So basic it's Embarrassing to Ask! (But I'm gunna.)

[Jier]

So, right now I don't have that much money to invest in my equipment. I do have, at my disposal, a Panasonic miniDV, and a Toshiba satellite laptop. For audio, I just have the mic on cam, yeah it's not the greatest. Next purchase will be a cheap mic that I can use as a, "quote-unquote", boom mic, but for right now this is all I have.

I've been using Windows movie maker to pull my video from my DV, but the video is grainy, and choppy at best. There any tips, websites, or hopefully videos anyone can point me towards for the best results?

As of right now I'm not planning to do anything big, I'd just like to pull video from my camera to my laptop and not have it end up being so choppy. The Camera puts out decent quality for the cash I put into it when I got it, it's just like there is something missing in translation when I try to pull the video.

[SWRULS]

Invest in some software that might bring the quality of your videos when you import them up.
Try sony vegas movie studio its like 80 bucks right now thats what i use or maybe adobe premiere elements which is about 100 bucks

[nooneimportant77]

the problem may not be your software as much as your hardwear. not your camera.........your video card. crap video card, crap video. i'm not saying you have a crappy video card i'm just saying that might be adding to your problem.

[KenOchalek]

Video card, like noooneimportant said, is probably the main culprit. However, some consumer-grade cameras will let you capture via USB. Standard USB cables just don't have the throughput to properly handle DV information. Firewire or USB 2.0 (but preferably FireWire) are your best bets for transfering video. So, if your laptop lacks a Firewire or USB 2.0 port, you might be outta luck.

[Jier]

porting it in via usb, actually. Hrm, I see what you're saying. Well, I don't know about my laptop. It may accept firewire, and the first time I pulled video I was using a 1.1 ghz Compaq. The computer was also dieing at the time.

[sandmanfvr]

I got a good custom build pc, but my Digital 8 video SHOULD look better than it does, but the captured video isn't that great. Yes I know my video camcorder isn't new, but technically it is just a few months old, kept in a bag most of the time. I KNOW the video should be clearer. I have used imovie and windows movie maker to capture. I guess better software like Jier is asking? I got an ATI X1600 card. Not cutting edge, but plenty for video.

[okee]

You can pick up PCMCIA Firewire cards for a laptop very cheap
€15 last time i looked.

[nooneimportant77]

I got a good custom build pc, but my Digital 8 video SHOULD look better than it does, but the captured video isn't that great. Yes I know my video camcorder isn't new, but technically it is just a few months old, kept in a bag most of the time. I KNOW the video should be clearer. I have used imovie and windows movie maker to capture. I guess better software like Jier is asking? I got an ATI X1600 card. Not cutting edge, but plenty for video.

again, the software is not what makes the video look the way it looks, the video card and your camera is, as soon as the video goes to the computer, which can normally be adjusted a bit, that is how it is. all the programs do is take that video and play it. also the camera, if you're shooting in DV there are a few different types (and i might get this wrong so correct me if i am) there is a one chip and a two chip, it might be a two chip and a three i'm not sure, EITHER WAY, the lesser one samples RGB once, and only once, the better one samples red TWICE, i know it dosn't sound like much but it makes a difference. HDDV will sample everything twice i believe if not it samples everything twice and the red three times.

^^ could be wrong but thats how basicly is.

[KenOchalek]

again, the software is not what makes the video look the way it looks, the video card and your camera is, as soon as the video goes to the computer, which can normally be adjusted a bit, that is how it is. all the programs do is take that video and play it. also the camera, if you're shooting in DV there are a few different types (and i might get this wrong so correct me if i am) there is a one chip and a two chip, it might be a two chip and a three i'm not sure, EITHER WAY, the lesser one samples RGB once, and only once, the better one samples red TWICE, i know it dosn't sound like much but it makes a difference. HDDV will sample everything twice i believe if not it samples everything twice and the red three times.

^^ could be wrong but thats how basicly is.

Sorta, but not quite.

I'm not sure about HDV, but as far as Standard Definition goes, you have single CCD cameras (or single chip) and three CCD cameras (or three chip). CCD stands for Charge Coupled Device, but you can think of it as the thing that converts the visual image into the electronic information that gets recorded on the tape. With a single CCD camera, the three colors of a video signal - Red, Green and Blue - are processed on the same chip. With a three CCD camera each color is processed on its own chip, resulting in an overall superior image. I think you're getting color sampling confused in the mix there too, but color sampling is a whole different bunch of technical nonsense that is pointless to get into here.

If your camera cost less than $1000 new, its a pretty safe bet it has a single CCD. Between $1000-$3000, it depends on the camera. If you paid over $3000 and you don't have 3 CCDs, you got ripped off.

But back on topic, choppy and crappy looking video is either the result of your camera (any combination of single CCD, bad lighting, too much video signal gain, shooting on an old tape, blah blah blah) or your digitizing process (using USB 1 or a lousy video card)

My guess is that Okee is on the right track with suggesting the FireWire card, but its hard to say if your laptop is dodgy.

[nooneimportant77]

^^^what he said haha

[17thletterfilms]

What kind of camera do you have? I occasionally use Windows Movie Maker and when I do the video isn't choppy or grainy. Perhaps you should go to this website and ask them: windowsmoviemakers.net/Forums/