Copying DV to hard drive

[Bytemaster34]

Soon I will be editing a feature length amateur film (90-100 minutes) that has been shot in MiniDV. Actually, filming hasn't been finished yet, but there is already a nice little collection of 60 minute tapes piling up.

So my problem: this is a lot of video. I've read that DV takes about 13 gigs per hour. My PC (still being built) will have 240 gigs but naturally I need some space for other things like the operating system. I'm worried I might not have enough space.

I've been reading about compression lately but anything I read seems to be about 'producing' the final product into an MPEG or AVI file. It seems you can make very significant space improvements after you're done editing.

But what I'd like to know is whether one can compress DV as it is being copied to the hard drive from the camera. On the other hand, I don't want to reduce quality by a noticeable margin. Maybe just a way of taking up less space than 13 gig per minute. Also, due to the amount of footage, capturing and then waiting for it to recompress isn't really an option either.

If anyone has any experience with compressing DV on its way in I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Bytemaster34]

oops! sorry... thats 13 gigs per hour. Thanks once again

 

[WizyWyg]

Byte,

Simple answer: No and i wouldn't suggest that you capture in a code/compression that would make it smaller.

I take it that you are trying to submit this little film to something (ie tv, contest , film festival ?), and I've gone through the entire step of doing so.

You will be getting a 240 gb HD? That's more than what I worked with and we used a 120 GB HD. You are fine; WIN2000 (the best to work with in video ) is only 10 (or was it 15) so you dont have to worry about the OS taking up space.

What I did was use a 30 GB HD for my OS and installing programs and used a SLAVE drive of 120 GB for my capturing.

Work with DV or the settings from your camera.

 

[aftertaf]

I've got a couple of DV films that i capture via firewire, both are 25 mins long and the capturing software i have is presto videoworks.

the films are split onto 2 files cos of 4Gb size restrictions on file system.

When i try to compress them, i copy & paste to make one film/one file, then ...
whether i choose xvid or divx, i get awful quality image, fuzzy as hell, even tho i specify best quality (and not best compression...)

anyone give me a hint as to how i can have a reasonable size file (700Mb max - CD) without having such bad quality..... ?


Aftertaf (david)
MCSA 2003

 

[aftertaf]

sorry, shouldn't be in adobe forum, i dont use it....

Aftertaf (david)
MCSA 2003