On Tue, 20 Mar 2001 17:52:36 GMT, MJ wrote:

>Can anyone either point me to where I can download a mere 10 to 20
>seconds or so of raw DV video, or help me out? Can be of anything as
>long as there is some movement.

10-seconds of Mini-DV is a BIG file...! ;-)
You can find frame-grabs and descriptions of motion-video
(and audio) from several camcorders critically reviewed at:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder-comparison.htm

>I'm in the process of learning, purchasing, & setting up my first
>editing workstation & DV camera. So far, I only have the basic
>computer setup:
>P111 933 with 256k ram 60Gig 7200drv
>Media studio Pro & Pyro 1394
>No capture board (No DV Camera yet),

The Pyro will work, though there are better codecs
than the MS... You may want to add a 15-20 gig
drive split into "C" and video-preview partitions, save
the 60 for video files...

>reason being computer first, I thought I could practice editing while
>I learn more & save for the better DV Camera. I've gathererd about a
>dozen clips off the Internet...Problem is I'm starting with already
>compressed material so I really can't make any realistic judgments on
>output quality to see what is going on. My goal is to eventually
>output the best quality I can on to DVD.

Then start with the best quality original...

>I'm considering purchasing a cannon XL-1 since I already have a few
>lenses or,

The adapter is expensive, and all the lenses you have will
be long tele on the small-CCD video camera. For the money
(or considerably less...), there are better choices, I
think...

>a better combination DVCAM/DV camera but don't know much
>about them.

Same image quality as in similar MiniDV models...
Consider DVCam as just faster Mini-DV, but with the same
signal (this is digital...).

>I want to capture mainly in cold weather.(see my other
>post)

The Sony cameras take the LARGE-capacity NPF-950/960
batteries - a couple of these should get you through
a lot of cold-weather shooting in a day...

>Also, If someone can answer this, What final output quality difference
>is there if I'd purchase a small fairly cheap consumer DV camera to
>use as an DV input to computer to get non digital taped video into it
>instead of a using a capure board such as the Matrox rt2000?

????
The quality of what goes in depends on the quality
of what goes in...;-) The Mini-DV/DVCam format is fixed,
and is just a digital data-stream. It doesn't matter how
it is entered into the computer (except for the quality of
the A->D converter - but these are all pretty good...). The
quality of the original video does matter, as (to a lesser
extent) does the quality of the codec used when altering
the DV files during editing (filters, transitions, and
effects). If you use cuts only, and just rearrange parts,
you have not altered the original files upon output, so
the DV-codec used doesn't matter...