Camcorder vid to PC?

[Gimps]

I was wondering if there is anyway to talk my VHS camcorder and transfer the video to my hard drive? Can it be done with a basic VHS camcorder, or do you need a digital camcorder? I don't want to dish out $500 for a digital camcorder if I can use the VHS recorder I already have.

Any help would be appreciated!

[A380]

If you want to get a vhs video into your pc, you'll need a capture card. I use the Pinnacle DC10 plus. It has an hardware MJPEG codec and captures thevideo to an avi file. You'll need a big and fast harddrive (7200rpm at least 40gb(=2hvideo)) for that i capture with 6000kbit/s.
After capturing you cut it, some nice effects and so on. Then encode it to SVCD (MPG2) and burn it to CD. That's also playable in a stand alone player.
you can also "capture" with an tv card, some have hardware mpg2 codec on them. but the quality is not as good as if you capture to avi. and in mp2 you can only cut GOP's not frames. If you encode an avi to mpg2 then this takes hours. that's why the software encoder is better, better quality!
You could also get a DVCAM with video in. then you could save the video to the camcorder, and then transfer it via firewire to the pc. the good thing is, when you film next time, it's already digital on oyur cam, so no quality loss during capturing or saving to vhs ...
A380
Many infos probably confusing you. send me pm or mail for more questions ;)

[Gimps]

No that's not totally confusing, most of it made sense. I actually have a WD 120GB 7200RPM hard drive, so no worries there.(about 95GB are free)

Just out of curiousity, what is a ballpark price on that Pinnacle and is there any other card that would do the same for less money?

If you can't tell I'm on a strict budget, so I'm trying to get at least decent quality video, with the lowest cost possible.

I guess my Ti4600 won't help at all with video editing, not that I'd expect it to but it'd be nice.

[A380]

AFAIK the TI4600 can't do that. I've got the Ti4400
The Ti4600 has Tv-Out right? but no video-in AFAIk.

Well, Pinnacle is already cheap and good. The DC10plus is quite good. Pinnacle, or Dazzle products are the only ones i know for low budget. But i wouldn't save when it comes to Video editing.
The Dc10plus comes with Studio8 the new Version. The mpg2 output of Studio isn't that good. there is a programm called TMPGEnc that does mpg2 encoding really good. I'd recommend to get this into your plans.
What i do is connect the vhs recorder to the DC10plus. than capture to MJPEG avi. then i cut it in studio, some nice effects etc. then export the hole thing to the hdd in MJPEG again. then encode it with tmpegenc to mpg2 svcd and burn it to svcd. ready.
A380
I'Ve got the same hdd WD120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache.
this 120gb is only for video editing ;)
normally it's not good to capture to a hdd where windows is on, cause of windows swap file, can cause dropped frames when windows wants to write to the swap file, while capturing. so i got the 120gb wd only for video editing and windows on a different hdd.

I know that i sometimes confuse people, cause i want to tell them all i know about that, so that they don't do things wrong.

[Gimps]

Actually with my Ti4600 I recieved a VIVO cable, is that the same as video in?

If not I'll start looking into the DC10, it looks like it'll only cost between $50-80 anyway.

[A380]

VIVO?
if you've got more than 1 cinch connection on the back, than you maybe can capture videos. otherwise no.
with the dc10plus you can capture videos, but you can't use it to view full screen tv. but the quality capturing with a capture card is better than with a tv card.
A380

[Gimps]

Yeah when I put on the VIVO cable(Video in Video out), then I have two connections. I still don't think it'll work well for editing and since I can pickup the DC10 Plus on ebay for $50 I'll go with that! Thanks for your help!

[A380]

You can try it out with the Ti4600 first.
The Pinnacle dc10plus is a great card.
If you have any problems with video editing or encoding to mpg2 just PM me or send me an E-mail. (Please refere to this thread when contacting me again, so i know who and what is going on ;) )
A380

[A380]

VIVO=VideoIn VideoOut? I just really realized it now. If there is video in, than you certainly can do it. you can use Virtualdub or nandub both freeware for capturing.
A380

[Gimps]

On a final note then, I should be able to run Sound In through my Audigy card, right? You've been a lot of help, hopefully this all works out!

[A380]

Sound will be connected with the Soundcards line in.
and video to the video in of the ti4600 or the pinnacledc10plus or another videocard.
in audiohq if installed, you select line in to be on, the red mark has to be away then line in is activated, if it's there it is off.
when you set up the sound, then deactivate the microphone in and so on, as this might make your sound worse.
A380

[Gimps]

Good deal, I'll be trying that out next weekend! Thank you for the quick replies, I'm sure I'll get this up and running in no time!

[A380]

Well, i subscribed to this thread, that's why ;)
A380