video capture

[nihili]

I'm building a new computer for my dad. One of the things he wants to be able to do is to take some old family movies and put them into a format that he could put on a CD. He's got a set up so that he can turn the old 8mm film into video. But I need some way to go from analog video to a digital format.

Am I better off getting a video card with capture capability (if so which one?), or getting a good video card and a separate caputure card? (again, which ones?)

We're not talking about cinematic production, just recording home movies. Ease of use is more important than cost.

Here's the rest of the computer

Shuttle AK31 rev 3.1
Athlon XP 1500+
256 meg crucial ram
Either an SK6 or an PAL 8045 heat sink
Evercase ECE4252 with 300 wat Enhance psu

I'll take any other sugestions too.

nihili

***EDIT***
I had been going to get a Matrox 550 video card.

[FerrariF50]

You know their is a Photo place by me that does this...they can put home video's on cd's and whatnot...That might be a little better for you...But i'm not sure how much it would cost...But I'm sure it cost less then all new hardware.

[Pinky]

The radeon line offers the best integrated capture features... for your needs the radeon vivo card should do... but only if you game (since the card is a good gaming card that happens to have decent capture capabilities).

Some add on capture cards / units (like dazzle) would work, but tend to increase the odds of having incompatibility issues. Personally I prefer the single solution radeon which is why I bought one.

[Sonny]

I got a Pinacle Studio VCD capture card that I purchased last march & it can only do so much plus the software bundled with it is shareware. I have no use for it anymore;)

[nihili]

Thanks for the replies so far.

We're talking on the order of a hundred hours or more of video, so having it done elsewhere might get pretty expensive. I'm building the computer for Dad anyway, this is jus tone of the features he'd like. Gaming is a complete non-issue, Dad doesn't even play solitaire.

nihili

[FerrariF50]

Originally posted by nihili
Thanks for the replies so far.

We're talking on the order of a hundred hours or more of video, so having it done elsewhere might get pretty expensive. I'm building the computer for Dad anyway, this is jus tone of the features he'd like. Gaming is a complete non-issue, Dad doesn't even play solitaire.

nihili


lol ok if it's that long your better doing it yourself :p

[DeepScience]

Originally posted by FerrariF50
You know their is a Photo place by me that does this...they can put home video's on cd's and whatnot...That might be a little better for you...But i'm not sure how much it would cost...But I'm sure it cost less then all new hardware.

No way. All you need is an el-cheapo analog video capture card.
For example, you can get a Miro Studio DC10plus for only NZ$599 including Pinnacle studio 7. US$210? You don't even need the version with Pinnacle studio as MS have a free wmv encoder available (although i use Premiere).

I would capture directly to the computer if possible - don't master to VHS cos that will decrease quality.

As far as the compression to cd goes I am finding WMV 8.0 to produce very nice results at less space than DivX.
I use 1000kbps with 44kHz mono, slightly biased to quality over smoothnesss, at the same resolution I capture at (720x576) so that it is faster compressing. Works out at 408MB for one hour (or two 50min TV shows)

WindowsXP is the preferred platform as there is no limit on the captured file size (no need to stop capturing every 20 minutes).

[Cisco Kid]

Cheapest solution is a Radeon 64 DDR vivo video card. Great card at a great price $145 US approx, your best all in one completion.

I had one and loved it actually wished I had not sold it, as my 7500 does not have video in.

As Pinky said in earlier post best to have one card that does it all to avoid any software/hardware conflict issues.

Also if gaming is not an issue you could get a Rage Fury pro vivo 32 sdram card for cheaper , bout 60-80 uS i believe and

the other choice would be a 32 sdram ALL IN Wonder card for $108 US at newegg.com. Can you say TV on your pc

ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 128 PRO 32M SDRAM 2X/4X AGP - OEM 128-bit 3D graphics performance powered by RAGE 128 PRO 3D graphics performance Intelligent TV-Tuner with Digital VCR TV-ON-DEMAND Interactive Program Guide Still image and MPEG-2* motion video capture Video editing Hardware DVD video playback Video output to TV or VCR

Cisco Kid so anywhere from say $70 US to $147 US will do the job for ya:cool:

[Oni]

Pick up the Radeon VIVO. Still one of the best cards on the market, imho.

[DeepScience]

Apparently the DC10+ is only US$100

Re the ATI card, Obviously it can capture DV resolution via the firewire connection. It mentions this resolution in the specs. It doesn't mention what analog resolution you can capture though.

Does it do full-screen-full-motion mpeg2 analog video capture? And does it cost $100?

[goatzool]

I found this thread by searching for "video capture" and "analog." I would have asked the same question originally asked by nihili except that I want to know what the best setup is for high quality capture of video that was recorded on superVHS (SVHS) to begin with.

A lot of forum members have identified VIVO cards that can capture analog signals and digitize them. I agree with the general proposition that it is desirable to have a single vid card do all functions, and I've heard that there are conflict problems with standalone video capture cards, like a certain Matrox card. On the other hand, I suspect that some of the high end capture cards that go for $300-$600 US have a much higher quality capture than a Radeon or ATI All-In-WOnder, or no one would buy them. I looked all over the internet for guidance on this, and there is a real shortage of information. It seems as though the market for high end video capture has not dropped to the point where a typical home user is buying it.

So, anyone out there have experience with high quality capture cards, and if so, which one is your recommendation?

[pip]

Depending on if you use DV or analog you could grab a firewire card with DV software like a solution from ADS or if analog pretty much any usb/pci capture card will work