Mac Video Capture Ideas. Your Input?

[tbannon]

I’ve done some analog captures in the past (Targa 2000, Radius SpigotPro AV) and some DV editing in iMovie but that’s it for my experience at this point. I’m looking to do the following and would like some input on my thoughts below.

A) DVD to DVD
B) Analog (TV/VHS) to DVD
C) DVD and Analog to short term storage on hard drive

I’ve got a 933 MHz Quicksilver ’02 with 1 GB Ram and a Superdrive.
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A) doesn’t worry me, I’m sure I can figure it out and I’ve got all the hardware I need.

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After reading the forums (a lot of help!!! Thanks), I can think of several ideas for B)

In what I think is order of cost/feasibility:

1) Analog -> A/D Converter -> DV -> Final Cut Pro -> DVD Studio Pro -> DVD

It looks like the Canopus ADVC100 or 300 are the top choices for A/D. I include FCP and DSP but more likely it would be iDVD. I figure I’ll get a hold of iLife ’04, play with iDVD4 for awhile and if I feel I’m going to use it, get DSP 2.0.

What are your thoughts on the RTMac or Formac TVR Studio (is that right?) they’re cheap enough now and the real time effects on the RTMac might be cool. I’ve heard terrible things about Formac’s support.

2) Analog -> MPEG2 -> DVD SP -> DVD

With hardware MPEG encoders available at a reasonable price, I think I’ll pass on software encoding. I would really like to hear that El Gato has gotten things straightened out with EyeTV 200. It seems like it could be a great product (it physically looks better than ADS Instant DVD) and it gives me a TV tuner. I could ask a whole list of questions on that product but that will be another thread. Otherwise it looks like its ADS (though I feel like I’m forgetting one more…). There’s a new Instant DVD 2.0 out though I think it’s only PC at this point (at least it makes no mention of Mac compatibility). It supports rates up of to 15 Mbps vs 6 Mbps on the original.

Those seem to clearly be the two current solutions for Issue B).

*** WARNING: Possibly ridiculous video capture ideas ahead. No laughing. ***

3) Analog -> Low/No Compression Analog Capture Card -> Edit ->
Quicktime Compress (MPEG2 or DV) -> DVD SP -> DVD

I guess what I’m wondering here is, is there still a place for analog capture cards at the “prosumer” level? I’m guess there would be no discernable difference in uncompressed or 2:1 vs DV when all is said and done. Still, I’d love to play with an Aurora Fuse and I thought the quality on my Targa 2000 was pretty decent. I also wonder what other OS 9-only high end equipment is out there that is getting to be cheap now that we’ve moved to X. If anyone has any pre-X stuff they want to let go cheap contact me.

Or… begin Olde Timey Music and grainy footage (which is probably what I’d get) of me pulling an abused Quadra 840av and Radius VideoVision Telecast out of a dumpster…

Actually I do have the makings of a VideoVision setup (with Nubus Fast/Wide SCSI too! Lol) and might even be able to get a hold of a Telecast. No, I’ve never used this stuff before but I’m just fascinated by owning anything that at one point was so out of the average consumers reach (that goes for more than just electronics too). If I donate this to a local school do you think I could still get a $15,000 tax write-off? LOL

*** Ok back to serious discussion and Capture Issue C) ***

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C) My big question here is what’s the best format to store in? This would
be stuff like digitaly recorded TV shows that I don’t feel the need to burn to media. I’m guessing MPEG4? Space on the G4 isn’t really an issue, but I’ve got about 20 GB in my Lombard and I’d like to have some video stored on there.

This also brings me to a question on capture drives. I know the old analog systems needed SCSI or IDE RAID 0, but is that necessary here? IDE software RAID is easy enough to do under X, and event the hardware RAID cards aren’t that expensive. I figure that’s overkill and I could just work with a single 7200 RPM IDE drive on ATA-66. Is it best to have a separate, clean capture drive?
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Ok, I think that’s about it. Sorry for the long post, I was trying to pull together what I’d read in several threads for those who are just starting with this like me.

Thanks,

Tom

[cbkilner]

w/r/t B)

If you will be dealing with a variety of older VHS tapes, I'd recommend either a VHS deck or an A-D converter with time base correction. I've recently been working with transferring older VHS to DVD and nothing is more frustrating than a tape with a poor sync signal.

[thoughton]

V large post + lots of questions = few answers

Try splitting into bite sized chunks. Some of us have MTV attention spans and goldfish memories.

[sander69]

Got a Radius Videovision PCI running (not yet totally satisfy) on a G4 dual450. This would be fun if I got it stable. Because of analog video/audio in/out and 60fields/s full-screen.

[mhar4]

As I've said elsewhere, having used both DV capture devices (the Formac) and MPEG-2 (the ADS), I'd say MPEG-2 is the superior method unless you actually doing film making. For DV you need tens of GB of free hard drive space, which might require an additional HD, plus the conversion time to MPEG2 with a 933Mhz G4 will be, what? 8-10 hours per hour of video? A boringly long time, anyhow.

So grab an ADS or the EyeTv 200 and go for it.

[decay]

is there such a thing as an affordable VCR with TBC?

dk

[Frobozz]

is there such a thing as an affordable VCR with TBC?

dk

I don't know what affordable means to you but here is a nice article about TBC that mentions some VCRs that have it:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/vcrtbcsuggestions.htm

[decay]

good link about TBC, thanks.
i had actually seen that page before, i remember it.

dk