Capture card or Camcorder?

[moorthy]

What SHOULD give me the best results, capturing a s-video source via my Aver card, or by using the pass-through A/D converter in my Sony Digital 8 camcorder?

[valterroque]

Hi.

Best way :

Buy a firewire card, and output digital to your pc from your camera.

[moorthy]

I'm referring to capturing to my computer, not exporting to my DV camera.

I'm planning on capturing a satellite signal (using a s-video cable) from either a capture card OR by using the passthrough on a DV camcorder.

Which SHOULD give me the best results? (If setup properly)

[pkosta]

do you really wanna rewind your digital8mm tapes every time youwanna watch something you recorded, and the have to capture back to pc to burn to a dvdr ,
i would use the capture card as long as its agp and you have a p4

my p3 450 agp looks better then my p3 866 on both my ati aiw cards
and my agp is an older card too.

[cplevel42]

I have digital passthrough on my sony cam. I have never used it though. Does this require me to record to tape 1st, or can I just pass an analog signal through it to convert on the fly?

[moorthy]

I have digital passthrough on my sony cam. I have never used it though. Does this require me to record to tape 1st, or can I just pass an analog signal through it to convert on the fly?

With the passthrough feature, it's exactly that. You do NOT have to tape the signal. It gets converted to digital by the camcorder, and passes through to the firewire cable.

[FulciLives]

Your Aver capture card will give you a better image especially if you use HuffyUV as your capture codec.

The only problem with using the Aver TV (or any TV tuner type PCI card) is you risk having audio synch problems.

However if you have a fast enough computer and a decent sound card then it really shouldn't be an issue.

I would only recommend capturing in a DV codec when you need to do EXTENSIVE editing. By EXTENSIVE I mean more than just trimming the start and end of a capture or cutting commercials. That stuff can be done easily using VirtualDub.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vhelp]

@ moorthy..

Which SHOULD give me the best results? (If setup properly)

That's a very simple one.. the Analog Capture card !!

DV is lossy, and is compressed video.. BUT w/ an Analog capture card, you
have a (several) choices for capture types ie, MJPEG; HUFFY; divX and uncompressed (which is the best quality you can get, and better than
DV too)

But, the problem (which still remains) is the issues w/ Analog capture cards

* lost frames
* audio d-sync
* noise
* and more..

But, w/ DV, life is that much easier, with none of the above issues. So, one
weighs the above w/ what their "source" materials will be used w/ the device
and another weigh against a few other factors, and DV is usually the end
result. Well, it was for me. I ended up w/ the ADVC-100, but if I did not
have any of the above issues, I SURE GO W/ ANALOG CAPTURE CARD
ANY DAY !!

So, which is better ??

Well, if you don't want the above issue (or risk experiencing it) then go w/
one of the DV routes you mentioned.

That's my .02 cents worth,
-vhelp

[moorthy]

@ moorthy..
That's a very simple one.. the Analog Capture card !!
-vhelp

Thanks for the reply.

I've just completed two captures.

The first, using my camera's pass-through feature. (the capture software allowed me to get 720 * 480 resolution).

The second capture was through my video card's component input (which actually looks better than the s-video signal for some reason). I was only able to capture to 320 * 240.

When comparing the two avi's, the DV AVI looks much better!

HELP!

[BV2001]

Maybe this just me
I have use various types method/cards to capture.

I heard some hype about HUFF codec ( not lossy ) but truly, I use a DV Canopus ADVC100 ( lossy DV CODEC ) but it LOOK MUCH MUCH MUCH better than capture with HUFFY.

I use ATI TV Wonder, VE, ATI ALL IN WONDER.

The ADVC - 100 is the best.

[FulciLives]

@ moorthy..
That's a very simple one.. the Analog Capture card !!
-vhelp

Thanks for the reply.

I've just completed two captures.

The first, using my camera's pass-through feature. (the capture software allowed me to get 720 * 480 resolution).

The second capture was through my video card's component input (which actually looks better than the s-video signal for some reason). I was only able to capture to 320 * 240.

When comparing the two avi's, the DV AVI looks much better!

HELP!

Well DUH of course a capture at 320x240 is gonna look crappy when you are looking at a capture done 720x480

You should be able to capture 720x480 with your Aver card so try it using HuffyUV

THEN compare THAT to the DV capture.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Try VirtualVCR which is FREEWARE and works great with my AverTV Stereo (PCI capture card).

[moorthy]

D'oh!

I've been capturing using Virtual VCR (720 * 480, HUFFYUV) and it looks great.

Thanks.

[vhelp]

moorthy's



-vhelp