VHS and Video8 capture

[bjolester]

I want to digitize my collection of family videos in Video8 format and also some vhs videos. The analogue videos are in PAL format.

I have recently acquired an ATI TV Wonder 600 HD usb card and am about to install Windows 7 on my PC. I also plan to purchase Adobe Premiere Elements for video editing, and to output the video on DVD and/or mpeg4 format. I have some questions about the capturing process:

1. Does the ATI Multimedia centre function in Windows 7 ?

2. Is the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD usb card + ATI MMC able to convert analogue PAL video to PAL mpeg-2 ?

3. What software options do I have if I want to capture my analogue videos in PAL DV 25 codec in Windows 7 ?

4. Would VirtualDub and AVI capture be the best way to go with my hardware set-up?


I am grateful for any advice on my query!

[dellsam34]

If you have ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB you can answer questions 1 and 2 by yourself by just plugging it. NLE software such as Adobe are not suitable for video restoration and cleanup, VirtualDub and Avysinth are the way to go.
3- If you have ATI TV Wonder 600 USB why would you want to buy a DV capture device? Just use what you got, DV is a lossy codec and cannot be cleaned up without doing more damage to it.
4-VirtualDub AVI with HuffYUV lossless compression with your USB capture device is the best combination if you plan on doing some restoration and editing before encoding to a popular format.

[bjolester]

If you have ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB you can answer questions 1 and 2 by yourself by just plugging it. NLE software such as Adobe are not suitable for video restoration and cleanup, VirtualDub and Avysinth are the way to go.
3- If you have ATI TV Wonder 600 USB why would you want to buy a DV capture device? Just use what you got, DV is a lossy codec and cannot be cleaned up without doing more damage to it.
4-VirtualDub AVI with HuffYUV lossless compression with your USB capture device is the best combination if you plan on doing some restoration and editing before encoding to a popular format.

Thank you very much for your comment!

3. I thought that the ATI TV Wonder 600 USB could capture DV, in addition to mpeg-2 and AVI. Apparently I have been mistaken in my assumptions.

4. Well, I think I will just settle for VirtualDub AVI and HuffYUV then. It seems like this is a very good option, also for my hard ware set-up, and could provide a good workflow.

Am I correct in assuming that my large AVI file in HuffYUV will be compatible with editing in Adobe Premiere Elements?

[dellsam34]

I don't have premiere elements, So I can't tell, But try a small capture file and load it to see how it goes.