the better quality a video card or usb device??

[diablo]

i have a pentium 2 400 mhz with a dvd burner and a laptop pentium 4 without a dvd burner only cd burner..

what gives the best quality a video card or one of those usb devices that transfers vhs, tv, records to my hard drive? right now im going to transfer vhs to dvd but want a card or device that will do it all, vhs, tv shows, and albums.

i dont know if the pentium two is too slow but the desktop has my dvd burner, and cant change my video card in my laptop, neither computer has a video capture card..

should i get a video card for my desktop or a usb device for my laptop but i dont know how to get a large file from my laptop to my desktop if i use my laptop to transfer my VHS to my laptop hard drive?

thats some of my problem but anyway what gives the better quality a video card or one of those new usb devices that transfer video???

thanks

[Panash]

I do like my Hauppauge PVR USB2, which I'd replace if anything happend to it.

PN

[diablo]

that sounds like it will do it all, but i heard that for the better quality you must tranfer to mpeg4. does it transfer to mpeg4. also it said i need a sound card. i dont have a sound card just a video card, my sound card is welded to my board, is that ok?

[lordsmurf]

that sounds like it will do it all, but i heard that for the better quality you must tranfer to mpeg4. does it transfer to mpeg4. also it said i need a sound card. i dont have a sound card just a video card, my sound card is welded to my board, is that ok?

No.

AVI YUY2 or HuffYUV/MJPEG is best (when no MPEG enhancements exist).
MPEG2 is typically next (unless the card is MPEG-optimized like ATI/Hauppauge/some others).
Then MPEG1.
Then all that other FourCC junk (MPEG4/WMV/DIVX/etc)

[Duchess]

my sound card is welded to my board, is that ok?

That means that your sound card is integral with your motherboard, so yes it's OK. In repect of internal external (USB) capture I can't think of any reason that they shouldn't be comparable, provided that the USB ports are USB2 compliant. USB1 would be hopeless as it has far too low a data transfer rate.

[Capmaster]

that sounds like it will do it all, but i heard that for the better quality you must tranfer to mpeg4. does it transfer to mpeg4. also it said i need a sound card. i dont have a sound card just a video card, my sound card is welded to my board, is that ok?

Whoa! Wait a minute. It says you need a sound card to capture video? If so, that means it only captures the video and the sound must be captured via the sound card. If this is the case, do yourself a favor and run screaming from that sale I learned the hard way that you cannot achieve lip sync with a crappy box that doesn't do on-board audio. It wouldn't by any chance be made by ADS, would it? If so, run the other way

In repect of internal external (USB) capture I can't think of any reason that they shouldn't be comparable, provided that the USB ports are USB2 compliant. USB1 would be hopeless as it has far too low a data transfer rate.

USB1.1 goes up to 11 Mbps and it will reliably allow captures at 6.5 Mbps. What sort of bitrate were you planning that 6.5 is "far too low"? You do know that officially MPEG2 DVD bitrates top out at 9.8 Mbps right?

[diablo]

so is there a combination video and sound card or do i have to get a video and sound card. im still not sure if i need another sound card or if my welded sound card isall i need. does the video card come with an audio in to get the sound as well??

[Capmaster]

so is there a combination video and sound card or do i have to get a video and sound card. im still not sure if i need another sound card or if my welded sound card isall i need. does the video card come with an audio in to get the sound as well??

First, let's clarify something. I was talking about a "capture card" which grabs video, usually in MPEG format. A "video card" is a standard card in every PC that you plug your monitor into. Two different animals.

Some video cards also allow you to capture video. ATI makes some pretty decent ones.

My point was that any capture card that requires you to use a sound card to capture the audio is bad news. Many cards merely suggest you have a sound card, but it's not related to the actual capturing.

Read the manual if it's available and check the suggested cabling. Most newer capture cards and boxes will capture video and audio and hardware-encode both into an MPEG. Some cheesy boxes, like ones that ADS has marketed in the past, require you to use the sound card for the audio capture, and software handles the actual multiplexing. All I'm saying is avoid one of these. There are plenty of good cards out there and you don't need to settle for a piece of junk

[snafu099]

IMHO, your 400mhz will not give satisfactory results for capture

The laptop should work just fine if used in conjunction with a usb capture device. usb2 would be prefered but usb1 will also work fine for normal captures.

Get another burner or put existing one in a usb box

Just make sure that the usb cap device does hardware encoding of both audio and video in the device and does NOT route the audio to the sound card.

I am sure there are other devices that do this, but I know the current products from ADS will do what you want.

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[SaSi]

For a PII/400MHz machine, any type of capture device that captures raw video and then uses the PC CPU to compress using any codec (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ...) is out of the question. Not enough CPU power for realtime compression.

USB devices can help. However, due to the age of PII machines, it is unlikely that any has USB2 ports.

The problem with USB1 ports is that they don't have enough bandwidth for high resolution high bitrate transfer.

For 352x240 MPEG1 or MPEG2, it's fine as long as the bitrate is below 2000kbps.

With an additional USB-2 adapter, it is possible to capture at full DVD resolution and bitrate. Have done this with a Pinnacle USB 2 capture device and a USB2 PCMCIA adapter on a PII/333MHz notebook.

[Duchess]

usb1 will also work fine for normal captures.

You must be joking surely? There is absolutely no way that a USB1 interface can have the data transfer rate high enough to work with a full DVD quality capture. It will probably handle captures at VCD quality but even then I think it will struggle.

[Capmaster]

usb1 will also work fine for normal captures.

You must be joking surely? There is absolutely no way that a USB1 interface can have the data transfer rate high enough to work with a full DVD quality capture. It will probably handle captures at VCD quality but even then I think it will struggle.

Duchess,

You need to forget all biased opinions you might have heard about USB. USB1.1 has a top speed of 11Mbps. Using this interface you can repeatedly and reliably capture at 6.5 Mbps and probably higher if it's the only device on the USB port. 6.5 Mbps puts you right at the sweet spot for VBR captures of about 90 - 105 minutes, which makes up a goodly portion of movies. The official DVD-compliant MPEG2 capture rate tops out at 9.8 Mbps.

True, USB2 would be the preferred choice, but don't write off 1.1 as being completely useless ...it isn't. I use it all the time for capturing DVD MPEG2.

Just make sure that the usb cap device does hardware encoding of both audio and video in the device and does NOT route the audio to the sound card.

So important it's worth repeating

[Duchess]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but a PAL picture is 720 x 576 which equals 414720 bytes and as there is 25 frames per second that makes 10368000 bytes. As each byte is 8 bits that makes 82944000 bits. which is 79.1 Mb.

That to me means that you need about 100 Mb to allow for overheads.

It would be appreciated if you can tell me where I'm going wrong.

[Capmaster]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but a PAL picture is 720 x 576 which equals 414720 bytes and as there is 25 frames per second that makes 10368000 bytes. As each byte is 8 bits that makes 82944000 bits. which is 79.1 Mb.

That to me means that you need about 100 Mb to allow for overheads.

It would be appreciated if you can tell me where I'm going wrong.

Now I know why you were so surprised someone suggested USB1.1.

You're talking about uncompressed video. Your hardware encoder with the USB interface compresses that down to the bitrate you specify up to a max. of 9.8 Mbps. It's this compressed stream that actually gets transferred over USB.

Even DV is compressed somewhat. Pure, uncompressed video is 124.4 Mbps for video source, and 119.4 Mbps for film source.

I suggest you read this guide. It explains alot and it's my favorite single source for DVD facts and figures:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

[Duchess]

Many thank's I'll follow up on your guide. The info is really appreciated.

[Capmaster]

You're welcome. There's a lot to read there, so put on a pot for tea and start with page 1

[Manokat]

i have a pentium 2 400 mhz with a dvd burner and a laptop pentium 4 without a dvd burner only cd burner..

what gives the best quality a video card or one of those usb devices that transfers vhs, tv, records to my hard drive? right now im going to transfer vhs to dvd but want a card or device that will do it all, vhs, tv shows, and albums.

i dont know if the pentium two is too slow but the desktop has my dvd burner, and cant change my video card in my laptop, neither computer has a video capture card..

should i get a video card for my desktop or a usb device for my laptop but i dont know how to get a large file from my laptop to my desktop if i use my laptop to transfer my VHS to my laptop hard drive?

thats some of my problem but anyway what gives the better quality a video card or one of those new usb devices that transfer video???

thanks

Get a USB mpeg2 device for your laptop. A Plextor M402U or the newly released ConvertX-AV100U is one of the best devices out there.

As for burning DVD from a laptop, you can get the USB/firewire enclosure and move the burner from your desktop PC to it. With this setup you do not need to move files back and forth - you can use the burner both for pc and for laptop.

[FulciLives]

The best thing for the P2 400Mhz would probably be the Hauppauge WinTV PRV-250 (PCI version).

In short that computer will not be able to capture much of anything without using a hardware encoder like the Hauppauge device.

I would stay away from a normal PCI TV Tuner type card.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman