Importing footage into an editing application
To transfer DV clips to your computer, you’ll need capture utility software that can detect FireWire device and direct incoming footage to the proper storage space. Many such utilities include a preview window for monitoring footage while it’s being imported. They also often include on-screen controllers with buttons that emulate the play, record, stop, pause, forward, and reverse functions of your camcorder.
There are several shareware and freeware versions of these utilities available online; however, it’s likely that your editing software or PCI capture card comes preinstalled with such a utility. Most popular moviemaking program such a Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut Pro include special modules that automate the import process and include settings for capturing by time code or collecting footage in batches..
Converting footage over FireWire
When you import analog video from a converter box or special capture card, the footage is actually digitized. Meaning it will be changed from a modulated signal into a data file, forever locked into its current state of quality by a DV codec. For this reason, it’s important that you use the best possible analog footage before beginning the digitizing process.
Turning analog footage into digital data will not improve picture quality; it simply preserves the existing signal in a format that’s impervious to further degradation. Capturing analog footage through a converter works like this; first, the video is changed into data and compressed into a codec; then, it’s transferred as a DV clip into the computer through a FireWire connection.
This conversion takes place outside of the computer’s own processor, using chips and circuits built into the devices or PCI cards that you have attached. Once digitized, the computer and its applications to maintain optimum quality protect all DV footage.
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