Building a new system for video cap. need your comments

[ghahat]

hi everyone

im a newbie at video cap, im building a new system i want to capture video on.

1) i wanted to know if this system will be able to capture MPEG2 and 4 video without any problems. i want to be able to capture 2hrs max of video at a time in tv quality. this is what ill be getting

Athlon XP 2600
512MB PC3200 Samsung
Abit NF7-S
ATI 9600
80GB 7200 SATA150 8MB
audigy 2

2) for the harddrive i was wondering if i should go for more capacity. how many GBs do MPEG 2 and 4 take up per hour?

3) i was also thinking of buying another identical hard drive. should i put the 2 drives in RAID 0, or should i have one drive with OS and programs and another for video capture? ive read the other posts on this subject but didnt get a clear idea.

4) would it be possible to put the 2 drives in RAID 0, and then have a partition so that 1 partition is the OS and programs, with the other partition for video capture?

5) I am looking at the Happaugge Win TV-Dbx or the ATI TV Wonder VE. Which do you guys recommend? They are both ~$70 and come with remotes.

6) does the ATI TV Wonder VE have the Theater 200 chip?

7) these cards can capture audio, but is it better to send the audio to my sound card and capture with that? would this create any audio sync problems?

I know these are a lot of questions but any info is highly appreciated. thanks

[fmctm1sw]

I'd get a bigger hard drive or better yet, two hard drives. I started with an 80GB, jammed two 20GB's in I had laying around but I'm still screaming for more space.....

[greengate69]

I would echo the sentiment on hard drive space. Capturing at decent quality eats it up in no time. Certainly in the UK cost per gig is proportionately less for larger drives.

I have my original 80GB drive, which used to do everything, now just used to run programmes and store files. I have a second 160GB drive as low as £60 in the UK, just for capture. One significant advantage of a drive just for capture is that you can just format the drive before a new capture rather than defragment. Advantages of the second drive include capturing lossless video (e.g.huffyuv) or huge amounts of comporessed (e.g. MPEG2) video without running out of space.

Of all the questions you ask, I would say add a second, large, HDD to your set up.

[ghahat]

thanks guys

so i understand that there would be nothing gained with regards to speed in video capture by using RAID 0. i will get a second drive in this case.

i would like to hear your comments on the system specs (does anything need to be upgraded) and any recommendations for the Happauge or ATI.

Thanks

[Will Hay]

Personal opinion only, based on my own experience.

Two HDD's is a must, one for your OS and for me (in my pre-ADVC-100 days) another two...
....one for video capture (quick formatted before each capture) and another for storage (of course you can get a big enough primary HDD drive for this).

I don't like VIA, sorry.
All my sound sync issues went away when my new motherboard went from a VIA to SIS chipset.

If you're on a budget, ATI is the way to go.

Be prepared to work hard for a while to get it right, it won't happen overnight.


Good luck,
Will