Converting vhs to my PC but my PC is slow

[jojopuppyfish]

I have xp sp2
Compaq Deskpro C333mhz with 256mb
and a 150gb hard drive

I want to convert a vhs tape to my pc.
Is my machine too slow?

I have been advised to get a Canopus ADVC 110

Will I be able to transfer effectively.
Any Suggestions?

[guns1inger]

I'm surprised you can run XP happily on it.

At the very least you should double the memory.

Does it have firewire ? If not, you will also need to put in a firewire card so the ADVC has something to connect to.

Do you intend to edit, or just convert ? Editing will be very painful. Look at a small editing program, such as Ulead VideoStudio.

I used to transfer DV on a celeron 500, but it had 1GB of ram and multiple HDDs. I suspect you may be in for a very hard time.

[redwudz]

The Canopus 110 should work fine with a slower computer. I assume you have a FireWire input? Another option to consider might be a hardware PCI MPEG-2 encoder card like a Hauppauge 250. Then you wouldn't need to encode the DV to MPEG. Not as nice to edit as DV, but much faster if you are going from VHS to DVD.

When copying from a VCR source, you really would benefit from a TBC (Time Base Corrector) to clean up the drifting sync pulses most VCRs output. Bad news is that they are expensive, and likely not worth it if you only plan to do a few tapes.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Using the Canopus means that you will using FireWire to get the video onto your PC. This isn't much more than a very fast serial port. I assume you have a FireWire interface? If not, you'll need to buy one (very cheap) and install it in a free PCI slot.

The FireWire interface takes care of all the communication - so your processor speed shouldn't be an issue. However, depending on your motherboard - particularly the hard drive controller - your hard drive may be too slow. Your system needs to be able to sustain a transfer rate to your hard drive of at least 3.5MB/s - ideally more. Assuming you have a standard ATA hard drive, any idea what PIO mode it is using with your particular system? That determines the maximum data throughput (see http://www.compguysinc.com/techweb/hardware/dma-pio.shtml )

[jojopuppyfish]

WOW...you guys are quick.
thanks for the help.
XP works great on it. But streaming video is terrible.
I am only going to convert.

Yes I have a firewire.
I'll have to check on the PIO mode.

I think the canopus has time based locking.

[Dr_Layne]

Getting the video onto the hard drive will not be much of an issue as long as you have firewire. The problem will be encoding the video. With such a slow CPU, it is going to take you hours and hours to encode. You may want to consider upgrading. These days you can get a decent PC for $500 that will run circles around what you are using now.

[jojopuppyfish]

I am going to upgrade next year once some of the issue with vista are smoothed out.
FWIW, Compusa is shutting many of its stores tomorrow and they are going to have huge sales.
I will be checking it out.