Analogue Capture

[rankz]

I have 2 questions, that i am dying to get answered.

1. When capturing my VHS will it loose quality?

2. Is this card any good? http://graphics.adaptec.com/pdfs/VideOh_CD_SellSheet-v31.pdf

[upshot]

What cha going to do with "it"? Why is the quality of "it" important?

"pc connector: usb 1.1" -ummm no. not good....

[rankz]

Yes the quality is very important. I am making a skate video and I intent to edit the video then save as best quality as possible then put it onto DVD to watch on TV.

USB 1.1? I am a newbie, so dont bite me if im wrong, but i think that is alot slower than USB 2.0 oooh that isnt good. I wouldnt mind unless it took more than 3 hours to capture a 45 min tape.

Also how much money do you think i would need for a card that converts with superb quality? B'cos i only get £4 pocket money a week and i aint got a job.

[upshot]

1.1 usb is SLOW... I doubt you'd get any quality or smooth captures out of it... a waste of your non-existant budget...

a. So, your filming with a VHS cam... ?

b. Converting to digital and then adding knarly punk tracks and fades from ollie to acid drops to boneless (okay I date myself.. maybe some kickflips...)

c. Burning to DVD and selling for $5 (oops 2.5 pounds) to all the fly honeys... :P

______________

A - try to get your hands on a miniDV cam. VHS and "quality" don't mix. But if your looking for some old school flava the VHS is where its at. With a miniDV you'll get higher resolution period... (google search )

B - if you go with the old skool VHS look into a PCI capture card... they start around $50 usd. If you get your hands on a miniDV then you'll only need a firewire connection (pci = $30 usd) read up on converting... If VHS I'd suggest IUVCR if miniDV DVIO

C - encoding and authoring... TMPGenc software seem to be the cheepest/best out there...

You just need to read up my friend... It's all here!

[DVD_Ripper]

I've heard the Adaptec boards are so-so when it comes to MPEG Capture.

Capture card Links:
https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards

You can capture a VHS signal with good qlty cables thru a great board and not loose any quality if captured at a high enough bitrate.

[dxj40c]

The most important device for good VHS to DVD quality is the video capture card. From experience, I know some are better than others, I have only used two in the same price range ($200) and one was definetly better than the other (I won't mention names because I don't want to start a war). I can't tell you which is best because I don't know and more than likely it would not be found in a general electronics/computer store.

But a fair one will work for what you want to do because VHS video is not that great to start with. You are not going to get the quality of a commercial dvd, but you can get quality equal to the tape you are copying. You may improve the 'apparent' image with color adjustment and contrast settings, but it won't get any sharper. You probably won't notice much of a difference if you watch your dvd on the same tv you watch your tapes on.

[redwudz]

rankz: You left out the most important part of your question. What are your computer specs? If you are trying to do this with Win98SE on a 400 Celeron, you are probably wasting your time. Generally capturing is CPU intensive and you need both a fast CPU and a large harddrive. If you have neither, you may have to go with a USB (2.0) solution.

[rankz]

My computor specs? What do you want me to find out about my computor?All i know so fare is we have windows ME, 384mb RAM, 40gig hard disk space, AMD Athlon (1200mhz)............

And i can't afford a mini DVD camera

And the time it takes to capture is not a problem. I don't mind leaving the PC capturing all night and all day.

And my mate said that i can't have a USB 2.0 card cos my computor wouldn't be able to use it, cos its old (2 yrs).

.................................................. ..........................................

Anyway, so what you guys are saying is that capturing will not loose quality from the tape im capturing?
And i should buy that card?

[csaag]

As far as the cheap route goes,
I bought a PCI AverMedia TV98 capture card on Ebay for $15.
Works great for my VHS captures (using IuVcr and the Btwincap drivers)

[Capmaster]

Yes the quality is very important. I am making a skate video and I intent to edit the video then save as best quality as possible then put it onto DVD to watch on TV.

USB 1.1? I am a newbie, so dont bite me if im wrong, but i think that is alot slower than USB 2.0 oooh that isnt good. I wouldnt mind unless it took more than 3 hours to capture a 45 min tape.

Also how much money do you think i would need for a card that converts with superb quality? B'cos i only get £4 pocket money a week and i aint got a job.

A slower interface won't mean it'll take longer to capture. It does mean that you will be limited in the bitrate you can use.

USB1.1 has a maximum transfer speed of 11 Mbps. You can reliably capture up to about 6.5 Mbps real-world. Adequate for most needs and certainly adequate enough to match VHS quality.

[rankz]

So are you saying i should get that card or get another card (with USB2)?
Because i don't know if my computor will accep USB 2.0. And how could i find out?

[Capmaster]

So are you saying i should get that card or get another card (with USB2)?
Because i don't know if my computor will accep USB 2.0. And how could i find out?

Well, you should always go for USB2 when there's a choice. There's no reason to limit yourself unless there's no alternative. You could get by with the USB1.1 box, but I would recommend the newer interface.

USB2 compatibility might be as easy as seeing what OS you have - Win98 doesn't support USB2. Win2K, WinME and WinXP do (pretty sure about ME but not certain).

Assuming you have an OS that supports it, look in device manager under "system" in the control panel, and look at the bottom of the list for Universal Serial Bus and double-click. You should see by the name of the device whether or not it's USB2.

[upshot]

As far as the cheap route goes,
I bought a PCI AverMedia TV98 capture card on Ebay for $15.
Works great for my VHS captures (using IuVcr and the Btwincap drivers)

Exactly what I'm talking about...

1. get a pci card (much better than usb)
2. use Iuvcr and capture with huffy
3. edit to your hearts desire
4. encode with tmpgenc

[aragorn234]

Ranz the best you can do is as follows.
Use this guide to research cards to buy to do the capture.
The capture time will be as long as the video is. If it is 30 minutes of footage then it will take 30 minutes to capture. This cannot be slowed down or sped up. It is a direct capture of VHS to digital.

There will always be some quality loss as it is converting Analog to Digital.

Now remember that what ever card you buy you will probably need to buy additional cables to attach the capture card to the VHS player. This will probably be a seperate connection for video and audio. (just advising as you are on a very low budget).

So in simple terms my advise is as follows.
Get a pci capture card and cables (forget the usb stuff your machine will only support USB1.1)
Connect the video and do the capture and just play play play.

That is the way I have learnt as have most of the people here.

There is no quick easy way to learn capturing, and there is no one size fits all guide. It is all trial and error. The guides are absolutly great but you will need to tinker to get the best results for yourself.

Good Luck and Happy capturing

[rankz]

ok thanks alot for that. my dad also says PCI would be much better (and we have 2 pci slots)
i have been looking on ebay for cards, and we are just waiting for one to take our fancy. so thanks alot guys.
but one question- what does PCI (8h)
or PCI (9h) mean?

[redwudz]

PCI: (From webopedia.com)

Short for Peripheral Component Interconnect, a local bus standard developed by Intel Corporation. Most modern PCs include a PCI bus in addition to a more general ISA expansion bus. PCI is also used on newer versions of the Macintosh computer.
PCI is a 64-bit bus, though it is usually implemented as a 32-bit bus. It can run at clock speeds of 33 or 66 MHz. At 32 bits and 33 MHz, it yields a throughput rate of 133 MBps. Also see PCI-X and PCI Express.

Although it was developed by Intel, PCI is not tied to any particular family of microprocessors.

Edit: As far a (8h) or (9H), I don't know. Wondered that myself. Anybody?