Analog video USB capture (good quality needed)

[eljainc]

Hello,

We are looking for devices that allow for motion capture of video at 30
fps at 640x480 (or higher) resolution. We just recently tried the ADS
DVD Xpress but it does not have WDM drivers, so it will not work with
our custom application or programs like VirtualDub. I talked to ADS
and they do not have any products (with the lone *possible* exception
of the Pyro AV) that support WDM.

We currently have AverMedia's EZMaker USB 2.0, but the quality is not
very good.

Another device which we have in our arsenal is ImperX's Video Capture
Essentials Professional (VCE Pro). While it is not a USB based
solution, it is a Cardbus based capture card, but the pricetag is
nearly $650. The quality is the best that I have seen.

One possible solution that I've come across is Plextor's ConvertX
(PX-M402U). Has anybody used this and can comment on the quality of
digitized video from a composite video source?

Are there any other products out there that have high quality composite
video capture?

Mike

[unclebud]

I hear that Plextor has a USB2 capture device that has pretty good quality. The software with it is not so hot though.

[edDV]

What kind of video are you trying to capture and what do you want to do with it?

The AVS Pyro will hardware convert to DV format (small CPU, medium HDD load).

The ImperX's Video Capture Essentials Professional will put uncompressed video on the PCI bus (low CPU, high HDD load).

The ConvertX PX-M402U will hardware encode to "DivX®, MPEG-4, MPEG-2/DVD, MPEG-1/VCD Formats" but is not yet fully proven.

[eljainc]

We are trying to capture composite video, either through the RCA output from the device, or S-Video. Obviously if S-Video was available we'd go with that option.

How does the AVS Pyro compare with the Canopus ADVC55? I talked to Canopus sales, asking them if the ADVC55 supported with WDM driver model in its driver. He didn't know. He said the technical support guy probably wouldn't know either. Maybe someone on here works with the ADVC55 and might know.

You are right, the VCEPro does put a lot of strain on the hard drive when capturing.

We want to have a device that can output video to AVI and supports the WDM driver model.

Mike

[edDV]

We are trying to capture composite video, either through the RCA output from the device, or S-Video. Obviously if S-Video was available we'd go with that option.

How does the AVS Pyro compare with the Canopus ADVC55? I talked to Canopus sales, asking them if the ADVC55 supported with WDM driver model in its driver. He didn't know. He said the technical support guy probably wouldn't know either. Maybe someone on here works with the ADVC55 and might know.

You are right, the VCEPro does put a lot of strain on the hard drive when capturing.

We want to have a device that can output video to AVI and supports the WDM driver model.

Mike

The AVS Pyro and the Canopus ADVC series are transcoders to DV format. They operate like a camcorder DV input. They interface with XP as source/destination IEEE-1394 DV streams and are controlled from DirectShow (part of DirectX).

WDM drivers are used to control tuner/capture cards. This is the normal method of control for internal PCI bus mounted TV tuners. Is TV VHF/UHF tuning a requirement? These cards are capable of uncompressed AVI capture from the tuner or from the S-Video input and are widely supported by capture software.

By AVI, do you mean uncompressed YUV? Is there a reason you can't use a standard PCI tuner card like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122180

The ImperX's Video Capture Essentials Professional (VCE Pro) is a PC Card that can do uncompressed YUV capture. Why isn't this working for you?

PVR and external USB2 tuner/capture cards add hardware encoding (MPeg2 and/or MPeg4) and proprietary drivers. They usually don't support uncompressed capture at higher than CIF (352x240/288) if that..

[eljainc]

The VCEPro is okay, but still there are some color fringing and other artifacts that are seen with this device.

We are looking for devices that will work with either desktops or notebooks. That pretty much confines us to the USB 2.0 or Firewire buses.

We are not interested in a TV tuner with the video capture product.

We did order a ConvertX PX-M402U, so hopefully this device will give good results.

I think the Canopus device is not really what we are looking for for this particular application.

[edDV]

If you want uncompressed capture, you are tied to the PCI bus.