connecting multiple cameras to pc ??

[pinkfloyd81]

ok i`m brand spanking new at this so i need all the help you can give me .

here what i`m hoping i`ll be able to do .

connect 3 camcorders (not digital ...either composit or s-video) to my pc and record simultaniously .Wether thats actually possible or not i don`t know . I don`t want to switch between them or anything i just want 3 cams for 3 different angles round a drum kit so i can edit it later to make the demos/lessons a bit more interesting .i`ve got all the cams and a ton of cables but i`m not sure which hardware i need for the PC .I`ve seen the cards used for security systems that let you record from mulitple cameras but not sure the quality will be that great once converted to dvd.

If somone could advise me that would be awesome .i`ve tried searching the forum but to be fair i don`t even really know what to search for ..lol.

cheers guys
dave

[daamon]

Hi pinkfloyd81 / Dave,

Welcome to the forums.

I've not done this and only really work with DV via firewire, but I suspect it may be as simple as having a capture card for each cam and software running multiple instances to capture from each card.

Hopefully someone will confirm my suspicions, or put me straight!

Good luck.

[Soopafresh]

http://www.ituner.com/spectra.htm

[pinkfloyd81]

http://www.ituner.com/spectra.htm

that looks just the job ...i`ve look at a good few of these but most of them as i say im concerened wont be good enough quality toproduce a good result ..... i take it on that one(as you can get it up 120 fps) that vid will be good enough qality for my purposes (giving to my students as study aids )

like i say i`m a total newb athis so excuse my ignorance !!

and thanx for all the other replies too .
cheers
dave

[Soopafresh]

Reading the specs, it sounds pretty good. You'll absolutely want to use a fast PC to host the thing and CPU utilization will be high as you capture/encode. The card only captures, so it will be your CPU encoding the video into Mpeg/Divx/etc.

Read the FAQ and make sure it works for your purposes:

http://www.ituner.com/spectra-faq.htm#Does%20your%20Spectra%208%20card%20captures%20au...l%20as%20video

[Richard_G]

It looks to me like it should do the job perfectly. It can do 4 simultaneous 30 fps streams so should be able to cope with 3 at PAL resolution 25 fps without problem. However, you may need to upgrade your computer to make sure you can use the device to it's full capabilities. Assuming your computer specs on your profile are correct, I would suggest you add a second hard drive to capture to and upgrade your operating system to Windows XP. The device manufacturers don't mention Vista support and very few, if any, capture devices will work properly under it.

[pinkfloyd81]

It looks to me like it should do the job perfectly. It can do 4 simultaneous 30 fps streams so should be able to cope with 3 at PAL resolution 25 fps without problem. However, you may need to upgrade your computer to make sure you can use the device to it's full capabilities. Assuming your computer specs on your profile are correct, I would suggest you add a second hard drive to capture to and upgrade your operating system to Windows XP. The device manufacturers don't mention Vista support and very few, if any, capture devices will work properly under it.

cheers ..for all the advice i`ll check out some of these cards !!!!

dave