Video capture card?

[J_Bone7]

I am totally new to this hobby, tech. challenged but seem to get it done with a little help.. I have a lot of 8mm home movies to put on disc and I have a new digital camcorder, could someone point me to a video capture card that works with the old and new formats if there is one?
I'm told not to use DVDRW at this time because of the many conflicts with the hardware and different formats so I should use VCD's for just home movies, any comment?

[tomselina]

If you're going to convert to VCD, make it SVCD for better resolution. If you're archiving, VCD is only equivalent to a 2nd generation VHS copy. OK, but not great. SVCD is more like 1st gen. SVHS from a satellite connection. Not bad. Don't know much about DVD-R, but may be worth waiting a while to see how the standard develops.

[rallytbk]

I just started this hobby myself and it is worth the experience, so I will give you a few things to look for:
Research your current equipment: Computer type, memory, hard drive space and most importantly your budget.
Time = Money, so if you are willing to spend the money to edit your home movies then by all means spend the money. As for the budget minded editor, if you don’t pay for the hardware, then you will pay with time.
There are good systems out there only if you look hard enough and research the limitations of these systems.
By already having a digital camcorder check to see if you have an IEEE1394 connector, that will allow you to tranfer digital movies directly to your computer without the need to recapture (convernt composite to Digital form) the footage.

My system consist of:
Gateway Performance 800Mhz P3
256 Megs of ram, 30 Gig harddrive 7200rpm
CD-RW, DVD-ROM and 100 Meg Zip Drive
3DFX Voodoo 3 with Video out
Studio DC10plus Ver. 1.06 (composite video capture card)
In a tower system

Software: AVI2VCD, Virtual dub, Tmpegenc (free), Nero and Easy CD creator

Editing done on Studio software (very easy) and either send composite NTSC video to VCR or save to harddrive in AVI format, then you can convert to Mpeg1 format (to save harddrive space) and author with Nero and/or Easy CD creator (Nero better) to create VideoCD’s.

The better you understand the process, the more you will convert to other formats like SVCD, divx , etc.

Note: I convert to the lower VCD format, because most newer DVD players (by Sony, etc) play DVD/VCD/MP3 CD-R/CD-RW.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rallytbk on 2001-12-11 08:19:24 ]</font>

[J_Bone7]

Thanks guys,I'll check into nero and AV12 rally.I have 3 PC's all plenty fast with big hrdrvs. and 512mb ram,my problem is that my new camcorder is DV but all my old home movies are 8mm and the card I bought has a firewire input but the old camcorder has audio video jacks,so I was looking for a video capture card that would work with both, or do I need 2? I'll love this hobby when I learn my left from right but now i'm lost"LOL".

[jtor]

...suggest you check the specs of your digital camcorder, if she has the Analog Pass-through feature/capability. What this does is allow you to to transfer analog video thru your digital camcorder, to the PC's firewire port...looks more like:

Analog Camcorder ==> Digital Camcorder ==> firewire(PC)

This way, you don't need to create a digital copy of your analog video. Also, there will be no need for you to look into analog capture cards. Firewire transfer of videos are a whole lot better (and easier) compared to analog capturing.

You just have to be sure that your digital camcorder has the feature/capability.

What brand/make is your digital camcorder?

hope this helps.

[J_Bone7]

That will work Jtor,its a Canon Optura 100,the answer was right in front of me,thanks for your time and help.