Real Newbie - Hardware & Software Picture Quality Questi

[bmoret]

I'm a real newbie, so I'll apologize upfront for my ignorance.

My questions revolve around 'what makes the best picture quality'? Any suggestions on what issues I should consider in order to help myself make a good purchase would be appreciated.

I'm hoping for both hardware and software recommendations. I want to convert my VHS tapes into DVDs. I'd like to be able to do some basic editing. I might also one day capture from tv. (I don't even own an HDTV, but I assume I would need a different card than for a regular tv?)

One person said that the capture card hardware is all the same ... so is the difference that some is just easier to install? or is that person just incorrect? If there is a picture quality difference, is it because of clarity? color?

I was originally leaing toward the Plextor PM-M402U. It's about $170 and comes with the needed software. But the Canopus hardware seems to get the best reviews overall (ADVC-100 or ADVC-50). Am I going to get a better quality picture with the Canopus? The ADVC-50 costs a little more, $175 than the Plextor, but comes with no software. Should I consider any other hardware?

When it comes to software, I'm totally lost. As I understand it, I'll need software to capture, edit, convert and then burn the DVD. I'm not concerned about filesize or how long it takes to convert the file. I've got plenty of diskspace and can let it run all day if necessary. I'm not doing anything fancy, so the process should not be difficult. Should I just use the freeware that's available. Will it deliver the picture quality of commercial applications? Do the commercial applications just provide more features or is there a noticeable picture quality difference?

Regarding software, are applications "tuned" to certain hardware? For example, let's say I have application A which delivers great quality and application B which delivers so-so quality using one capture card. Then I use them both with a different card, can I reliably count on application A still delivering the better picture?

Thanks

[Nelson37]

Well, for straight AVI capture, not much difference among the inexpensive cards, SFAIK. You will need more processor power. No real-time or PVR.

Hardware solutions range from Canopus to Hauppage to ATI. I only have experience with ATI, all offer real-time encoding.

You will get some software with the card or box, much freeware available.
Get Vdub, TMPGenc, to start. Dedicated programs may or may not work with other cards, software may well work differently with different hardware. Or exactly the same. This is for capture software, encoders just get faster or slower, primarily with processor speed. You may find you hate the features of the included software but it gives the best quality.

Picture quality does vary, in many ways. Noise, interference, dropped frames, fuzzy picture, bad sound all factors. Get a card with S-video inputs, well worth it to buy a similar-equipped VCR. Good quality video and audio cables, SHORT. TBC desirable but expensive.

VCR capture is affected by many issues, read up on some problems you WILL encounter. Macrovision, Overscan, many others.

Tune your process seperately, but with an eye on the goal. Concentrate on getting the best looking capture file, first. When you get ready to start encoding, do a DVD backup as a test. Refine your procedure with a nearly perfect source, work out the bugs. Then try to get your captures to look that good on disk.

Remember that the Huffy AVI codec you will try is NOT optimized for playback, but re-encodes just fine. Some systems have some playback-related, not picture quality, issues.

Tune your brightness, color, and volume settings on capture so the final product looks correct on the TV. Test this on several TV sets, NOT the PC monitor.