operating system advice / bt878 / saa7134 / hardware config

[jafvid]

Hi all

I last captured some video using an PixelView card about 10 years ago with possibly win98 or maybe win 2k.


I have about 50 vhs tapes looking to capture with various things, some of which eventually I plan to stick on youtube etc, and some are old home vids I'll put on dvd for family.

Pretty much everything I capture will require some degree of editing, so I plan to do this in Sony Vegas.

Hardware:

PVR150
Flyview 3000 ( Saa7134 ) (s-vid+composite in)
WinTV Bt878a (composite in )

asrock e2140 / 2GB / 2x 500GB sata

Sempron2300 / 1GB / 2x 160 GB IDE
XP1900 / 1GB / 2x 160 IDE

Panasonic S-VHS vcr (no tbc) s-vid in/out
Tosh VCR

2x soundblaster Live (gold + value)
various other disks


I was trying win7 with the pvr150 on the e2140 but was't getting anywhere, then tried the other cards, and didn't really get much happening then, Stuck XP on it and with both cards in, only seem to be getting anything from the bt878 card.

So now I'm thinking about what to do next - some questions:

1) Theoretically (and pratically) am I right in thinking the saa7134 should produce a better capture? a) The 7134 chip is supposedly better than the bt, and b) this card will take s-vid in from my VCR

Counter to the above I have also read that a) most of the captur software seems to work better with the bt chips and gives more control -> better result? and b) capturing from VHS using s-vid makes next to no difference than to use composite?

2) What OS should I be using to best support my hard ware ? Should I put Win2k on my computer ? Or Winxp? Purely from a capturing point of view. I'm thinking it's six of one and half a dozen ? I don't think I need to regress to Win98 though - or do i?

3) The sempron / XP with a dedicated 7200 capture disk should be able to capture huffy video at 720x576 without dropping any frames - is that correct?

I'm fiddling with all this at the moment, but I'm thinking that if I build 2 machines using the sempron and the XP1900 and put each card in each machine I can probably do some comparisons that may or may not be useful.

This would then free up the other, more powerful machine for encoding/editing etc.

As for the pvr150 - I've read that it's generally not as good as the 'avi' cards not sure if I'd have any use for that ?

Should the results from either card be good enough then it may be an opportunity to capture 2 tapes at once using both system and both vcrs.


Any thoughts , on the questions above? ?

thanks for reading.. cheers all

[jagabo]

1) In my (limited) experience BT drivers are much more solid than Philips drivers. For VHS caps you probably won't see significant difference in quality (the resolution of PAL VHS is around 350x576).

2) If you have an SVHS deck its s-video output will look better than its composite output. If you have a regular VHS deck the opposite is true unless you you a very high end composite to s-video converter (with a 3d comb filter). Watch for dot crawl artifacts with composite capture.

3) Yes, the Sempron should be sufficient for HuffYUV. Especially if you capture to a drive separate from the boot drive.

[danno78]

1. I vote for Philips Saa7134 and DScaler as capture software.

[jagabo]

I think danno78 would prefer the ATI Theater 650:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313735-Capture-card-for-Laserdisc-and-VHS-Good-card...=1#post1940519

Check out the samples in that post.

[danno78]

From the three options presented, Saa7134 is the best solution. With S-video connection and uncompressed I think you will get the best results. You must check Toshiba performance. For some tapes may provide a better picture/sound. Today Bt878 is an obsolete solution. It is true that Ati Theatre 550/650 are even better.

[jafvid]

Thanks for the replies - I'm still to setup the sempron board etc will try tonight.

I looked at getting the theatre cards a couple of years ago (this project has been 'waiting' for a while) but never bothered. I can't find any on the ebay, i'll keep looking. Also possibly getting panny DVD recorder for 30 quid or so will test that as well if I succeed.



I should go with Winxp then for the capture instead of win 2k?

Would the theatre card assuming I could find one work in my asrock dual 4core vsta board in the PCI-E slot? it has AGP, as well so I could stick AGP card in for video?

I have also sound blaster PCI 16 card that I could use, that will work fine as sound capture for one of the cards instead of soundblaster live?

The Tosh give a good playback picture, the heads on the Panny need cleaning, some speckles, I have ordered the stuff.

I'm actually quite keen to do some comparisons.




Also, bt878 is well outdated - what is the current 'best' method that folk use?




I tried to find a camera that did analogue to DV but difficulty locating such a beast.

[danno78]

Theatre 550/650 can be found in classic PCI slot or newer PCIe slot. Theatre have "sound card" inside.

[jagabo]

danno78, can you recommend a source for good drivers for Philips SSA cards?

[danno78]

DScaler have full hardware support for Saa713x. Interacts directly with the hardware. You don`t need to instal drivers.

[jafvid]

Sweet.

I have used dscaler in the past for watching TV. I have it installed currently , on my big rig with the 2 cards in. But I have a feeling it doesn't like, (or my board, or something) doesn't like both cards in at the same time. keeps major lagging and locking the computer

just about to build a new system with the saa7134. I'll stick XP on and Dscaler and see what happens.

[jagabo]

DScaler have full hardware support for Saa713x. Interacts directly with the hardware. You don`t need to instal drivers.

Thanks. I have a Philips based cards sitting around somewhere. Mabye I'll install it in one of my computesr and try DScaler.

[jafvid]

I just built Sempron 2600 (i thought it was 2300) sblive, gf2 mx, and saa7134 card , installed XP and dscaler. Hooked up video to composite in and recorded a clip No problems... Pretty sweet. Is there anyway in dscaler to know how many (if any) frames are dropping?


Next, going to build identical system with XP1900 and bt878a card and check that out. (same mobo, even)

Awaiting chamois and IPA to clean video heads on panny. Then I'll be able to compare S-vid to composite.


Is dscaler still recommended to take advantage of the 878 card, as I notice it has a lot of specific options in it for those cards when it detects one?

Or is the like of BT tweaker in Vdub etc considered the way to go? Ill probably end up testing a few different softwares.


edit - just realised bttweaker uses the same dlls as dscaler, so it's a moot point..

[danno78]

Pretty sweet. Is there anyway in dscaler to know how many (if any) frames are dropping?

From View menu Statistics screen or hit two times Enter.
For VCR input check these:

[BrainStorm69]

Back in the day...about 4-5 years ago...I really liked my Philips 7130 based Avermedia EZMaker DVD using Virtual VCR and Huffy on WinXP. You can get the card today on ebay for $10 +$12 shipping here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Avermedia-DVD-EZMaker-PCI-Turn-Home-Videos-into-DVD_W0QQitemZ1...item25598bf9ea

If you want to see a resolution comparison I did way back when between BT878, SAA7130 and ATI Rage Theater, check here

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/189517-Resolution-Test-BT878-ATI-Rage-Theatre-Phili...er+DVD+Philips

[jafvid]

Cheers man. Still haven't got round to doing any serious testing/capturing yet. I cleaned the Panasonic deck and got it much better than it was, but there's still a small amount of noise on the picture. The Toshiba deck seems to have a much better picture, but not quite as sharp.

Been busy setting up a couple of NAS and rebuilding my main PC, but will continue with this project as I get time.


I got the sample file from there, but is there anywhere I can get other decent sample images or even a DVD image I can use to burn to disk to try and get some control over the tests.?

[jagabo]

Many THX certified DVDs have test patterns on them.

[BrainStorm69]

jagabo is right. Try the Ice Age DVD, if you have it.

I've uploaded some test patterns here:

http://www.2shared.com/file/12265587/afefea1b/test_patterns.html

GO to near the bottom and click where it says: "Save file to your pc : click here"

OFF TOPIC: Can someone tell me what the best site to upload files and share them is. The site I uploaded this to is just the first thing that came up in google. Looks like it has too many pop-ups, etc.