Great video but where's the audio

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Guest

Am totally new to this, and need some HELP! Have figured out how to capture
video from our Hitachi 8mm Camcorder...but there's no sound on the captured
video . Not sure if I've chosen the correct settings, but I've tried the
obvious choices. The camcorder is connected to the back of the pc with the
yellow & white jacks. ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Here's what I did....connected one set of the white & yellow a/v cables to
the camcorder, and the other set (end) into the back of my Gateway. Sound
comes from the camcorder as I'm capturing, but there's nothing when I
playback the captured video on my pc. I've read other posts and see people
referring to "Dazzle" etc...what are these? I'm simply using the Windows
Movie Maker that is part of the XP Media Center Edition that was preinstalled
in this new Gateway. Where would I find the settings that you mention? And
how do I figure out how to configure them? Sorry if my queries seem silly,
but I'm pc illiterate when it comes to the details...sound card, etc. I just
figured I could hook up the cables and it would transfer! :) The guy at
BestBuy made it sound like it would be a "breeze." Obviously I was
mistaken!! :) Thanks!
 
Tried to access your site, but got message "Website not responding." Will
try again later. Pardon my ignorance, but I want to make sure I'm
understanding you....you're telling me that I need to buy/download an analog
capture device? This wouldn't have been preinstalled on this new and $$$
Gateway?? If that's the case, why did the sales person make it seem as
though it would be so "easy" to transfer from VHS (etc) to DVD? This is so
frustrating! But, thanks for your help.
 
Yes, 2 years ago I paid over $3,000 for my Toshiba Satellite laptop Media
Center Edition... and I later bought a Dazzle 80 for about $30 to capture
analog video directly into Movie Maker...

We live in a sales/marketing oriented world... they don't tell you 'the rest
of the story'..
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
 
I took a quick look on the web for Dazzle 80....where did you find it for
$30?? It's now $70! Thanks for helping to put me on the right track....
 
Well, my audio problem is now solved. Thanks. :) After talking to my
husband, and the sales rep at Best Buy, I now own a Dazzle Digital Video
Creator 150. They did carry the 80 -- and 90 -- but after talking to the guy
from the "Geek Patrol" (not my personal comment, it's part of BB's service)
we decided to go with the 150 because it (supposedly) has better DVD quality.
My husband was deployed to the Middle East last year, and the kids & I
videotaped everything that he missed out on. He wants to make sure we record
quality DVDs.

Now that I've got the audio issue resolved, can I ask you another question?
What format should I capture to? AVI, MPEG, etc... As I mentioned in my
first posting, please forgive my pc illiteracy! I understand that some
formats use less space, etc, etc. I simply want to transfer from video to
dvd at the highest quality possible. Any general tips/hints would be VERY
much appreciated.

Thanks again for your help.
 
Hope the Geek Guy is right... my understanding is the Dazzle 150 captures as
MPEG-2 files which don't work with Movie Maker. I'm interested in how it
goes.

For editing in Movie Maker, you're heading to AVI... when making DVDs, you
then go to MPEG-2.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
 
I've just done a few searches and from what I have read Papajohn is correct
in that it only captures in MPeg2 files, which are a nightmare to edit.
If you want to capture and burn a dvd without ANY other work, then you'll be
ok, but if you want to cut out just the smallest piece, I'd return it and
ask them for one which will capture to DV-AVI files as PJ has said, these
are the best for editing.
I'd also look at canopus or miglia units, may be more expensive but a great
deal better in quality.
Have a scroll down this page for a few reviews on these.
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/reviews.html
Graham

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com
 
Hip Hip Hooray....it worked!! :)
It took a bit of trial & error on my part -- since a step-by-step manual
wasn't included -- but I've completed my first project, and it came out
great! I used Dazzle 150 to capture the video from my Hitachi VHS-C. I used
Pinnacle's Studio 9 (which was included with 150) to edit the unwanted scenes
and insert transitions (which, btw, added some nice effects to the video).
After rendering it to MPEG, I saved it to my pc, then burned it to DVD with
Movie Maker.

Dazzle 150 can capture to AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. I used 1 since
you mentioned 2 wasn't compatible with WMM.

Very last question for you....what's the difference between AVI and MPEG?
And what do the abbreviations stand for? (Sorry, that was two questions.)

Your advise & assistance was very much appreciated.
Thanks for your help!!
 
AVI is audio video interleaved, I think, can't remember the MPEG one, but
the difference is, very quickly, AVI is a wrapper which can contain many
types of video, the most common being dv-avi - digital video avi, which
comes from digital camcorders. If you capture a dv-avi file asa dv-avi file
it will be exactly the same quality.
MPEG is a compressed file, an hour of dv-avi is 13gb, and hour of real good
quality mpeg2 is around 4gb. MPEG's are made up of I,Band P frames. Each I
frame is an actual frame, then in between the I frames you have "made up"
frames known as B or P frames. This is how you get the compression, it looks
to see what is similar and can then discard some info.
To edit a adv-avi you can cut it up at each and every frame, whereas with an
mpeg you can only cut it at an I frame, and these are often 12 frames apart.
You cna get compressed avi, the most usual is DIVX, and you can as you now
know get lots of mpegs, MPEG1/4 etc.
The main thing is to try to keep the quality as the best you can until you
come to the very final stage, so to make a dvd, you capture as dv-avi, edit
as dv-avi, output from that app as a dv-avi, then make a mpeg2 in the last
dvd authoring stage.
The other thing when working with mpegs is, if the app you use to make the
dvd does not recognise teh settings used to compress, or you can't tell it
not to compress compliant files, it will recompress your already compressed
file.

Hope this helps.

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com
 
Did you ever find a fix for this. I am having the exact problem with a
Gateway purchased from Best Buy and using a Sony 8M camera.
 
Only that using the a/v cables as outlined in the original post is "analog"
capturing which Movie Maker was not designed to do.
The comments about using a dazzle unit as an inbetween is, I believe as I
don't actually do video capturing with Movie Maker, the way to go. This
would be hooking your analog device (camcorder, VCR, etc...) through the
dazzle unit and then by firewire to your computer thereby eliminating the
analog aspect of capturing to Movie Maker.
Anybody else that actually uses this practice want to correct or confirm
this for me?
-Wojo
 
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