From the specs, Microsoft Vista will offer HDV capture with its bundled new version of Movie Maker.

My question is how the quality of HDV capture may compare to other NLE software such as Premiere Pro & Vegas. At the moment I am not concerned with the actual editing, as I will not be editing my first attempt at a documentary till the end of the year.

I will be in the field, the South Pacific, for an extended period and just need to capture footage at the best quality on to a computer and view the unedited footage.

The reason, I would delay purchasing my final editing software is the old budget dilemma. I am having enough trouble buying the actual gear, so am trying to spread out expenses. Plus there could be a new version available by the time I start editing. Importantly a version that is Vista compatible.

So the question is would this new Movie Maker capture the footage off the camera into the computer with the same quality as the more expensive NLE software. Again editing features irrelevant.

Thanks for your input. By the way, this forum with people’s input is such an amazing tool to learn. I hope to answer other people questions as I progress and I learn more.

There is no 'capture' with digital video. The 'capture' term derives from days when it was necessary to digitize analog video so it could be stored and edited on a computer. Since almost all camcorders today record in digital format, there is no need to digitize the footage since it was digitized in the camcorder...and that includes HDV. So, 'capture' in the case of digital video is simply a file copy process. Nothing gets changed WRT video quality as long as the connection between the camcorder and the computer is robust and the computer can handle the data stream. I have no clue about Vista Movie Maker. But, if it offers HDV 'capture' then it will copy the video fine from the camcorder to the computer.

Thanks for your clarification. Makes sense.

I guess I was wondering if this low end NLE software does additional compression of the video to save space on computer considering it is consumer oriented. Then again if it does, perhaps one could turn any additional compression off.

Thanks