[Jim]

Have finally dug out my old canon mv850i videocamera from the back of the cupboard, have got some old tapes I'd like to transfer onto the computer to view them and store them for possibly editing them later. Now I don't want the full raw files as these take up loads of space but something of a decent quality thats fairly small.
What is the best/simplest/easiest way to do this on a pc running windows 7

[GCW]

You can adjust the settings for capture in most editing suites, may be easiest for you?

[Jim]

which editing suite tho?

[GCW]

Prem Pro has various options, as would Vegas Pro.  Depends which you can get your hands on.

[Jim]

getting hands on isn't a problem, just need something that is very easy & quick but still gives good quality

[GCW]

Not sure about Windows 7 Jim, but either of those would do what you need.  I found the Vegas input settings easier to adjust.

The other option is to import and then export in whatever file format you want, although that's obviously a lot more of a PITA and time consuming, but most programs will do that for you.

[Paul B]

isn't DV capture real-time so there's no speed gains to be had?

Moviemaker has capture built in if I remember correctly.

[Jim]

well the camcorder won't accept tapes so looks like I'll have to borrow one to import.
Have got some blank miniDV tapes in exchange for a loan of something to import from

[GCW]

isn't DV capture real-time so there's no speed gains to be had?

Moviemaker has capture built in if I remember correctly.

Yes, it is real time.  the time gains are being able to save directly as a more efficient file format rather than having to capture then re-render to a different file type.

Jim, you can borrow my HV20 if you can't find anyone closer.  Should still be OK with SD AFAIK.

[nik at work]

Jim you can borrow my camcorder (ex GCW) if you want, it's SD but it seems to be a bit knacked on the video-ing front naff fuzzy quality chalk in it somewhere?? Anyway it should work fine for getting stuff onto your computer (via firewire, I assume you have a socket?). If you're desperate for it you'll need to come and get it today though as I'm offski tomorrow until the new year.

[Jim]

thanks for the offers, not in a massive rush.
will be in touch

[benpritch]

jim, you can only ingest dv as dv unless you have a video capture card. dv is about 13gb per hour. if you want to make it samller you will have to do some conversion after it is in your system. h264 (quicktime) is a very good codec for making things smaller but is a totally bad codec for editing as it is very processor intensive. my advice (as storage is so cheap) keep it as dv. that way you will keep it at the maximum quality and have easily editable material.
call if youneed any advice, back 3rd of jan.

[Jim]

cheers Ben.
Will still keep the miniDV tapes but just want something to keep on hard drive that doesn't take up loads of space, maybe as mpeg4

[benpritch]

mpeg4 is fine but h264 is nicer imho

[GCW]

I'd agree with that, it's my favourite for size vs quality.

[lagerstarfish]

If you've got a good processor and a reasonable amount of RAM then editing h264 is OK; especially as you're not using HD video