Capturing video from Digital or Analog Tapes

The term "capturing video" simply means transferring it from video tape to the
PC hard drive where it resides as a digital video file that can be edited and
placed into a movie.

  - If the source video is an analog tape from a VCR or camcorder, then
    "capturing" means recording the video onto the hard drive by converting
    it from analog to digital format.

  - If the source video is the DV tape from a digital camcorder, then
    "capturing" means transferring the digital file from the camcorder to 
    the PC hard drive. It's important to understand that capturing analog 
    video from a VCR is not the same as capturing digital video from a DV
    camcorder. Analog video capture involves a conversion of the video
    signal from analog to digital format and requires you to adjust some 
    settings (e.g. frame size, compression format, etc.) that depend on what
    you intend to do with the captured video. In contrast, video from a DV 
    camcorder has already been digitized by the camera and exists in digital
    format on the DV tape. Therefore, the term "capturing" video from a
    digital camcorder does not involve any conversion from analog to digital
    because it's already in digital format and is simply being transferred 
    from the camcorder to the PC hard drive.
_______________________________________________________________________________