DV capture is the process of transfering video file from tape to computer hard drive, through the so called IEEE1394 or Firewire interface. I use a sample application from Microsoft DirectX SDK, named dvcap.exe, see screen capture to the left. It's simple and small, only 40K bytes, and no installation needed, just double click the exe file to run. The process is easy too, just connect your DV camcord to the computer and turn it on; from DV applicaton window choose file-->Set Output File, then choose Mode-->DV to AVI type 2; then click start(blank triangle) and record(red dot) button from the toolbar.
The captured AVI file is big, about 2GB for every 9 minutes of video, to make VCD or DVD, it need to be convert to MPEG1 or MPEG2 format. I use TMPGenc for this task. Which gives the best video quality, even better than many commercial software. See screen captures to the right. TMPGenc has standard profiles for VCD/SVCD/DVD format, so just specify input file and output file, choose format profile, click the start button then sit back and wait. Note that the MPEG2 function will be disabled after 30 days of trial. MPEG1 function is free forever, good for VCD makers.
The only step that can't be done without commercial software is CD burnning. I use Nero 6.0 which came with my CD burner. Nero has standard support of VCD/SVCD/DVD, so just start a new Project and choose project type VCD or DVD, drag the MPEG files created in step 2 onto the project window, Nero will then create directory structure and verify the compliance of the given mpg file, this will take a minute or two depending on performance of the PC, once it's done just click the burn button.
Things become harder when video editing is needed. Because there are 25(PAL) or 29.97(NTSC) frames per second of video, video editing is time comsuming no matter what software you use. I use VirtualDub, see screen capture and links to the right. For the most part I use VirtualDub to cur or join videos. In addition I save a copy of my video in an AVI file using Mpeg4 codec.
Today Mpeg4 codecs give the best video quality for the same file size. I use the open source video codec Xvid and MP3 audio codec. On the same 700MB CD, I can save a 512x384 progressive scan AVI file, compare with the interlaced 320x240 VCD Mpeg1 file. The only problem with this AVI files is they can only be played on computers, not on standalone VCD/DVD players, but I believe the standalone players will catch up in the future.
For the editing process, I first load the AVI file captured from step 1, append other AVI files if needed, delete the frames I don't want, then choose video codec Xvid under video menu, configure the codec; choose audio codec MP3 under audio menu; then choose save as AVI under file menu, sit back and wait for an hour or two depending on the performance of your PC.
XVID and MP3 codecs can be downloaded from free-codecs.com. And detailed instructions of how to used VirtualDub and Xvid codec can be found at doom9.net.
