Video capture settings

[TheStig]

Well this is a question for anybody really, but what video captureing settings do you use when you upload your video from your camera to your computer? The reason I ask is that when I record my video to the compy, it takes up about 20 gigabites for 60 minutes of tape and it eating all my memory (160GB when new, now about 55). Also, when you create the video, I tend to get about 900mb-1.5gb for a 2 minute video at the highest playback quality, but if I use the second highest quality setting I get videos around 80-90mb but they are annoyingly fuzzy and look bad. So, what are some settings I could use to record and porduce videos without taking up all my memory? Oh I use Pinnacle 9 in case you needed to know. Thanks!

 

Colin C

[Wes]

Video takes up a lot of memory, there's no way around that. The best thing to do is to only capture the clips you know you are going to use instead of just importing an entire tape. Or invest in a large external hard drive(s).

[CoasterFanatic]

^ Pretty much what he said.

 

I capture at "full-frame" and it takes about a Gig for every four-minutes.

[TheStig]

^ and^^ Okay, I can deal with having it take up a lot of memory when I record the video, but when I create the video the file is HUGE. I mean CEV6 has something like 20 videos or so on it and it's only about 5gb and its the same quality I get with a 900mb video! I dunno, but it just isnt making sence that one video of the same quality is 10x bigger than another video.

 

Colin C

[Wes]

^ When you make a DVD, the videos on the DVD are recompressed to MPEG2 format (.m2v), which takes up less space that the uncompressed file that you get out of Pinnacle.

[SLUSHIE]

take the output from pinnacle and encode it with xvid or some other compressing program. It should save you some space.

[robbalvey]

Before I compress CEV6 onto a DVD, the DV AVI files on my computer take up about 15 gigs.

 

--Robb

[jarmor]

I film on a digital camcorder and for 90 minutes it will cost me 4 gigs! And my videos are pretty awesome when it comes to quality!

[Jeezus Juice]

After you edit export your clip back to DV tape and wipe all that useless raw footage off of your hard drive.

 

Then just recapture all your edited footage when your ready to render your disc.

 

At least thats what I do, raw video takes up helly room.

 

-=Don

[Dr Freeze]

I import with Adobe Premiere and use the regular DV AVI import settings and I get 5 minutes/1gb. So it takes me about 12-13 gigs for 60 minutes. 20gb for 60 minutes seems a bit high. Unforunately I can't offer much more help. I've never looked into much of the import settings.

 

My main advice is keep an eye out at Circuit City, Office Max, and Office Depot on their sunday ads. I've gotten some great deals! If you end up paying .25 cents per gig, than its a steal in my opinion, so I'll automitically buy one if I see a rebate that good. I got a 200gb for $50 after rebates a couple months back. Even if you pay .50 cents per gig, its not that bad. My first hard drive was a 120gb I got for $60. So currently I'm running 5 hard drives: 300gb, 200gb, 160gb, 120gb, and 40gb. So yea, 820gb of space - not far from a terabyte. Also, I would go with Western Digital. I would not advise Maxtor - I've had to replace 2 of the Maxtors I've had.

[TheStig]

^ Yeah I was looking at getting an extra HD and that's most likely what I'll do. I did go to the apple store about a month ago and they were selling 1TB HD's for somewhere around $900 bucks. I run Windows, but I think something around 500 bucks for a TB is a little more reasonable. I think I'll look into getting some more HD space...

 

Colin"BTW, Serinity was awsome. Nice sig"C