Capturing using a slow computer and cheap card?

[DOMMOD]

Hi everybody,

I want to save my 8mm camcorder tapes in a digital format. The hardware I am using is: a 450MHz computer, 384Mb RAM, 5200rpm 9Gb harddrive, a Conexant clone video capture board mad by Pine.
I used ShowShifter as capture software(picked it up from the divx site) and I captured a couple of minutes compressed(very low harddrive space consumed). I used TMPgenc to convert it to vcd format and after a lot of tweaking(thanks to the invaluable howtos from this site) I was able to obtain a vcd with an acceptable quality(10-20% worse than the tape).
The problem is: can I improve on this(maybe a better capturing software)? I don't want to buy new hardware(I know that even 1000 dollars will give me better results)

TIA
DOMMOD

[akbor75]

if you go for good quality i think you should spend some dollars to upgrade your system.

i suggest this:

- buy a bigger/faster hd. for video 80/120 GB at 7200 rpm is normal.
price: 60-120 USD i think.

- with more hd space you can capture with less compression. if you want better compression tou need more cpu speed. i have 2 GHz, but maybe 1 GHz will be ok too. a faster cpu really saves lots of time! it's a big difference if it takes 2 hours to encode something or 10 hours.
price: i don't know.

- SVCD will produce much better videos than VCD.
software for mpeg2 will costs some money, but if you first try some tools you'll only have to buy the one you like most.
price: 50-80 USD i think.

- if you really like creating movies you can buy a dvd writer. with some software you can esily create some menu, which is rather cool.
price: 100-150 USD i think.

have fun.

[Moonstomp]

Hi,

I'd recommend Virtual VCR for Capture on a slow system. However your capture card must have "WDM" drivers. (if you have "VFW" drivers try VirtualDuB) I used Virtual VCR successfully on my Pentium 3 550 Mhtz system with no dropped frames.

You can get Virtual VCR here: http://virtualvcr.sourceforge.net/

It captures to .avi which takes up a LOT of hard disk space, but you can then run the .avi through TMPGenc to make an MPEG. When capturing use the Huffyuv codec.

Get the codec here: http://neuron2.net/www.math.berkeley.edu/benrg/huffyuv.html

Here's a great guide on capturing with Virtual VCR: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html

Hope this helps,

Good Luck

Moonstomp.

[DOMMOD]

Thank you for your answers. The Pine(Conexant) card I am using is a BT8x8 based card, and I don't know what type of driver is using(where should I look?). I want to use VCDs because my dvd player knows only DVD and VCD formats.
The main problem I see is that the avi file obtained has a better(just by eyeballing) quality than the VCD obtained.
I read Capture guide using VirtualDUb and it suggested to use a higher definition at capturing9maybe this is the answer).
I'll give a try to Virtual VCR also.

[bodomjuho]

This won't help you, but where did you buy that capture card? And how much did it cost?
I have thinked of buying on myself.

[akbor75]

AVI looks always better than VCD (of cource depending on the settings you used). VCD may look good, this depends on the pictures of the movie (number of colors, camera movenment etc).
But by experience I know that SVCD is much better than VCD. Ofcourse it takes up more space but I think it's worth it.
If you're not satisfied with the VCD quality there isn't much you can do. VCD (mpeg1) has a low bitrate, so if you want a better bitrate you should use SVCD or DVD (mpeg2).

To save hd space you should't capture to 'raw' avi. But ofcource if your cpu can't take it you'll have to.

Are you sure your player doesn't support SVCD? I think it might do, cos both SVCD and DVD use the same codec (MPEG2).

[redwudz]

With your present system, the one single item that you really need is a bigger harddrive. You can get acceptable results if you capture to AVI and convert to MPG with a program like TMPGEnc. I believe a free version still exists. A slow processor will work, but you need somewhere to store the files. Even a 20G harddrve, seperate from your boot drive would help a lot, of course bigger is better.

[Moonstomp]

Dommod,

To find out whether your card uses VFM or WDM drivers - You should check the manual that came with your tv card. Otherwise check the manufacturers website. Or try "Device Manager" in Windows.

Sometimes you can update your drivers - as I did with my Pinnacle PCTV card = upgraded from VFM to WDM.

Moonstomp

[DOMMOD]

This won't help you, but where did you buy that capture card? And how much did it cost?
I have thinked of buying on myself.

I bought it at Future Shop-48$CAN
But it has almost no tech docs, on the Pine's website I couldn't find it( support from Future S sales people is... like at Best Buy)
ANd it comes with Dscaler as capturing software.

[DOMMOD]

Are you sure your player doesn't support SVCD? I think it might do, cos both SVCD and DVD use the same codec (MPEG2).[/quote]

I burned once an svcd and it didn't recognize it. It's a Toshiba and last time I checked there is no Toshiba model with svcd capability. Maybe there are some upgrades that will make it read svcds but I am not aware of any.

[bodomjuho]

ÖÖÖ
How much is one CAN dollar? Same as US

[Moonstomp]

8)

Bodomjuho - One Canadian Dollar is about USD $ 0.76, so Can 48.00 is about USD $ 36.50.

Dommod - Best thing now is to try out Virtual Dub and Virtual VCR. If Dub works then you have VFW drivers and if VCR works then you have WDM drivers. Either way you can get good quality capture with the one that works. And both are FREE !!

Moonstomp.

[bodomjuho]

Could you tell me the exact model and name of the Pine video capture card. So I could try to find the same from EU. Can I capture VHS videos with it?

[DOMMOD]

8)

[ Best thing now is to try out Virtual Dub and Virtual VCR. If Dub works then you have VFW drivers and if VCR works then you have WDM drivers. Either way you can get good quality capture with the one that works. And both are FREE !!

Moonstomp.

Hi Moonstomp,

I think you are right and this is the way to go. Thanks a lot,
DOMMOD

[DOMMOD]

Could you tell me the exact model and name of the Pine video capture card. So I could try to find the same from EU. Can I capture VHS videos with it?

The name is Pine Technology AI-TVPCI TV Tuner/ Video Capture Card.
Go to www.futureshop.ca and find a description there. I didn't find any on Pine's site.

[bodomjuho]

Thanks!
I'll buy some TV-Card from EU