skyfly

The best answers in the world NOT those containing the best thechniques available in the market - the best answers are those addressing the questions. that said - from the original post - I got the impression that we're not talking about a DV camera here - but VHS tapes (yeah - those ANALOG things). taking that in mind, and what's available out there - I just thought that USB2 would fit his situation the best. YES Phreezone - I do recomment everyone to have a firewire card in the machine, its a necessity when you work with it. but is this guy working with it ? Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

unfortunately, the firewire products in that range is (From what I understand from his question) exacly what he is NOT looking for (although- yeah - firewire IS the way to go if you do it proffesionally). The prices and the range of products for the usb2 protocol is wider today then the firewire products. most Firewire products can only be found at speciallity stores, whereas the usb2 products can be found at any FRYS, BestBuy, etc. You will find that the USB2 products would suit you better because they are plug-and-play, you dont need to go to the back of the computer everytime you want to connect your VHS to the computer to capture somthing. and also you'll be able to use it on ANY computer with USB2, fast and simple. hope this helps Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

there are some good tips here, I too was encountered by some issues with Sony laptops. I think that for certain products, Sony is #1, but laptops is FAR from being one of those... (sorry). The main problems that I encountered were - laptop body structure (looks sleek, but is actually flimsy, and doesnt endure for long), memory (perhaps motherboard fault) crashes, and slow response time. computer locks, etc. there are pros and cons to getting a Mac, or a PC, it all depends on your preferences, and your requirements. eitherway , if you do choose to go with a PC, I can only suggest to stay away from the vaio series, they look like everything one can wishes, but that dream doesnt last for long.... just my 2 cents. hope it helps Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

It really depends. where are you located? check to see if there are any such studios around your place, or do a search on the web for "DVD duplication services" etc. see whats out there. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

It's called a duplication studio. you've gotta create a DLT master copy of the DVD and enable copy protection on that. Then you give/send it to a duplication house, and they give ya a bunch of copy-protected DVDs PC based DVD burners are not yet equiped with copy protection abilities ... but someday .... Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

nice slow-ho`s. what did you use for that one (it's the transitions that give it away...) Software rendered slow-mos are best when they are kept in the 2nd degree speeds (1/2, 1/4...) but other speeds sometimes hit a good quality ... live and learn ... leave and learn (he) Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

If you ARE using the firewire, let premiere control the camcorder, and import the footage without you pressing any buttons on the camera - premiere (and any other NLE software) imports the footage digitally (using the firewire) and not only does it captures the images and audio from the tape- but also the timecode. pressing on any of the cameras buttons (slow...and whatever) only interferes with the capture (to be honest - I'm quite surprised that premiere didnt stop the capture process, or notified on any errors - alas I cannot recreate this scenario since I stopped using Premiere 2 years ago - but the concept still holds) baically - let premiere capture the footage without pressing any buttons on the camera. that's what NLE is ALL ABOUT - NON LINEAR!!! Capture - edit and apply effects , then export - thats how its meant to be, any attempt to interfere with this process - and I guess you see the outcome. sorry I couldnt fix-you-upa , but sometimes you DO have to follow the rules... Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I archive everything , never used a tape twice. You never know when you'll think that footage would be perfect for something ... for better for worse. Never distroy evidence. it might come in handy one day. Footage can be used in so many ways - from main footage, to transitions, to masks, to effects, you name it. And as long as MiniDV is MINI and doesnt take much space - heck, y not save it. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

how do you capture ? using Firewire ? I take it you dont use the Premiere Camera DV Control interface (if you're able to press the slow on the camera) ? what happens if you play the clip that you captured with the camera "slow mo" (not from the timeline) in Premiere ? do you get any audio? does it play normally ? Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

Nice clean shot ! seems like t'was a pretty bright day though ... Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

What camera are you using (I assume you refer to one of the digital effects that exist on the sony camcorders ...) ? How do you capture it ? where do you position your "background music" ? is it set to playback? Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

This is a great site, with great forums, check it out: http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=3 Also, check out the TUTORIALS section on this site. it's a good info center. You might also wanna check www.adobe.com under premiere, they have alot of turorials as well (very good ones I might add) Premiere IS a great bargain for its price, enjoy it. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

If your camera is working - live it be. dont try to fix something that is not broken. seen too many situations that a firmware upgrade caused a perfectly good camera to go bad. and dont forget - canon is not responsible to anything caused by this upgrage... just my 2 cents Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I used to work with Sonic DVD Producer which works really well, has an easy interface, but gives you more control over the DVD then the lower-level Sonic products (mydvd...) I recently replaced Producer with Adobe Encore because of its integration with Photoshop, and it is remarkably convenient and straight-out if you are a photoshop user. I would highly recommend both of these applications. you can test drive Adobe encore (www.adobe.com), you can download a trial version of the app. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

DVD Mpeg comprassion is very high (more compression = less quality) whereas DV compression is much less (less compression = higher quality). So teqhnically speaking, the DVDCam footage comes at a reduced quality compared to DV. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

2 gig for 4 minutes ?!? sounds ludicrious, even DV format is more compressed then this - did you render that movie for web vieweing ? what format did you render that at ? you should be able to render a 4 minutes movie in MUCH less then 2 gig using premiere alone (render as quicktime for web). For best results though you might want to look into compression applications such as Cleaner - which would do much better job compressing movies for web Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I dont think there's really any difference, just different writing format. My phillips DVD+RW writes the +R format, but can read both + and -. for more info on the +R checkout : http://www.dvdplusrw.org/ Some companies make +R burners, some companies make -R burners. Both companies will argue that their format is more compatible with others, but it seems like its all the same. Some companies make burners that are -R AND +R - which seems to please everyone. the price difference is not great. so if you have any doubt go with one of those, although it really makes little difference (my opinion) Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

Yes, a PC DVD burner will burn movie DVDs that would play on desk-top DVD players and regular TVs. When you buy the DVD burner you would probably get one of the intro-level DVD authoring software that will let you produce movie DVDs fast, and easy. for more professional looking DVDs you would have to spend some cash to get a pro-authoring tools, but thats just taking it a step further. Most desktop players support both the R+ and the R- DVD formats, so I wouldnt put too much worries over which format to go with. Have fun Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

Like started previously - Pinaccle, Matrox, and Canopus are the leading brands, but there are others (cheapers) as well, all depends on how good you want your imported footage to look - the better it is , the more money it'll cost. But still - compared to a DV camera, it's peanuts. so go and have some. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

we shall be expecting the beer in the email ASAP ! Congrats, and enjoy the new position Cant wait myself to have enough experience to take the camera up there. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

They all existed before ,... nobody took the time to capture them forever Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I can understand your enthusiasm about getting the new product ASAP, but this is just good business management - think about it - the old cameye is actually being translated into money (30%) - and you DO pay before the item is shipped right ? so they DO need to get the money (in all forms and shapes) before they can actually send you the product. it sucks, but its lifes small pitholes that we either avoid, of fall into - and gotta get out cheers, in a matter of time this will just be a part of a story for you to tell others Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I thought so too, that jpegs should be sufficient enough, but yet being used to having all original material in RAW format for future reference .... makes me wonder .... in terms of space, it's not a matter - can always get another larger CF card, the problem is with TIME .... since we have so little of it up there. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

Just thought it would be interesting to see what people are using. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.

I had a JVC that I got from Citruit city ... hooked it up, took some footage, and returned it very soon to Circuit City for a FULL REFUND !!, a week later I got me a sweet Sony PC9 - never looked back. Sony is more durable, more compatible with other devices, and just provides higher quality footage - which is most important. especially in our field. Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee! Sharon.