DV to MPG (VCD) faster than Real-Time

[InvaderF00]

Short of using an Avid station, is anyone aware of a method to go from DV cam source to MPEG 1 video, faster than realtime.

I'm looking to replace a workstation that goes from DV deck to a gator capture card using S-Video, played back at realtime and captured to MPEG 1 files with a video bitrate of around 700-800Kbps and audio at 96Kbps.

The machine is well enough to process it faster than realtime if it is saved on disk as AVI, but I'm looking to remove the DV Cam to AVI step completly. Any hints?? I can work with either Windows or Mac solutions.

[bb]

Welcome to the forum.

As far as I know, DV camcorders can transfer the video to the PC in realtime only, but there are (professional) DV decks that can do faster, I believe double speed or so.

If realtime is enough for you, you may want to try Mainconcept's MPEG Encoder, which can capture DV and directly convert to either MPEG-2 or MPEG-1 in realtime.

bb

[theReal]

but there are (professional) DV decks that can do faster, I believe double speed or so. I don't think there are any high-speed decks for DV or DVCAM, only for DVCPRO, AFAIK.

*edit* seems there are 4x decks for DVCam as well, yet they won't play DV in high speed

[InvaderF00]

As far as decks go, I have a few Sony DSR-25's and a DSR-11. I read somewhere that decks capable of SDTI Transfer can do 2x/4x transfers to and from NLE setups. Guess there is nothing that can do it via Firewire on the PC front.

[communist]

As far as decks go, I have a few Sony DSR-25's and a DSR-11. I read somewhere that decks capable of SDTI Transfer can do 2x/4x transfers to and from NLE setups. Guess there is nothing that can do it via Firewire on the PC front.
Of course it wont do that via Firewire (though there is no technical reason why it couldn't). Why would they sell it soooo cheaply for the DSR 11 / 25 when even they require pricey addon boards for SDI on higher end decks like the 1800 / 1600. The price for these addon boards is around the price for a DSR11 (last time I checked).

[theReal]

The DSR-11 is a joke anyways. Sony needs to be slapped in the face for offering a 2,500 Euro DVCAM deck without a timecode display :angry:

I don't say it's a bad deck - it's working well and it's portable, but how much would it cost to give it
1. a small TC display and
2. an additional monitor out for video and audio.

We have one at work and we need to use a split cable to connect an RTW audio meter and you can only see the time code when using the FCP log window.
To me it seems like Sony doesn't care, the deck is only there to remind you that you should buy one of the more expensive models...