Capture VHS from VCR to computer ->Write VCD or SVCD ->Play

[greatnut]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to ask for your reccomendation regarding capture card (and other things that need) that can satisfy my need above. All I plan to do is capturing, no editing. Qualities of both picture and sound are important. I don't want to spend more than $500, but can be flexible. Now I have just VCR and computer.

Also, any website regarding capture for beginner like me is welcomed.

Please help.
Thanks

[dirk67]

Well, you've already found that web site! Start by reading the HowTos.
You'll need a capture card and some cables/adapters to connect it to your VCR. Buy a capture card with S-Video jack if your VCR is S-VHS. Nearly all the capture cards have the same chip on it, Brooktree 848 or 878, so nearly any card will do. Cards differ in the tuner chip, but you won't need the tuner anyway, since you connect to the composite or S-Video jack. For capturing I recommend VirtualDub with Huffyuf codec and TMPGEnc, it's all in the HowTos. Forget the software that comes with the card. You'll get a lot of disk space (300 MB per minute at 352x576), though, so maybe you'll need another hard disk. You should also have a DMA capable system and a reasonably fast CPU. I think 800 MHz is enough for capturing, but for encoding, every MHz saves you time.
So look at the card list on this site, search the forum for problems of the combination of your environment with the cards and decide on one of the basic cards (should be far less than 100$). Read the HowTos and then: Good luck!

[Kdiddy]

just to warn you..you are gonna get some flack from people about your subject title..

"Capture VHS from VCR to computer ->Write VCD or SVCD ->Play with VCDplayer on bigTV+high quality "

unless you consider VHS, "high quality", then you never get high quality from this process....you can only get out what you put in, IF you do it correct/perfect...so the "quality" is not going ot be any better than whats on the VHS, and personally do to fact than the video will converted a few times, I doubt that you will even get VHS quality...in all honesty, save yourself the time, and leave on the VHS tape...unless the VHS tape is like 10+ years old or something, then maybe.

[Cardosi]

DV-500 plus Pinnacle do exactly you want. I have one
since Feb. Capturing from VHS, S-VHS, DVD at 704X480
no drop frames, no synch problems, premiere 6.1, a lot
of effects 3d, 2d and transitions REAL TIME. Frameserving
straight to TMPGenc. I love my Cap Card.

Systems PIII 700mhz MOBO sis620 onboard (no crashes at all)
3 hds ata-100
Windows ME

1 hour video to VCD: 5 hours to encode

I think it´s fast since i´m running an older processor.


Carlos
WebStudio Multimedia - Brazil

"I´m ready to share if you are ready to learn"

[spiderman2k1]

You might want to look in to Dazzle 2 it does have some problems with AMD but its the best capture card to mpeg1 or mpeg2 to make SVCD or VCD you can get it here at a good price http://www.shopharmony.com/ or bestbuy.com as DV-500 plus Pinnacle I think it only does AVI. AVI it the best format but take up alot of hard drive space people that use AVI card rerender it back to VCD or SVCD but it the best you can get but take more work to do. This is some you will have to think about do you want to put the extra time in? For $150.00 to can get a ALL IN WONDER pro for $130.00 of the still have some at bestbuy or the Radeon for $180.00 this card does both AVI and MPEG 2 and has a tuner in it but is very buggy if you do not kow how to install it and if you do not know how to format your pc I would say do not get it. But it is a good card for what it does. There is also WinTV card that does MPEG1 and MPEG2 does not look as good as the dazzle 2. But from i have heard it easy to install. If I was you and only want VCD and not SVCD I would get the ALL IN WONDER pro or the dazzle 1. if you want SVCD then I would get the Dazzle 2. I have the ALL IN WONDER Radeon mpeg 2 has real bad sync problem and take time to fix it to much work. So if I had to call on one card I would say Dazzle 2

[Cardosi]

Spider

you´re right, DV500 only capture AVI 704X480 (cropped) or 720X480,
contacted Pinnacle support about a software that allows capture at lower res or
something around but no lucky, the answer was: BUY a DC-1000 or 2000
.... a lot of money. I really appreciate if someone on the forum
know how to figure it out.


Few days ago i´ve been in a congress and Pinnacle representatives was
there so i asked about and the technician advice me to use for real
time capture PC TV USB and WinVCR, he sad the quality is good as
final VCD made by dv 500 thru frameserve/TMPGenc. I´m not sure.


Carlos
WebStudio Multimedia

[mpack]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-24 02:20:37, Kdiddy wrote:
the "quality" is not going ot be any better than whats on the VHS...
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I've seen a few people say something like this, and in my humble opinion it is quite wrong. You don't seem to appreciate the distinction between "fidelity" and "quality".

Quality is a subjective measure, and it is *very* possible to have quality of output which is better than the input - such as by image enhancement, such as by using filters to remove analog noise.

*Fidelity* is a different matter. Perfect fidelity would mean that your MPEG playback is identical to what the camera originally captured, and it *is* true to say that you can't do this from a VHS tape, because the fidelity of the tape itself, plus the capturing and encoding processes all result in lost information which cannot be recovered.

However, when human beings examine an image they appraise it subjectively, ie. they look for *quality*, not *fidelity*, and there is no law of nature which prevents the quality of a cleaned up source being more satisfying that the source itself - there is a whole old movie restoration business that would be in big trouble if what you said was really true!