Record to VCR ?

[syfenx]

i like to do alot at one time on my pc, such as (alot of effects, alot of layers) and capturing to an avi is out of the question

what about if i clone my monitor to go to the s-video out? and record it to a vcr, this sounds perfect to me

but problems have to arise somewhere... i know

has anybody else had any kind of luck with this setup?

[syfenx]

recording with a vcr, im satisfied, but recording through firewire would get me a huge quality boost, i might end up taking this back and saving for a little longer..

suggestions?

[seex]

Recording to VCR is ok, you might have to figure out how you will get the recording back into the computer.

Record to a DV camera, your qality will be a bit better and you can send you material back to the computer via firewire.

[evomedia]

The main problem is your interlacing your footage

Plus recording it to VCR you still have to capture it back in to use it again, so all in all your footage is likely to look a bit crap afterwards. Even a DVD recorder would be better or even a second PC recording onto a PVR.

But as seek said, by far the easiest is a DV cam via firewire, and no need to recapture VCR tapes via a capture card, just do it straight to your firewire port.

Still no where near the quality of rendering out your footage properly though.

[syfenx]

like i said im satisfied, but i guess it was an impulse buy, as that is my middle name

thanks for the fast response, now im on my way to look for a cheap dvd recorder :(

[Meierhans]

I suggest to get a second another PC (low end P4, maybe 100-200 € + a huge new HD), put a Haupauge TV card inside and capture via S-Video in full PAL / NTSC. You can use Huffyuv codec for this (lossless) or Picvideo (Q 18, 4:2:2). I take Picvideo if you I to use the the files directly, Huffyuv if they need futher processing like a little bit of denoising or other things in AFX that can`t be done in realtime.
The advantage of this cheap solution is that your files will be directly accessable over LAN, they don`t loose important details and color resolution and are compressed in a propper way to apply effects later on.

I would avoid analog VCR?s, even S-VHS. They just sample half the resolution of your signal, add alot analog noise, and you again add noise when you recapture the clip. DV is ok, but its color sampling is just 4:2:0 (4:1:1 for NTSC). This means you will again loose alot color information, additional to that 25 Mbit is not very much for fast moving things & the DV codec does not handle arctificial colors so good. Result: Steppiness and Artefacts. May not be so bad if you just playback the clips, gets worse when you apply color/levels/contrast effects on them, is really bad when it comes to third generation. I prefer a bit noise over digital artefacts.

DVCPro or Digibeta are great for such things, since they sample at higher rates and 4:2:2. But for one deck you can get like 50 PC?s...
Best way to go would indeed be direct DVI or SDI capture, but this is also costs to much for me.

[sleepytom]

if your going down the computer capture route look at blackmagic decklink cards which capture into a 10bit lossless codec via composite / svideo / component / sdi. they are very good value considering they provide the same quality as a digibeta deck!

[SilentEclipse]

imo...invest in a good mini dv camera, use it to shoot ure own footage and also to record ure computer output, then you get 2 good functions out of one device.

the 3rd function could be as a digetising divice for analogue content.

and 4th could be as a tape backup of your clips

all in all a sound investment for any vj

[asterix]

have you tried out patchbox?
you can stream your output over a network via freeframe.
I haven't actually tested it myself but will be this weekend.

[denee]

Anybody knows if Sony HDV FX-1 can record progressive video from s-video output?

[sleepytom]

no it can't - the fx1/z1 cannot do progresive of any kind.

[denee]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-609412.html

kool topic about hd capture

[Meierhans]

no it can't - the fx1/z1 cannot do progresive of any kind
Thats not completly right, it has a progressive function to record from sensor (sadly not from input). Even if it just throws away half of the lines, this can make sense if you want use it for quick progressive productions, or want to save MPEG-2 bandwith for complex and fast things.