Inexpensive captur device or other options.

[oxford]

I am a newbe and have just completed my first project capturing DV using WinDV an then encoding it etc. It turned out great and am very excited about it. My next project is convert my analog video from my Hi8 camera. I only have about 2 hours worth of footage to convert (borrowed my dad's camera). Unfortunately my sony digital camcorder doesn't have digital pass-through so I am forced to look into other options. It there an inexpensive way to do this. I don't want to have to make a big purchase just for 2 hours of footage but at the same time don't want to put it aside (it is the birth of my son and his first 2 months). Just to let you know my computer set up I have a compaq with and integrated video card but I have a avail slot. I have no other use for a new card other than the two hours of footage. Is ther any way to use my integrated card. Is there a plug to conver the footage? I'm not a gamer and not interested in TV on my computer. I saw at BB a couple of converter devices but they are $70-90. Any options?

[snafu099]

The easiest and cheapest way would be to find someone that has the equipment already and have them capture and burn the unprocessed file to media for you to put on your system and then process as you like.

Few posters make thier profile public like I do but friend, co-workers ??

I live in Moreno Valley, Ca and it would be about a 3 hr process to cap and burn 2 hr source, no big deal as you don't need to sit in front of pc during the process

A method my son did which actually turned out faily well was to play source on tv and shoot it with other camera on tri-pod set very close so he only got the screen.

Necessity is the mother of inovation.

[junkmalle]

In the absence of passthrough and assuming you're DV camcorder has analog inputs, the easiest way is to record your analog video on your DV camcorder. Then rewind the tape and capture DV on the computer.

[Richard_G]

If neither of the above are an option, your cheapest way of doing it is to buy a cheap TV card with video in. As long as your pc is a decent spec, you should be able to capture analogue footage without too much difficulty (although an awful lot of people here do seem to have difficulties doing it!). I used to successfully do analogue captures using a TV card in a 600MHz Athlon pc with Virtualdub and the Picvideo MJPEG codec.

[nic2k4]

Go to BB and buy a Sony DIgital8 camcorder, run your analog tape through it and capture with the DV port. Don't rip all the bags and treat the camera properly. When your done, return it.

[ozymango]

Is ther any way to use my integrated card. Is there a plug to conver the footage?

It's possible that your video card may have an input, but I'm guessing it's just TV out. If you give more specs we can help more.

Otherwise, if you really are just going to transfer this footage and nothing more, you could probably have it done reasonably cheaply and with excellent quality, as compared to having to buy a card and go through the capture to avi to mpeg2 process (as fun as that can be! :P ).

But if you have your heart set on doing this yourself, you might wanna take a look at a Hauppauge WinTV Go card -- they're pretty cheap at the moment (under $50, sometimes as cheap as $25), they'll do AVI capture, you'll have to do the encoding on your machine, but the quality is excellent.

Good luck!