Passthru or TV Card???

[snapshotmd]

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to convert VHS tapes to DV and want to know if there is any difference in quality between capturing via passing thru my miniDV camcorder or using a TV card in my computer.

I'm using an old Emerson 4-head VCR that only has a cable output and mono A/V RCA sockets.

I've tried passthru and the results were OK. The sound only came from one channel. I could probably get a splitter and divide the sound for mono.

All replies are greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Ken

[redwudz]

With an older VCR, you will probably be better off with DV, especially if you plan to do extensive editing. That said, higher quality can usually be obtained with a video capture card, if you have a high quality source, a good quality card, and are willing to spend the time and effort to learn to get the best quality. Only you can decide what the finished product quality should be. Try both and see what works best for you.

[The_Doman]

I have used both methods to capture VHS to my PC,
Before I had a D8 DV-cam i used my TV-Card to capture from TV and VCR, with good results, but it takes time and effort to get everything working properly.

With DV it's so much easier , you almost don't have to worry about settings or audio sync issue's. And specially if you want to capture VHS the DV passthrough will help to stabilize the VHS picture. This almost always will improve the quality of the capture!

[snapshotmd]

Thanks Doman!

Who would've thought the hard way of going about it is direct?

I was walking around at Radio Shack and found this A/V Analog Digital Converter thing. It takes analog sound and converts it to PCM, and converts video to S-video.

Has anyone used this? Is it worth getting?

Thanks!
Ken

[redwudz]

I don't think the RS module will do much for you. Basically converts a composite output to svhs output. That can be done with a cable adapter, but it won't improve quality. As far as audio goes, most all audio within a computer is digital, no help there either. As far as your original post about audio. From RS you can get a Y connector to combine the audio into one channel.

[indolikaa]

I use both: Sony Digital8 DV passthru and an ATI AIW card.

The ATI produces a faster end-result for me, but I still use DV for heavy editing.

Picture and sound quality are outstanding.

[Rayan]

I am also trying to learn here.......have some follow on questions.

If you pass analog video thru a DV camera to PC via Firewire, what HW or SW are u using for the 'capture' in this process? The firewire is on the motherboard so does it mean I need a SW to 'capture' the .avi?

If it is SW based capture, what do I use for MPEG conversion for writing to DVD? Again I need a different SW?

Finally, will there be quality and speed performance differences from using a HW based solution?

[snapshotmd]

Rayan,

Right now I'm using Editstudio/mpegxs to capture the passthru on my machine. There's got to be better software to do this. The conversion to an mpeg takes 4 to 5 times longer than playback. A 13-min clip will take an hour to convert. But then again, I could just let my puter run and convert a 2-hour movie overnight.

Ken

[redwudz]

Rayan, DV to a computer Firewire card is not a capture, just a file transfer. You can use DVIO or WinDV (Freeware) for transfers, among others.
Then you edit, then you encode, then author. (For DVD)

[Rayan]

Thanks for the time u have taken!

Rayan