What are the different DV CODECs ?
Basically the DV CODECs can be split into 2 groups. Hardware and Software. I will try to give a brief, non-technical overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each. Remember, the final video quality of your production is not an issue. DV in = DV out. Software CODECs The biggest advantage of software based FireWire boards are how affordable they are. They are much less expensive then hardware CODEC based cards because they rely on software compression and the speed and power of your computer to digitize and edit the footage. Software FireWire cards are really just an interface for bringing the DV video in and out of your computer. Everything you do with the video is done by software. The obvious advantage of this is that with computers getting more and more powerful every day, software based systems become faster and faster. The biggest downside of software based cards is that they are DV only. They don’t have S-video or composite video inputs or outputs, just DV. So if you have o
