Capturing MiniDV to Vegas, premiere, etc with slow computer or tasks in background???
 

Important concern. When capturing MiniDV tapes from your camera to your computer with vegas, premiere, etc., can having a slow computer or many tasks running in the background ruin the quality of the capture or would it just slow things down a bit and possibly freeze or possibly lose frames. Providing there are no dropped frames would the capture be the same as on a faster computer? Also, another thing, is there a quality difference when using your camera to play the tape to the computer vs. using something like this http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ecorder.h tml

Sorry for all these questions, just making sure i am doing everything right.

If you are droping frames there is something wrong. The capture will be at regular play speed. I always use a camcorder to capture, (a designated one). Firewire is my connection of choice.

As for quality, "crap in = crap out" - the better the camera (ie 3ccd) the better the video quality will be. This is especially important when you plan on encoding it, as your video quality will diminish with every conversion. As for transfers once it is on your computer no loss there. \

As for a faster computer, I have editied on a 1.5ghz with 512mb back in the day and although it was slow as shit for editing and encoding it captured perfect.

Hope this helps - I remember back when I started editing video, information was difficult to find quickly.

mkx, while you don't need a super machine to capture miniDV (SD) quality, many PCs are challenged in the way they do capture. It is still a fairly high amount of dataflow all considered.

If you have no drop frames, you have no drop frames and you have captured the video. There is no faster way to capture. No faster computer will make you capture faster. It is a 1:1 time thing, 1 minute to capture 1 minute of video. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you are capturing video, I would highly recommend not running anything else on the machine at the time of capture to maximize the chance that your capture is 100%. You cannot capture in the background and go on surfing or running other aps.

As long as the capture doesn't actually drop frames, it will not diminish in quality whatsoever no matter what else is running in the background, whether you use a videocamera or a deck to capture. You only need a moderately fast pc to capture digital video, like say a five year old 2.8 Ghz P4. That is what I use to capture standard definition video. You need a faster pc, like a dual core pc to capture hdv though. Most apps like Premiere Pro won't let you do anything while you capture, but there is another app called Scenalyzer Live that will let you capture standard definition video while minimized in the background. I was able to use Photoshop or other apps while it captured and it works fine.

Yes, those factors can definitely cause dropped frames. I've experienced that myself years ago.

Now I maintain a fairly high end machine specifically for my image and video processing. Dual core proc. (upgrading to quad proc. soon) 3gb ram yadda yadda yadda.....

You really want a fast computer for video....Not just editing but primarily for encoding. I batch encode 30 minute vids with multiple codecs and bitrates and I can tell you that it puts a hell of a lot of strain on my computer......Can only imagine how long it would take on a slower machine.

I own a similar JVC deck and that's what I use to import SD video into my computer. I did not see any difference between using the deck or the cam other than less wear and tear on the cam itself.

I got a g5 guad just for editing, its worth it in the long run to have a dedicated machine for that type of stuff

Thanks, that answers both my questions. I do surf and do other things while capturing and have been doing it for the past year, never had a single dropped frame. As long as thats what I am trying to avoid then I won't be concerned about it. Encoding wise, I understand that the less your computer is doing the faster the encoding will go. Thanks for the answer about the deck. I think premiere pro allows you to minimize it and multi-task while capturing, i know vegas and premiere elements does.

I have been using premiere elements to capture lately because sony vegas creates a new m2t file for every time you push the standby button on the camera during recording. I rather have one big file for the tape. Unless someone here knows how to kill that option in vegas ;)