G450 eTV - End to End Video

[GemNEye]

I am using a G450 eTV under Win98, Win2K, and WinXP. I have downloaded and installed the latest Bios, Drivers, and Video Tools. I am trying to get some suggestions for creating the best end to end video.

I am using Premiere 6, but I am not looking for suggestions directly for Premiere.

To begin with, what is the best capture Method?

Is it best to use the MPEG-2 software codec supplied with the G450, or is it best to use the Huffy codec or some other 3rd party codec?

If I try to use the Matrox codec for output (Premiere, VirtualDub, or any other VideoTool), all I get is garbage when I try to to playback the file. I assume this codec is not intended for encoding videos in these programs?


Exporting:

It Looks like people are using AVISynth and TMPGEnc for output to MPEG2, VCD, or other formats. Is this the method that most people are using?

Does anyone have profiles created for Premiere for working on projects? Are they based on the output format, the input format, both, or neither?

Is is possible to use frameserving to utilize the 2-pass VBR option with the Divx 4.12 codec when exporting a movie from within Premiere?

I would just like to know what the best methods are for capturing video, editing the video, and then outputting the video (to either PC, or some other type of format).

Thank you for you suggestions and experiences.

--==[[ GemNEye ]]==--

[cpurdy]

For what its worth, I give you my amatuer experiences.
I capture with Matrox PCVCR to highest MPEG2 704x586.This imports ok direct to premiere 6.
Alternatively use scenalyser live! to capture.
I then export with avisynth /tcmpeg to MPEG1 VCD which works ok.If I try to mix DVcam avis with matrox mpegs it seems to work, but I get lipsync problems on the matrox mpeg2 shots.
(directx issue? - I use 8.0a, the 8.1 gives me jerkyness)

I think premiere likes to have all its native formats the same.
Alternatively if you want quick edit to Mpeg1/2 or AVI
use the bundled ulead video studio 4 (with 4.01 patch),
its transitions effect render 10x faster than premiere, and it seems to copy mpeg2(non-transition areas) through with virtually no quality degrade.
Its a limiting editor in terms of features but the timeline picture browser with zoom means for cooking edit productions its faster.
(and it pollutes your drives with less preview files also)

I have been told the best way to use premiere is to convert the mpeg2 to avi first, stay in (uncompressed) avi and write out to DVcam 1394.

I have tried various mpeg2 to avi converters virtualdub,flask etc but they all have drawbacks.(my prob is interlace lines on movement) some particularily filesize.
Do you or anyone else know a working solution?. It may be me having setup finger trouble with PICvideo or virtualdub.