Hello,

I am looking for a utility to grab footage from a MiniDV camcorder to a
computer running Windows XP Pro in raw dv format.

there was one other), all free utilities to grab video from a camera
into a computer. However, they grab the video in avi format.

Any tools that would allow me to grab the video into Windows XP in raw
dv format? I usually work in Linux, and we have dvgrab and Kino in
Linux which serve my purpose excellently. Not familiar with the tools
in Windows, hence this qeury.

thanks,
->HS

On 1/13/2007, hs.sa***@gmail.com posted this:
Show quoteHide quoteUnfortunately, it doesn't exist in raw DV format. What the utilities
grab is a bit-wise copy of what's on the tape, or in pass-through mode,
a bit-wise copy of what comes out of the conversion electronics.

Gene E. Bloch wrote:

So, if the bitwise copy of the data on the tape is not raw dv data,
then what is?

And also, since the utilities that I mentioned above give avi files,
surely the tape does not have avil files on it, does it?

->HS

The .avi format is just a wrapper for the dv data off the tape. On a
Mac the wrapper is Quicktime, giving a .mov suffix. Either way, the
data is the same, and there doesn't seem to be much point in fiddling
with it - though I'm intrigued enough to ask why you would want
to.........?

Bernie

bernie wrote:
Doesn't look like the data is the same in dv and avi files (honestly, I
am a bit fuzzy about all this):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV (see Application Software Support
section)

And even if the actuall data is not altered, the wrapper just consumes
more disk space.

Finally, it appears that there are different things that varous avi
formats can do. So to keep things simple (and files shorter), I just
stick to raw dv. Moreover, kino is perfectly happy with dv.

I have to deal with Windows at a volunteer work I am currently doing
for some family friends. The work around at present is that I just
bring over their camcorder to my place and dvgrab the tape data. For
various reasons, it would be more convenient for me to grab the raw dv
data in Windows XP at their place itself.

->HS

Out here in the non-Linux world of Mac and Windows, DV is always
handled as either .avi or .mov. All applications that use DV are set up
to do that.  There's no data or quality loss in moving the stuff around
between files, as it's always in the DV codec no matter what the
wrapper.  Millions of users including major broadcasters find it very
satisfactory....and when you're digitising video, the files are going
to be enormous no matter what, so no point in trading off complexity
against a little disc space.

I just read the spec for Kino - "It does not support multiple layers or
tracks of video and audio" - which makes it a very basic editor indeed!
Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are probably better specced, and both
are free.

Maybe time to upgrade a touch....

Bernie

bernie wrote:
Okay. I will look into avi and mov files as well. Is there a particular
avi format that the broadcasters use?


Yes, very basic. For heavy duty stuff, there is cinelerra
(http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3). It is free, open source,
and can use multiple computers to render a movie (render farm, I think
they call it). I haven't had the need to use that powerful a software
yet for my home videos.

Have no idea about Windows Movie Maker, but iMovie seems nice. It has
those nice ready made animated titler sequences, and seem pretty easy
to use. And it is fast too. But is not much configurable by the user --
everything seems to be done behind the scenes. For a half hour movie we
tried with Kino and iMovie on a Mac Book Pro, iMovie finished rendering
it half the time as Kino. Both were on more or less similar hardware
spec'ed computers. BTW, it is nice to know that Movie Maker is free (of
cost).


Well, if I have to move to Windows just to use Movie Maker, that is
something I can never call an upgrade :) . Even though I am more or
less used to both (use mainly Linux and sometimes Windows at my univ.),
to setup a Windows computer at home for personal use (or move from
Linux to a new XP OS) involves prohibitive costs for me.

Thanks for the pointers,
regards,
->HS



Show quoteHide quote

Actually, the best - in my opinion - editor of all is Final Cut Pro for
the Mac, but on the pc you can get Avid FreeDV -
http://www.avid.com/freedv/resources.asp - for, surprise, free, and in
a whole different class to anything availalbe on Linux.

As I said .avi and .mov are only  wrappers, and broadcasting
organisations, like everyone else, use many differerent codecs inside
those wrappers. If you're using DV you generally just stick to it until
the point of delivery when you pick something appropriate - VHS maybe.

B

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