tyring to figure what i need

[Nightcrawler]

what is considered a fast cpu for capturing? all i want to do is transfer old vhs tapes to cd-rw's.I have a 500 mhz proc. Do I need a video capture card or a tv card? I want to be able to capture the video onto my computer and then use tmpgenc to convert to vcd. any help would be greatly appreciated

[lusid]

500mhz is on the low end, but workable. You could probably capture vcd res with either huffy or mjpeg depending on how fast you can pump data onto your hard drives. Converting will be kinda slow though. probably 4-6 hours/hour maybe more with moderate filtering in vdub. COnverting is were the CPU really comes into play. I've got an 850mhz machine that captures up to DVD res huffy just fine, but take 3 hours to convert avi -> vcd. I also have a dual 1600+ that can capture one clip while it's converting another without dropping frames. It can convert to vcd in as little as 30 minutes / hour without filters. In practice, it's 3 times faster than the PIII 850 at converting to mpeg.

Your system does (barely) meet the specs for WinDVR2, which will record straight to vcd ready mpeg with good quality. I tried it on a 450, and saw a few frame drops, but the video quality was very good for real time vcd capture and the stream actually worked without any post processing for compliance. Good to see they finally got it together over at intervideo.

Either way, you're looking at a capture card. WinTV or AverTV in the $50 - $100 range will do. Just don't get the WinTV-Go, it's only mono audio. If you have more $$ to spend, there are hardware mpeg capture cards that do get good quality. I don't have one though, and many of them suck so get references from this board before spending your $$ if you go that route. I'm guessing that since your using a 500mhz box, you want to spend as little as possible to get good quality. AverTV Stereo ($50) -> Virtualdub (free) -> tmpgenc (free?) -> vcdeasy (free) -> cdr

[Nightcrawler]

thanx