Capturing from TV and editing on PC/MAC

[interesting]

Hi guys,
Can I just start by saying cheers for this site, it's been like a god send for me! Now i'll take my nose out of your bottoms and get down to it...

Basically, I work for a product placement company in the UK, and part of our job is track placements on T.V. programmes. It is then my job to capture any scenes with the featured prop, edit the capture and upload it to the web in AVI and MOV format. The way we do this at the moment is by using five VHS recorders, we programme them to record the shows we have supplied props to. Then, I view the video cassettes on an S-VHS connected to a "miglia director's cut" box, which is connected to a MAC G4. I then use the "movie capture" feature in Adobe Premiere (ver. 6 if that makes a difference) and then edit the movies for uploading to the web.

The quality of these captures however is incredibly poor. I have been assigned with the responsibility of implementing a new capture system, which isn't a great idea as im a bit of a novice to this stuff. My original plan was to record to a "Sony RDR HX-1000" which would be connected to a sky box (5 PVRS, 5 Sky boxes), and then have a firewire cable running from the MAC, and then manually connect it to the specific PVR I want to capture from, and use Premiere's "movie capture" option to record the bit of footage I need. Is this at all possible? I have been browsing the net for about a month, as well as this site, and have found no relevant information on the subject.

Is there a better way to do what I want? Ihe overiding factor in all this is the quality of the capture, not the cost of the new capture system implementation. Would a TV card be better suited to this job? I am accepting that I may need to purchase a new computer, but if again you could give me any advice what would be best suited for this job, again I would be most grateful.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Tommyknocker]

Why not use a DVD recorder, then pop the disk in your computer, then use the software to edit the clip and send it to the internet. The DV capture quality should be better than VHS captures, once the initial investment of the recorders and some DVD+/-RWs it will cost the same to implement.

[Richard_G]

I would agree with Tommyknocker and your original thought. Instead of using VHS recorders, use DVD recorders. According to the Sony website, the HX1000 has a Firewire port but it doesn't state whether it is both way or in only (I would have thought it would be both way). Using that, you could record to DVDRW and transfer the bits you need to computer without having to even take the disk out of the recorder. This should also get around the problem of ripping the DVDRW disk and ending up with a load of vob, bup and ifo files which you will need to convert, you'll just have an editable video file.

[interesting]

Cheers guys,

I think I'll probably record onto the hard drives, and when I need to edit the footage, burn the programme onto a DVDR, put it in the machine and edit from there if the firewire is only one way. What editing program would you recommend i use to minimize pixelation and interlacing when creating a 320x240 movie? Premiere just does a horrible job of it, but to be fair we are using ver. 6. Would upgrading to a newer version reward me with higher quality movies?

o, and one additional question. If i do have to edit off the DVDRW, how would I convert the vob, bup and ifo files into an editable movie?