video capture

I want to transfer video from my panasonic dv to my hdd so I can burn dvd's. I only have a firewire connection available. When I download to the hdd in .avi it takes a huge amount of space. If I download in mpeg it is pretty grainy. Anyway around this?

Would a video capture card work better? Is there one that would take the output from my mini dv? I have not seen one with a firewire input on it. I am missing something?

U will find some help @ http://www.videohelp.com/

1st, u'll have to convert to DVD format if using the better format .avi.
If the .mpeg isn't in the DVD format u'll have to convert it.
U could burn to DVD as data an play them with ur favorite media player, but if u want auto start u'll need a program that'll turn ur movies into DVD format an a burning program that'll burn the right DVD format.

A video capture card is supposed to capture the actual video stream, not through firewire. You might have better results using a video capture card, but the price of a good capture card you could just buy another hard disk and use that for your avi's. Video editing/making uses LOADS of disk space.

i'm afraid you'll first have to Copy it from the Camera to your Computer

Then do the conversions with software like DivX and alikes

The FireWire thing you are talking about is for file transfer

your Camera already did all the encoding and stuff

so you can not really RE-process that inside the camera before you transfer it

unless you Recorded it Originally in a LOWER level of quality, or configure the camera to use HIGHER compression ratio

so just get a Good Large HDD with lots of room

transfer the file over

then Re-Encode it in your PC

:t