Analogue Video.....(Dv Passthrough or Analogue Capture Card)

[strangezero]

I would like your opinion for the best quality in capturing (transfering) analogue video to my pc for further conversion to record in dvd-r.

1) Connect VCR to a VERY GOOD (haven't bought it yet) analogue capture card?

or

2) Connect VCR to DV camera (Passthrough) and through FIREWIRE capture video as Dv avi?


In option 2 i already have the camera (sony dcr-pc101e) so if it's better that way i don't have to buy analogue capture card

Thank you

[Nolonemo]

I say do the DV cam because then you eliminate any possibility of frame drops while capping. Plus you don't have to spend any more $$. From what I read, the quality is at least as good if not better than analog card caps.

[yg1968]

I have an ATI AIW 128 and a Sony TRV-25 and I would say that the passthrough method is a lot better. The passthrough method is certainly one of the better option. I only got dropped frames and out of sync issues with my AIW 128. In my mind, these options don't even compare.

Another advantage is that DV is easy to edit with Ulead Video Studio or Pinnacle Studio 8. The only drawback that I can see is that DV takes 13 gig an hour. So you almost need a separate hard drive for editing DV and so forth. Use TMPGEnc to encode to mpeg. You can use DVIO or other programs to import and export DV.

[jfebus]

Hi,

I use the two methods...

To get old vhs to dvd, I use the analog capture card VITEC DCM (it have a builtin MPEG encoder).

To get some snapshots from vhs or tv, I use the DV passthrough method.

Regards,

[ktnwin]

First, use the DV method, you will avoid all kind of capturing problems (like AV sync, dropped frames, etc...) I have been doing this for two years now.

Next, once you are happy with it and start getting bothered by MPEG conversion time, buy an capture card with built in MPEG encoder in real time to eliminate conversion time. This is what I intend to buy next to eliminate the 6X conversion time from DV to MPEG-2. I know that the quality won't be as good as software conversion but for many quick jobs, this is more convenient.

[Nolonemo]

About capturing to MPEG, you should be aware that MPEG is hard to edit compared to ordinary DV (technical reason having to do with fact that not every MPEG frame has full information but only contains info about how its different from the preceding or following frame). So live with the 13GB per hour unless you are not going to edit.

[jfebus]

That's right...

Never, ever capture directly to mpeg2 if you plan to do some editing...



Regards,

[ktnwin]

Thanks for the warning but I already knew this. I only plan to capture MPEG-2 the edited movie and quick jobs. Let say for 1 hour movie, I need to spend 6X to encode. If I save it to digital tape: 1 hour, recapture in MPEG-2 format: 1 hour. The total is 2 hours.
All my home movies have been edited waiting for DVD writer. I only need to spend 1X.

[strangezero]

Thank you All for your replies....

So i'll use my camcorder (as passthrough) to capture like i do with my dv tapes.

It's easier, safer, and more accurate in terms of quality if i understan correctly.

Thank you all and please excuse my poor english