I would not buy Premiere 6.x because it lets you lose sync and doesn't have good color correction tools as well as other things. Premiere Pro or Vegas Video would probably be a better idea (I've never used Premiere Pro so I can't vouch for it).

All the NLEs will capture at the same quality. In Premiere 6.x, make sure your settings are set to the default DV settings (something like NTSC DV 48khz).

Ehm, Glen your post is a bit confusing. There is not Premiere Pro
6.x, I'm assuming you mean Premiere 6.x? Premiere Pro is
basically version 7.0

I took a quick look at the Adobe site and couldn't find any info
on the product specification pages for Premiere Pro. If they had
included such a codec one would think they would yell that at
you on those pages. So I'm thinking they are still using the
Microsoft one.

Now do keep in mind that the MS DV Codec has been getting
better since the first incarnations! Every new OS brings a new
version of the codec and I do believe a new version of DirectX
upgrades it as well.

Premiere Pro uses MainConcept's excellent DV codec.

How would I go about changing the codec I use for Premiere Pro? The video rendering codec drop list is grey out, so I can't select the one I want.

Chris: Capturing from Firewire does not use a software codec, it's simply downloading the encoded datastream from your camcorder. The encoding happened in your camcorder, in hardware. The point of "using a DV codec" for the output process only happens when you do a render out of your NLE. So if you edit and then *render* in Premier Pro, you will use the Premier (Main Concept) DV Codec. Editing and rendering out of Vegas will use the SoFo codec.

Ooops! Ok I fixed it now.

Thanks for all the help guys. This was my first time asking a question, and amazingly, it was answered within a day. This message board is definitely one of the most helpful DV resources I've ever come across. Thanks again for the help, and I'm sure you'll see another one of my questions soon.

What kind of codec would provide great quality (other than the Intel codec)?

Jeff,
On a similiar problem, I recently had two weddings with excessive background A/C noise that is too loud to ignore. I'm using Premiere 6.5 and the only thing that comes close to eliminating this hum is the High Pass audio filter. However, the remaining vocals are left sounding thin and tinney. Are you aware of a better way to filter out this noise. I'll also consider other software or plug-ins if someone has a good solution.
Thanks,
Bob

If you have an A/C Hum, use a notch filter or a parametric filter with a very high Q. Set the attenuation (negative gain) until you don't hear the hum anymore. Excessive attenuation will affect surrounding frequencies. Try notch filters on 60 and 120 Hz.
Sometimes, you'll need 180 Hz. You can identify the worst hums by using those settings and boosting the gain (+dB) to pronounce the hum. Once you are sure you have identified the
frequency of the hum, then attenuate. By using such frequency-selective filters, you can avoid affecting the rest of your audio.
If you know it's A/C hum, then notch filtering is better than anything else.

Most high pass or low shelf filters come in the 2nd order or 2 pole flavor. This means that their rolloff slope is -12 dB / octave. Since this slope is rather mild, as you move the center frequency up from the low values to your vocal range, the vocal range will be
deballsified when you reach an adequate level of hum removal.
Some packages allow high order filters, but most are simply cascades of more 2nd order sections that are all set to the same filter parameters. Cascading increases the rolloff slope, but it would be best to actually design higher order filters.

Hi all. Thanks for the quick response! I'll definitely look into Vegas video, sounds like it could be right up my alley!

Don't forget that Avid Free DV has just been released!

Now, I don't think that anybody would argue that the Avid interface is probably the most daunting of almost any interface out there, but some people take to it like a duck to water. I'm not one of those people, but hey - we can't all be wired the same way!

The point is, it's free! Totally free!!! It's also somewhat simple in that many of the higher-ended features have been disabled, so you have less options to worry about, like only 2 tracks of video. Only 2 audio channels. Did I mention it's free?

You may hate it. You may love it. You may love it so much, that in 6 months, you'll go out and plunk down $900 to buy Avid Xpress DV. That, of course, is what Avid is counting on. Either way, you could always download it and see if you like it. After all, it's free.

www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp

I would also like to make some comments regarding your capture problems with P6. Are you capturing through the firewire port from a DV camera? You have not specified. When you start a new project you set preferences for that project that tells Premire what codec to use for capturing/rendering/etc. Are you using a standard DV preset for those project preferences? We need specifics here in order to answer your question with any authority.

Keep in mind that just because you capture the clips with one program, it doesn't mean that every other program will open up those clips. Capture in Premiere, the file might not open in Vegas. Choose your editing program before doing a lot of digitizing footage.

Also, DV tapes are so cheap that I can't see a reason that you would ever tape over one. You said you wanted to keep your tapes on file instead of going back to the tapes each time. Fair enough. Having non-linear access to your tapes on your hard drive could be a real time saver. But for goodness sake, don't ever record over those originals. If there's even a slight chance you'll ever need that footage again, don't trust it to your computer. You hard drive has a much better chance of dying than to trust it with your original footage.