Capture Question

[RS]

Hi,
I'm having a problem choosing the correct video format for capturing
video from my mini-DV camcorder to my computer.

I am using Ulead Video Studio version 7 on Windows 2000. I have
several capturing choices, but they result in either way too large a
file size (as high as 200 MB per 1 second of video), or the quality is
very bad. Here are the choices the software gives me:

DV - Results in a gigantic file size
Mpeg - File size also pretty large, video quality bad
VCD - File size OK, but the video comes out "half-size"
SVCD - The software will not let me select this (defaults to MPEG)
DVD - Very large file size
AVI - The software will not let me select this (defaults to DV)
WMV - Very small file size, quality fair

I am not burning to any media. I simply want to end up with a small,
but quality file to place on my webserver for downloads. Could someone
please point me in the right direction?

Thank you very much!

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Small file and high quality do not go together.

A VCD is an MPEG1 file, an SVCD is an MPEG2 format. If you want AVI, I'm
not sure what uLead supports but you generally have to have the DIVX or XVID
codecs installed first. It will probably make a decent smallish file in
reasonable quality if you can get uLead to do it though.

The other option is to capture and edit and save in DV-AVI and then convert
into DIVX using the DIVX encoders (yes, you have to pay for them) from
www.divx.com. You do get 30 days free though.

 

[RS]

Thank you for the reply. I downloaded the DIVX converter, and it works
great on my machine. The file size went from 141 MB to 6 MB, and the
quality looks great. Am I correct in assuming that if people were
going to download and play the resulting file, they would need DIVX
installed on their system? I can't ensure that all the useres
downloading my clips will have it.

Thanks again.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

They will need the DIVX codecs (the free part)..... You might want to put a
link on your site to direct them to DIVX so they can find them easily.
Thankfully there are also DIVX codecs for Macs as well!!!