I tried using Windows Movie Maker but it only makes WPM files (or Windows Media Files). I couldn't find a way to make MPEG or AVI files. Next, I tried (and am still using) Ulead VideoStudio 2 trial. It downloads into MPEG files which is OK. I can't seem to download into AVI files with this software. What is the video file format that is best for highest picture quality (size is no problem) -- AVI or MPEG or something else?
How can I combine (or link) 54 avi files to make one large avi file? create one AVI file from 54 AVI files? When I captured from a 90 minute DV tape, WinDV created 54 avi files (totalling 13GB). The size is rather large but it is OK. When I captured from the same 90-minute DV tape, Ulead's VideoStudio produced one MPEG file (totalling 4 GB). The purpose of downloading all these tapes onto a hard-drive is so I can safety store them in a hard-drive format with possible future use (editing & authoring a DVD). Would it be easier to edit and author a DVD from many (54) smaller avi files or from one big avi file (13GB total)?
Capturing as on .avi file is what you want to do. You have to tell WinDV not to break it into a separate .avi file at each point where you stopped video taping, and started again.
How do I tell WinDV not to break up the captured video into many avi files? The WinDV interface looks very simple. Does the "Config" button allow me to do this? How?
