newbie Capturing VHC, looking for possible advise.........th

[helicoil]

Let me start by saying that I am (completely) new to capturing VHS, ripping dvd is not a problem any more as well as redubbing it with Virtualdub. I've seen several messages on the board indicating that Virtualdub should be able to capture (S-)VHS quite nicely apparently. So my first preference would be using VD in combination with a capturecard which might best suite my platform:
1. OS: Windows 98 (with the latest available updates),
2. Pentium II 400 MHz,
3. RAM: 192 MB,
4. Harddisk: 9 MB (standard), alternate: 20 MB.
5. DVD-rom and CD-R/RW.
6. JVC S-VHS 9700 so importing S-VHS is the preference ?
If you think it's possible to obtain a descent capture with my platform using Virtualdub (or any other kind of software/hardware) I would appreciate it very much if you would share your experience with me and point me in the wright direction as to the capturecard or software that might best be suited to perform the job based on my platform. Basically I am only interested in capturing VHS so nothing like watching TV with my computer or anything like that.

Thanks,

Helicoil

[hitechjunkie]

since no one has responded, i offer, what i believe are, the two most basic methods:

1) the most inexpensive way to do it, and the method that allows for the most control, would be to get a typical $25-50 PCI TV tuner card, and try capturing in different "formats" (352x240, 352x480, 480x480, 640x480) using one of two codecs:

a) the huffyuv codec. this is a lossless codec and compression is only 2:1 so you'll need A LOT of disk space (i'm assuming you meant GB not MB for your harddisk). assuming a framerate of 29.97fps, this will get you the best quality avi capture.

b) the picvideo mjpeg codec. if diskspace is an issue, try the same formats using the picvideo mjpeg codec with quality settings of 16,17,18 or 19. the lower numbers are lower quality settings but will allow you to capture more audio/video minutes.

either of the above codecs will place quite a load on your 400mhz CPU, so you need to keep an eye on the number of frames dropped, and adjust your frame size and compression accordingly to minimize them. after the avi capture, you will of course need to (vdub->tmpgenc?) encode to mpeg to burn your final VCD.

2) you can also try the dazzle video creator device ($130?), which takes the load off of your systems CPU, and, from what I've heard, allows you to capture some really nice audio/video directly to mpeg and ready to burn to VCD. i believe you can adjust the quality by tweaking the video bitrate.

NOTE: All parameters quoted above were for NTSC. PAL users adjust accordingly.

[hitechjunkie]

oh, one more thing, the moderators and members here have done a really great job of putting A LOT of this info out there, in much more detail, for all to read under the HOW-TOs, so take some time out and read through some of it here...

[helicoil]

Thanks for the assistance !