capturing analoge video

[raffage75]

i'm trying to capture from my analoge vcr. i'm using Power VCR II and my videocard is a Medion GeForce MX460. when i vieuw my files on my computer (before recoring them) they look ok, but when i view them back after recording the quality is surely not that good. i tried different profiles but to no avail. anyone any id what the problem can be?

[eXhale]

The capture card you use is probably not good enough to encode analog source in high-quality format. I know the Matrox G400-TV I have on my old computer produce VERY poor quality videos and it's only when I switched to the Pinnacle DV500+ that I noticed the difference.

[raffage75]

thx for the info. i thought that it was something like that. now i'm planning to by a DC10 or a DC30. those should be ok to capture analoge, no? is there on teh workfloor a big difference between those cards?

rafta

[elbows]

Power VCR II is in my experience not good for capturing in decent quality.

What do you want to do with the captured files? If I recall PowerVCR records to MPEG1 or MPEG2 format which is not the best for VJing.

There is a vast range of capture cards out there so its really best to get something thats just right for the speed of your PC and what resolution & format you would like to capture the files in.

What spec is your PC?

Your capture card is not great, but to get really nice analogue capture you have to spend quite a bit of money, so it may just be worth trying different capture software before you spend any more money.

Try virtualdub (free) it has capture capabilities, if they work with your card and your PC is powerful enought hen you can capture straight to DivX or whatever format you want, or if not then you can capture uncompressed then encode the how you want later. Warning: uncompressed video takes up a huge amount of space.

You might also want to try showsifter for capturing. I cant guarauntee that either wil work with your card, it depends how well the drivers are written etc, but its worth a try.

[slike]

right, what elbows said ...

a capture card (like pinnacle?s) is probably the best solution ...
but expensive ...
i use my tv-card (win-tv bt848 with composite-in) to capture material ...
virtualdub is great for this ... but only at 384x288 i get full frames and at 768x576 or more i get only every second frame ...
normally a standard tv-card or a card with composite/s-vhs-IN is good enough for capturing, but an expensive Capture-Card is much better.

dont know if this helps ...

sLike

[riesso]

Hy guys !!!

I decide my own these days to buy a new capture hardware which is much better than my terratec TV Value Card which makes only 25 fps at a resolution of max quarter PAL 180x120 i believe

there are three good ones which are in my nearer choice

the dazzle video creator 150 high-speed which is a converter box connectet with the pc via usb 1.1 or better usb 2.0 it should be very fast and you can capture full pal res with 25 fps vj-related res is no problem 320x288 for example costs 249 eur

second one is the electronic design av easy from about 179 EUR
which is a PCI-CARD with analog in/out

both can capture into m-peg 1, 2 , avi, rm and others...and convert to every other analog source back

there is a third one is a converter box called USB toVIDEO i dont know something about it ...have to search for info
( for the germans: there will be a test in the PC Grafik&Video 03/02 which is currently in the stores !!! )

i dont know which ones are possible for virtual dub but i think the ll all work with premiere and vegas...


to the starter of thread raffage :

the question is ...which video chip does the card have these tv -cardsfor example do only have those BT 878 chipsets...but the videocards do have there own hardware-codec-chips...which have a higher data-rate....

but i heard there are some fast software-codecs to capture in good quality with a cheap card for example the PIC-VIDEO-CODEC
which is an MJPEG-based CODEC is one of them

greetz riesso from frankfurt/germany

some-links

www.dazzle-europe.com

www.electronic-design.com

[Meierhans]

I you have a descent PC i got a low cost solution for you:

- Buy a Haupauge at ebay (20-30 $)
(or any card with BT878 chipset)

- install latest wdm drivers

- get uiVCR or any other WDM based capture proggi

-get Huffyuv codec

- capture in full res, deinterlace in postprocess

[hamageddon]

i wouldn't recommend usb capturing here, get a PCI better AGP capture card some speedy harddrive and the
computer doesn't have to be a cpu monster, i'm doing fine with a guillemot cougar and a pii350 here capturing 352x288 while compressing on the fly with picvideo mjpeg codec

if u are into hiquality captureing u mite consider using one of those analog to firewire external boxes like the canopus
http://www.vjcentral.com/show/1839,
or use a digicam with analog/digital passthru (like lots of the Sony TRV Range) and capture directly via firewire. but get a biiiig harddisk first ;)

[Meierhans]

Yep, USB 1.1 is crap for capturing. Lets see wait for usb 2.0 devices.

If you compress to picvideo you will loose quality if you recompress afterwards into another codec like mideo or indeo.

[elbows]

If your computer is fast enough then you can capture at full res full framerate with a bt878 based card, especially if you used optimised 3rd party drivers

(http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/)

[riesso]

the new dazzle box is optimized and especially developed for usb 2.0....but works on 1.1 with lower rate @ meierhans

but yeah there could be some cheaper ways to buy....

to capture only ..it isnt useful but if you wanna convert back to vhs it is better with an external hardware i believe

for me it is important to change my terratec-card which works bad with an card which has higher data rate for higher res than 240x180 !!!

[raffage75]

yo guys, thx for all teh helpfull info! i'm gonna try different capturesoftwares first. i've got Vegas en Premiere, and gonna try the others mentioned here also. i HAVE to find a solution because i need the content for my first vj-gig on newyears-eve.

to elbow & the others: sorry can't give you more specs of my comp because it's at my parents house and i don't live there anymore... but i will post it as soon as i'm back 'home'


my back-up plan is to rip some dvd's. has anybody here had some good experiences with a particular kind of ripping-software you can recommend me?


grtz
r.

[hamageddon]

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