QUESTION FOR YA

[Ramsey]

Hey guys, I've got a friend who has his DVD and VCR hooked up in a way that he can record the DVD (I didn't think that was possible). Anyways, If i do that, then use a capture card it seems to the more painless way of "buring" a DVD to my hard drive. Do you think this will work; the quality will be good? I do not have (but want)a capture card, so I've never used one before. Also, Does anyone know if you can hook up a DVD player to use a capture card? Thanks

[AntnyMD]

Ripping a DVD will always give better results in less time than capturing a DVD. Ripping is digital - to - digital; capturing is digital - analog - to - digital. That analog step will introduce artifacts, probably some irrepairable interlacing, and you run the risk of dropped frames if your hard drive doesn't spin fast enough.

[Darkbird]

True, ripping digital-digital is always better quality.

However, there are some capture systems that can capture very good mpeg in real-time without a separate software encoding process that takes hours.

Additionally, capturing easily solves some of the subtitling headaches for foreign films.

[AntnyMD]

Oh yes I agree, capturing is really the easiest solution for getting those subtitles. I'm still hedgy overall on the capturing issue. I'm still not really sold on it.

I first purchased a Dazzle I and was initially pleased with the results, but when I saw the quality I could get by a software encoder at similar bitrates (up to 3Mbps), I was sad I wasted money on the Dazzle I.

I later bought a WinTV card to watch television the computer (so I'd never have to leave my baby!) and tried a few captures with that via VirtualDub. Sadly, all the dropped frames (10 or 12 or so for every ten minutes of video, sometimes much more dropped frames) finally convinced me I should probably just buy a Terapin and be done with it until I can buy a settop DVD recorder.