What do I need?

[Foozers]

Alright here's what hardware Im using to capture(Im very new to this) my Audigy 2 sound card has a IEEE394 port so I will be using that, also I have a radeon 9800 graphics card. My camera is a Sony Digital 8 trv-140, It wont play any old 8mm tapes but I was wondering if it will still send them to my PC?, also the only software that came with my burner is Easy CD/DVD creator(with DVD builder) so I am wondering what software will I need, and if so can I get it for free? thanks for the help.

[Allan55]

Hi,

Capturing is converting whatever you have as a source (TV, VHS tape, Hi-8, etc.) into a digital signal the computer can handle.

IEEE1394 (Firewire, iWire) is essentially a network connection and really has nothing to do with video or anything else... except that it was first adopted in cameras and other video devices so it is often considered (incorrectly) to be a video thing. (in fact, Windows XP will automatically configure firewire as a network connection; now if only firewire hubs weren't so expensive).

So... You need something to convert your source into a digital signal suitable for the computer. I don't know about your camera but it has "digital" in its name so you probably have either a firewire or a USB connection to transfer digital video (probably actual Digital Video--DV [a "standard"] not to be confused with any old digitally encoded video signal).

For any tapes your camera can read, you have already "captured" the signal (i.e. converted it to a digital signal) so you can just transfer it to the computer using either USB or firewire.

Some cameras also have composite/S-Video inputs so that a VCR can be plugged-in and the camera can then capture the signal (converting it to a digital signal) and then transfer to the computer. If not then you need:

A capture device in addition to everything else, this is something that takes your source (e.g. a VCR) and converts its signal to digital. IF your Radeon is an All-In-Wonder" then it has capturing built-in. Some other video cards (in the computer sense) also have video-in connectors and therefore also capture. Quality and convenience vary all over the map for these cards -- see "capture cards" on the left of this screen for details

As to software:

You need to start with your capture device and what software will talk to it (VirtualDub, Scenalyzer, iuVCR, the crap (IMHO) that came with the capture device, etc).

After that, you need to decide what format you'll use for your final result. "Standard" VCD, SVCD, and DVD formats can be played on stand-alone players (SVCD only on some) -- again see the "DVD Players" list to the left. Non-standard videos still can be played from your computer -- possibly using video-out on a video card.

Once captured, you will probably need encode the video and audio into the format required by the final result (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, etc)

For standard formats, videos need to be "authored" which organizes the video into the standard format that stand-alone players can handle. This is different than just burning the media. Nero will author VCD and SVCD as well as burning them; as will many other programs. Authoring DVDs is much more problematical because we are right on the bleeding-edge with many programs evolving daily; It really depends on your requirements for menus and other "fancy" stuff and what software you use to create the encoded video.

Having said all of that go to the "Articles" and "Guides" sections (green) in the left-hand column of this screen. After that, read the remaining titles in the green section. Then READ many threads in the forums because this stuff has already been asked and answered many times.

After that try a few videos yourself. You'll make mistakes (we all did and still do -- hopefully less often) but this is the only way to really learn what's going on.