(AVerMedia DVD EZMaker PCI) x (Pixelview XCapture Conexant )

[roglopes]

Dear friends.
What's the better: AVerMedia DVD EZMaker PCI or Pixelview XCapture Conexant?
I want to convert OLD VHS to VCD/SVCD/DVD.
What's the diferences of that boards?
Thanks and sorry about my bad english.

[Ejoc]

I have the Avermedia DVD EZmaker card, and I really dont like it. They dont have any good support for the card/drivers. Took a long time to get it to capture in a resolution other then 320x240. Basicly I wouldnt recomend it to anyone.

[housepig]

I have to disagree with Ejoc - I have the Aver EZ DVDmaker card, and for me it's fine.

I don't like the quality of the direct-to-mpeg captures, or the quality of the included NeoDVD software, but for capturing to avi with iuVCR, I get great quality.

and while the installation routine was a little weird (it looked at some times like it was installing the same components twice), it's worked like a charm.

plus, if you keep your eyes out for a sale, you can find them for as low as $10-15.

[Bob W]

When I was doing some capturing I did it with this card which worked very good for me with zero dropped frames in over 50 conversions from VHS to DVDR. I sine have bought the Panasonic E50 DVD recorder which IMO does a better job in one fifth the time.

[FulciLives]

I have the AverTV Stereo which is a PCI TV tuner type card and I find it works great when you capture to AVI using either HuffyUV or PICVideo MJPEG (which I use on the 19 out of 20 quality setting).

You really must capture at full D1 though even if you intend to eventually use a different final size as you will get better quality capturing at full D1 then resizing to your target (if it is something different such as SVCD or VCD or whatever).

I use VirtualVCR with mine which is a FREEWARE capture program then do my editing with VirtualDubMod before frameserving to either TMPGEnc or CCE.

Nice capture card as far as I am concerned. Just remember it is better to do AVI and convert to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 later and remember to capture full D1 then resize (if you need another resolution).

Also the included software seems to work well for watching TV on your computer but is crappy for capture purposes in which case that is why I use VirtualVCR

I also tried iuVCR but I found VirtualVCR to be better in my opinion although I know houepig also tried both and prefers iuVCR so what can you do

Try both and decide yourself I guess.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I bought my AverTV Stereo at CompUSA for $49.99

[Ejoc]

I think the card doesnt work well with win98, people with XP seem to have better luck. I had to install iuVCR to get it to capture correctly in VirtualDUB.

The card works, and I get good captures, but it took way too much to get to that point for me. If you use XP, you probably will have better luck, but if you use win98, make sure to install iuVCR, even if you dont plan on using it.

[robert@75]

I bought a pixelview xcapture from newegg with cyberlink power director pro included, had trouble installing drivers and prolinks tech is bad.

I capture from JVC svhs using s-video and get good svcd quality.

Capture setting: mpeg-2custom 480X480 4500bitrate
mpeg2 high res constant bitrate 7 on quality scale

A 30min capture then use cyberlinkpower poducer2 to burn and add chapters takes about 1and a half hrs total

If you want to transfer edited video tapes to svcd and just add chapters this is it, also i used my mike near tape player speakers too record background music while i captured the tapes.


Bob ps plug your mike in your sound card

[FulciLives]

I bought a pixelview xcapture from newegg with cyberlink power director pro included, had trouble installing drivers and prolinks tech is bad.

I capture from JVC svhs using s-video and get good svcd quality.

Capture setting: mpeg-2custom 480X480 4500bitrate
mpeg2 high res constant bitrate 7 on quality scale

A 30min capture then use cyberlinkpower poducer2 to burn and add chapters takes about 1and a half hrs total

If you want to transfer edited video tapes to svcd and just add chapters this is it, also i used my mike near tape player speakers too record background music while i captured the tapes.


Bob ps plug your mike in your sound card

Ummm ...

What the heck is 480x480 MPEG-2 4500bitrate. The resolution is NTSC SVCD but the bitrate is a lot higher than the SVCD standard (which is 2520kbps VIDEO with 224kbps MP2 audio).

So what are you burning this too? A CD-R ... A DVD-R ... or what?

I can't imagine there are many (probably hardly any) stand alone DVD players that can properly do an XSVCD with those settings.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[robert@75]

Hi Fulcilives

I said i used cyberlink power director pro to capture and that is my setting and i said burn svcd Look at lordsmurfs capture guide and you will see he recomends 4000k bitrate i jumped it up a little because video was bumpy using my telephoto lense. Hey this is my first time and i just read the articles by lordsmurf and got the best info. i use a sony hi 8 and get good resolution trust me my svcds are good. also i have a good svhs vcr. A lot of newbies dont want to use a lot of tools but still get a good looking copy.

Bob

[FulciLives]

Hi Fulcilives

I said i used cyberlink power director pro to capture and that is my setting and i said burn svcd Look at lordsmurfs capture guide and you will see he recomends 4000k bitrate i jumped it up a little because video was bumpy using my telephoto lense. Hey this is my first time and i just read the articles by lordsmurf and got the best info. i use a sony hi 8 and get good resolution trust me my svcds are good. also i have a good svhs vcr. A lot of newbies dont want to use a lot of tools but still get a good looking copy.

Bob

Well ...

Here is my point ... not much hardware wise (I'm talking stand alone DVD players) can handle a 480x480 MPEG-2 file with a bitrate of 4500kbps

So how are you playing these captures?

If you are burning these as SVCD (actually it would be called XSVD) on CD-R discs then you will find that you will experience alot of compatability problems.

Also I just came from LORDSMURF.COM and nowhere could I find recommendations on SVCD 480x480 capture. In fact the only SVCD 480x480 referrence I could find was quote, "I've never captured 480x480, but I see no reason why it would not work. Only do that if you plan to directly burn to SVCD."

As I've said the SVCD format (if you follow the spec) calls for 480x480 resolution with a VIDEO bitrate NOT TO EXCEED 2520kbps and an AUDIO bitrate of 224kbps MP2 sound.

Now you can make a SVCD with a higher bitrate and this is what is called an XSVCD but the problem is damn few stand alone DVD players can handle an XSVCD and in general it isn't a good idea with SVCD to deviate from the standard spec. as alot of SVCD capable DVD players can only handle something made to the standard spec. and nothing else.

So again if you are doing SVCD then use should be using 480x480 but with a VIDEO bitrate of 2520kbps or less and an AUDIO bitrate of 224kbps MP2 sound.

Now if you have a DVD burner you are better off using either Full D1 (which is 720x480) or Half D1 (which is 352x480). With DVD you don't have the 2520kbps bitrate restriction when using Half D1. So you could do 4500kbps with Half D1 on DVD but 480x480 is not a standard DVD resolution. A Half D1 352x480 MPEG-2 with a bitrate of 4500kbps is not only DVD complaint but will look damn good!

Also I should note that all of the resolutions I am talking about here are for NTSC. PAL uses the same values but is 576 for height instead of 480

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I am not trying to "put down" or "rip" on your methods. I'm trying to help you. In the future you will be sorry that you made those XVCD discs as they will not translate well to DVD format (will need to be re-encoded) and if your current stand alone DVD player CAN handle these XSVCD discs then you will be hard pressed when that DVD player dies to find another DVD player that supports it. You can also forget about giving your home made videos to friends because again your format has (very) little compatability amoung stand alone DVD players.

[robert@75]

Hi FULCILVES
Thanks for giving me the advice,you are right. I am happy with the quality of my svcd's my question is will they last as long as dvd's. They are as good as the actual video tapes. I have 3 or 4 2hr edited tapes and wanted to just put 30 min on each disk. This seemed easy to me as you probly know just the people in the videos look at them so my family will have them after i'm gone. I'm 76yrs young ok. If you could see the capture settings on my power director you will see what i do.
Yes lord smurf don't do svcd but look at his capture guide he shows352x480=4.0 mb/s on the appropriate bite-rates guide thats close to 480x480 so i used 4.0 and bumped it a little as i stated. I hope this helps you understand my resoning. I will try the lower bit-rate as a test.

Thanks again for your replys Bob

[FulciLives]

Hi FULCILVES
Thanks for giving me the advice,you are right. I am happy with the quality of my svcd's my question is will they last as long as dvd's. They are as good as the actual video tapes. I have 3 or 4 2hr edited tapes and wanted to just put 30 min on each disk. This seemed easy to me as you probly know just the people in the videos look at them so my family will have them after i'm gone. I'm 76yrs young ok. If you could see the capture settings on my power director you will see what i do.
Yes lord smurf don't do svcd but look at his capture guide he shows352x480=4.0 mb/s on the appropriate bite-rates guide thats close to 480x480 so i used 4.0 and bumped it a little as i stated. I hope this helps you understand my resoning. I will try the lower bit-rate as a test.

Thanks again for your replys Bob

Well Bob you definately seem to be able to do this stuff but it's no good (in the long run) unless you "do it right".

I understand that things are expensive but it sounds like you already got a computer that is capable of doing everything you need to do to make digital video so why not "bump it up" a notch and get a DVD burner.

The NEC ND-1300A is a great DVD burner and you can get it shipped in the mail for around $120 total.

If you want these videos to last then you can't beat encoding them and burning them on DVD.

My point before was that the format you are using will play back well on your computer but when it comes time to put it on a disc it will not work very well as a SVCD (or XSVCD) in that it won't work in many DVD players. Also the file format is not proper for DVD either.

So that doesn't bode well if you want these videos around well after you are gone.

I'm just trying to be helpfull

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[robert@75]

Hi John
Sorry i didnt tell i am burning them on a nec 1300A and i like this burner.
amd 2000xp epox 8rda+ 512 ddr mem with a asus v7100 pro 64 video c
card.

Thanks again Bob

[FulciLives]

Hi John
Sorry i didnt tell i am burning them on a nec 1300A and i like this burner.
amd 2000xp epox 8rda+ 512 ddr mem with a asus v7100 pro 64 video c
card.

Thanks again Bob

Oh well that is great but if you want to make a DVD that will work in a stand alone DVD player then you can't use 480x480

You need to either use 352x480 or 720x480

Otherwise the DVD will not work in a normal stand alone DVD player.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman