Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 User Guide - Page 19

Capturing Video 11 Finally, if you capture and edit the material at full-screen resolution and archive the source, you can later repurpose the content for future codecs, architectures, and larger delivery sizes without having to recapture and re-edit the project. Capture with a High-Quality Setting Many capture systems have an adjustable quality setting. This controls how much hardware compression is used on the video during capture. Higher-quality settings produce larger files with superior image quality by applying less compression. However, if you exceed the data rate the system can handle by choosing too high a quality setting, the capture card drops frames. Capture at the maximum quality the system can properly handle (normally at least 3 MBytes/ sec). If you cannot capture at a very high-quality setting, seriously consider buying a faster drive or a RAID. To find out the best way to capture full-screen material at a high-quality setting, contact the capture card vendor. Capture from Master Tapes To maintain the absolute highest-quality video signal, capture directly from the master tapes, not copies of the originals. Do not assemble a "rough cut" of the project on a new tape and then digitize it. Because these clips are second generation, they have more noise than the original masters. Note: This advice only applies to analog formats. Because DV is digital, it does not suffer generation loss in this fashion. Also avoid excessive "scrubbing" (fast forwarding and rewinding) through the master tapes. Playing tapes many times can degrade their quality, so you should only view the material a few times prior to capturing it. If you need to view the material several times, make a duplicate and view the dub instead of the master. This is particularly important with Hi8, which is a relatively fragile tape format and can be damaged by excessive scrubbing. Audio Capture Settings As with the video, you should capture the audio at the highest possible quality. This is generally 44-kHz, 16-bit, stereo. Capture in 16-bit audio depth if possible because 16-bit source material generally gives you more options and higher final quality, even if the final movie is to be delivered with 8-bit audio. Make sure to test the capture system before capturing clips. Audio levels are often different between capture and playback, so you should monitor and test the results before capturing the whole project. Capture the audio through the video capture card, if possible. The built-in sound hardware in most computers may introduce line noise and is often of lower quality than dedicated capture hardware.