Questions about Capturing (I'm a Newb)

[BozoB]

Hey Everyone, I would like to first thank you for taking the time to read this. It truly does mean a lot. Many Mahalo's. Okay, first, i will give you some specs on my PC. The ones that I think are relative. Here we go:
System: Dell Dimension XPS
Operating System: Windows XP Pro
Hard Disk Space: 450 GB
RAM: 2 GB
Processor: Intel Pentium 4, 3.4 GHz
Extra's:
#1- I also have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video(Graphics) Card 256 MB Memory.
#2- I have 2 DVD Burners

My Plan (Hopes Really ): I want to Capture video from my TV and from my VCR (Analog Source) to then author and burn to DVD.

My question is this, What do I need to begin Capturing and Authoring and Burning? I have a friend who is very knowledgable and very helpful. He has given me some suggestions, but he told me that he hasn't tried a whole lot of Capture cards but the ones he has tried are very good. I was thinking about getting another ATI card. The ALL In Wonder 9800 Pro, but I was told that it would conflict with my existing Video Card (ATI Radeon 9800 Pro). I would like to keep my existing card because I have heard that it is one of the best in the market. Any help would be great. Aloha!

[spiderman2k1]

You have to tell use what you want to capture. If you want TV show's ATI AIW or WINTV. But I think DVD recorder's are the best right now for TV show if thats what your doing?

For software MPEG2VCR for editting MPEG2. TMPG DVD author easy to use and ulead

[thecoalman]

As for the ATI it won't conflict with your current card because you will have to remove your current card from your system. Both require a 8x AGP slot, one slot means one card. Most of the money spent on a new AIW is going to spent on the graphics part anyway and I'm not sure but I don't think they have a 256 meg AIW so you would actually be taking a step backward in this department.

I had a AIW and from experience I can tell you it produces a superb capture but if your VHS tapes are older be prepared to possibly have to spend additional money on a video stabilizer, TBC or some other additional hardware. The AIW is a royal pain in the a** to get to work with source video that is not so great. I have a page here if you wish to read into more detail http://www.nepadigital.com/mv/

I don't own one personally but have read from the posts here that the Canopus ADVC is a great analog converter. I'm going to purchase one myself. If quality is not an issue you can also check into the Leadtek 2000xp TV/FM tuner and capture card, has a lot of good features and for $50 you can't go wrong.

Edit: Radeon doesn't require 8x, works with 4x. Needs 8x for optimal performance.

[gshelley61]

You can swap out your current graphics card for a TV/capture card. They usually come bundled with software to capture, edit and author DVD's. Some allow you to capture in various formats like AVI or directly to DVD compliant MPEG2. Computer capturing, editing, filtering, encoding, and authoring offers lots of flexibility and options, but can be really time consuming.

If you are going to capture analog videotape (VHS, 8mm, Hi8, etc.) then you will probably have to get either a standalone TBC (Time Base Correcter) or a higher-end VCR that has a TBC built-in. Otherwise, you will probably drop frames during capture. If you also want to transfer commercial VHS movies to DVD, you will need something to defeat Macrovision copy protection. Expensive standalone TBC's like the Datavideo TBC-1000 can do that, as well as some less costly "clarifying" devices that are available. The built-in TBC's in some higher-end VCR's will stabilize videotape playback and minimize dropped frames during capture, but will not defeat Macrovision. This applies to any capture method; computer, digital videotape or DVD recorder.

Another option is standalone capturing boxes that connect to your computer via firewire or USB2 - they perform basically the same function as internal capture cards. They cost more than internal cards, but you don't have to ditch your nice graphics card if you get one of these. The one most liked on this forum is the Canopus ADVC-100 because it produces very good capture quality and apparently has a hidden Macrovision defeat feature. It captures to DV .AVI, so you do have to encode to MPEG2 and then author the final DVD. There are other boxes that can capture and encode directly to MPEG2, which saves you a step.

A real convenient alternative to computer capturing is to buy a standalone DVD recorder. Using re-writable DVD's (-RW's, +RW's or -RAM's) you simply record your source directly to MPEG2 using the DVD recorder, then pop the disc into your computer for additional editing and authoring to a final DVD-R if you like. In fact, using the DVD recorder by itself, you can create a final DVD-R without a computer at all (as long as you don't mind a simple menu and do not need to edit very much). The picture quality you get with newer DVD recorders is very good - generally better than what you are likely to get using the computer (unless you apply advanced filtering during the encoding process - takes lots of extra time and a very good working knowledge of computer video techniques).

I used to capture with my computer, but have switched to using a DVD recorder. It is so much faster and easier, and the results are very good.

The model everyone is talking about lately is the new JVC DR-M10SL because it produces really outstanding quality DVD recordings and is reasonably priced.

Here is the DVD Recorder forum:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=28

[thecoalman]

I'm tempted but I think I'll let someone else do it....

[Mr.Computer Video]

Hi,

I think nearly all of the video capture units these days are compatible with ATI video cards from my work experiences.

There is a company that I dealt with before selling several different video capture units, check it out ! http://www.ambery.com/dianvicasy.html

[SatStorm]

Since you are NTSC, those ATI cards are a good alternative for you.
They do the job well and offer many goodies at a nice price.
The only problem you might have, is macrovision. You will need to buy a de macrovision device for this and probably a TBC.

The other alternatives are not so easy and need some searching. A good start is here https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards