Capturing/Editing/Exporting using Final Cut Express 4

Welches said:

When I capture footage from my Digital 8 camcorder through FCE, the file shows up on my harddrive as a .mov file. Is this correct?

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Yes, but you're over thinking that. MOV is a container format. It is the codec that is DV. You have the right file.

I am wanting to capture DV footage as the highest quality for editing. The footage looks to be high quality, but I just want to make sure I am using it correctly.

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Yes, you're correct.

Maybe a quick walkthrough from somebody would be helpful.

Capturing through FCE.
Editing in FCE.
Export through FCE using 'Quicktime Conversion' into .avi format
Burn with iDVD

Does this sound like the right sequence?

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Not quite... don't Export using Quicktime Conversion. Just export as a quicktime file. You want this to remain DV format through the entire process up to burning. (You will never need to use an AVI format unless you are exporting to a PC, BTW)

For the exporting using Quicktime Conversion, I have selected .avi format, Best quality, with no video compression, and uncompressed audio.

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As I said above, you don't need to do this.

When you've saved your file, simply open up iDVD and "import" the media, and you're good to go. and BTW If you have properly set chapter markers in FCE, iDVD will autoformat the menus for you too.

Final Cut Express comes with a PDF manual that is more than 1000 pages long. Several chapters are devoted to "the basics". You might want to check them out.