Hi! I'm working on importing video from my DCR-TRV38, and am wondering what capture software people recommend? All I've got currently is the ImageMixer stuff that comes with the camera. But it seems to make *huge* files - if I don't do MPEG1 conversion, the AVI files are simply enormous (like ~1 minute = 380MB! whereas mpeg1 even at highest quality is ~50MB/min). Is there some software that captures in good quality but not such huge files? My goal here is to make DVD's out of my movies.

(This is using USB streaming; haven't tried ilink yet, need to buy a firewire card. Does that make a difference in file size?)

1 hr. of DV = 13GB. If you plan on editing you want to capture in the AVI format to maintain the quality. If you are planning on myaking DVDs then you should definatly capture in AVI and then edit, then convert to MPEG2 for the DVD burner.
You need fireWire card to capture DV from your camcorder. USB will give you low quality MPEG1 but that will NOT be suitable for DVD creation or Editing. I use Adobe Premiere for editing and capture.

What are you system stats right now?

Okay, I've switched to firewire, and yes, the quality is definitely improved. The capture size is half what it was before, about 200MB/min, which does come out to 12GB/hr. So I guess this is normal now.

Yikes! I can't afford to pay more for Premiere than I did for my camera! Any other recommendations?

Also, what about general video editing? That is, I capture the contents of the tape, and I want to split it up into "chapters" indexed on the DVD main menu, etc. Is there relatively inexpensive but good software around for that?

Ulead video studio works real well and is very easy to use. Plus it has a lot of options

How is this software?
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductP...577&Langue_ID=7

I have used Studio 8 for a year and I love it, don't do any updates as they cause worse problems than how it is sold but it is very easy to use, if you plan to do editing and you are new do not buy priemere, I have it and I rarely use it due to its cumbersome and hard to use features, it would be like going between Xp and DOS (almost) Pinnacle will show each start and stop as individual clips, Adobe shows it as one big download, you'd have to cut it up etc. I use Priemere for special stuff, make the clip and export it into Pinnacle. Studio is a whopping $99 at Best Buy anyday. ($149.99 with capture card)

Pinnacle edition Liquid is what I am considering next but... I want to see it first, because I want to use something that is fairly easy to use like Studio, I cannot get any answers from people either about how it compares in ease of use but the horsepower it provides is better than Adobe Premiere from what I hear. Pinnacle has pretty good products but not so good support but... I like their products so t summarize... I am quite attracted, even at the $600 price tag but won't pay till I can see if I like it so let me know when you know...

If you are going to put your video on a dvd, I, too cast my vote for Ulead VideoStudio 7 because of it's editing/ capturing abilities.
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If we are voting, I have to vote for Pinnacle Studio 8 --- Although I haven't used others, mainly because Studio will do everything I have ever wanted to do, and it is much easier to learn (from what I have heard) than the higher dollar stuff.

There are a few quirks in Studio, but once you learn how to work around them, you will love it - I know I do.

I have tried imagemixer as well as Moviedv4.0 and found moviedv better. i havent tried other software.

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Best wishes!

I have 3 kinds of software right now, all of which came with either my camera or computer: Pixela, Sonic MyDVD, and ArcSoft Showbiz. I don't know if I'll need better software to make a decent movie. All of these seem pretty simplistic. My Showbiz died on my in my HP and now I can't play a movie I made with it since it records in its OWN format (not Mpeg, AVI) -- very stupid. Plus that movie had HORRIBLE resolution. MyDVD makes the movies on the dvd recorder, but I couldn't get it to "see" my camcorder when attached by USB.

Then I just figured out that I think I need a firewire. That may solve this low res. problem and get MyDVD to recognize the camera. Are these programs any good? My main complaint was the low-res thing since I'm trying to burn video to DVD. They do all seem very simplistic -- not to mention I am still trying to recover Showbiz on my almost-new HP without resetting the whole system -- ??

Yes, you certainly need firewire. This is how I do it:
1- SONY trv-520 to hard drive (huge .avi files) VideoStudio7.01
2- .avi to MPEG2 format(dvd format) Procoder 1.3
3- "author" MPEG2 movie (make burn-able) TMPGenc Author
4- burn software - Nero 6 (to DVD)
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With the new SONY DVD (100-200-300) CAMCORDERS all this transcoding business goes away. I have never used one (I'd love to) but they capture to MPEG2. This "should" work:
1- DVD CAMCORDER DISC (with new movie) in "D" drive
2- "C" drive.... make a new folder to hold your movies.
3- click & drag your movies into your new folder.
4- click & drag your movies straight into Nero 6 burn software.
5- click BURN
remember the Camcorder DVD's hold 1.2 gig and you will burn to a 4.38 gig DVD disc. Also the Camcorder DVD's are re-writeable.
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Now for the numbers: DVD 300- $1100 vs TRV-38 $750.
SOFTWARE (to make DVD) DVD 300- $ 50.** vs TRV-38 $800.

Hope this helps. JC, tampa

** $50 is for Nero 6 burn software (if needed)