Please I need Advice on Capture Cards!!!

[see_one]

Hello all,

I am a newbie here. I have browsed through this website but couldn't decide which capture card to buy for my Windows XP system. Let me tell you what I need to capture. I want to capture family home videos that are on VHS cassettes. I want to convert my videos in some format so that I can play them on computer and also put them on a cd for back ups.

I have Windows XP Pentium 4, 256 RAM, 32 MB NIVIDIA Geforce2 with 20GB Hard drive.

I am looking for a capture card that works well with XP and can give good quality video. I am not looking for too expensive cards. I need a good quality though, if possible.

Can someone list me the items that they use with XP and the software that I will require for converting. I saw All in Wonder card or something like that but not sure it works with XP.

Please reply, if you guys can direct me with your good advice. Thanks.

[Roginator]

Unless you buy another hard drive -- preferably 60GB or bigger -- you may be stuck capturing to MPEG using either hardware or software MPEG capture.

Either way, the cost may run a bit under $100. There's a card like the Creative VideoBlaster VCR which does hardware capture to MPEG-2 fairly well. Or there's the option of buying an el-cheapo TV card and a software MPEG encoder. Probably a little cheaper, but quality of capture may be lower as well.

[mike416]

check this out
http://steve.kittelsen.com/pv231/
no .avi cature thoigh,but I don't need one,with an .mpeg this card produced

[vhelp]

see_one,

IMO, being that you said good quality, real-time MPEG1/2 isn't
really going to satisfy you enough. IF you're really into good quality!

But, there's nothing wrong w/ going for the AIW's (I use the ATW card) for most
of my captures, even though I have a DV cam. My setup I use is what I call
a mini TIVO type. I tape to a miniDV tape w/ my CAM and then use my ATW card's
S-video to capture from the miniDV tape. Quality is excellent, as I use my
own variation of this so called CVD format, which by the way, I've ben using
to some extent for some time now. I just didn't know it was called a CVD. I
interchangeably called it xSVCD (using SVCD generickly) Anyways. .. .. ..

You can also look into the ATWs as well. These R PCI tv tuner cards put out
by ATI. ...ATI-TV Wonder to be exact. I don't know what the latest MMC version
is for this type of card. but if you're not comfortable with it (or should become
uncomfort w/ it) you can use AVI_IO or Vdub for capturing (you'll soon learn)
For maximum quality, as you put it, in so many words, AVI captures and encodes
are the way to goooooooooo!!!!

Studio's DC10+ (DC10Plus) is also a good buy. Is a hardware MJPEG card, and
captures in MJPEG (AVI) format. Quality of caps is very good/excellent, but
does (IME) have a color issue, but can be eliviated w/ a few color filters.
Some sware it doesn't exist, but it does. But in my use of it, I rarely got
any framedrops, even though it was a hardware based capture board. It's max
capture res. is 640x480NTSC, and 720x576PAL.

I say this much. . . that todays video endeavers, DIGital is pushing it's way
in. So, be on the alert for DV this, DV that, etc.
I've steped up to DV now. But, I sort of piggy back DV w/ a little Analog
cause IMO, I feel that quality'wise, my analog captures (though from my DV cam)
gives me better quality for my final CVD/SVCD/VCD encoding playback via TV vs.
my firewire DV captures. I know, I know... DV is better quality, but I'm not
viewing it on my PC, nor do I care, so basically, it's irrelavent. I'm making
CD's to be played on my DVD player/TV setup. And, since DVD-R burners R just
too expansive for me, not to mention the medias (disks) I don't need the res.
of 720x480 captures via firewire. I'm not making DVD's yet. But, how knows
what holds for tomorrow. There are other reasons why I'm not fully utilizing
the DV captures, etc. Color washout is one, and so far, all the apps I've used
have this nasty 10 or 20 or more seconds pause between recording, playing, and
re-recoding (via firewire) and this just kills me when I'm in a hurry and just
want to capture a scene. I can do this in AVI_IO (analy, i mean, analog) and
get great quality AVI's and encodes, etc., etc.
Well, this is just me. Sorry for going in-depth w/ you on my video endeavers.
Sorry if I didn't answer any of your questions

Hope i've ben enlighting to some extent

-vhelp

[see_one]

Thanks,

Are you guys saying that I cannot make a VCD because I don't have big hard drive. And the link for PV 231 video/audio card you have given me makes only .mpeg video and not the VCD that can be played on DVD player.

I also found this card and good reviews on it. It's "Hauppauge WinTV 125 Channel TV Tuner and Digital Digitizer for Windows 98", according to the reviews it works on WINXP. I don't understand completely what you guys mean? Please tell me more in detail. Thanks.

[Fede Pede]

check this out
http://steve.kittelsen.com/pv231/
no .avi cature thoigh,but I don't need one,with an .mpeg this card produced

Thanks for the link mike416

[see_one]

Hello guys,

I need to know how to find this card somewhere to buy "Hauppauge WinTV FM". It seems there are so many differnt kind in it. Can someone who knows about this card can give me a link where I can ses it's complete specification. I have seen good reviews for this card. Thanks.

[Roginator]

Even if you have an MPEG capture card, you are going to be severely constrained by your 20GB drive if you have much of anything else on it.

[see_one]

What type of card should I go for with 20GB Hard drive? Can you guys tell me please?

[Roginator]

Just for the sake of argument, let's say you got a Creative Videoblaster VCR. "If" you recorded an hour at 640x480 and best compressed audio at highest quality, you'd have a file of about 3.7GB. Add another 0.5GB for audio conversion. If you had to use PVAStrumento to fix glitches, you might need another 4GB. Then you'd need 700MB or so if you wanted to compress it to a CD.

If you are recording to smaller sizes, less disc space will be needed, but video still takes huge amounts of space.

If you tried to capture in AVI format instead of MPEG, you'd be limited to much less than an hour with any reasonable quality.

[see_one]

SO should I go for those cards that capture in real time? I think, I mean MPEG1 and 2, right? That might save me space.

[OptimusPrime22]

You might just need to buy a bigger hard drive to add as a second drive on the pc. They are pretty cheap now and you could get a 60 or 80 gig drive and have alot more capture space. Try www.pricewatch.com and see if they have any prices you might like. Or you can look around for an Office Depot or other local computer retailer in your area.

[zorinsmarket]

I have a Dazzle DVCII, its realtime Mpeg2 and I've had no problems with it. I have created some really good SVCDs and I'm currently working on DVDs. I use it most for capturing video from my Sat system with outstanding results. The only problem it the price, but I got mine for $229 at harmony computers most other store sell them for $299 and up.


Peace,
Zorin

[zorinsmarket]

WHoops forgot one thing, I'm also running XP pro and the software I got for the DVCII was for XP systems.

[mike416]

see_one,
The card does captures vcd complient mpeg files,you can directly write the file into vcd format. It state so in the page and very true

Real-time fully VCD compliant captures, no time wasted on software conversion and AVI captures, demuxing-muxing
Good VCD quality video (Winbond compression chip)

I've been using it for a while and very satisfied with the result. Even better than my $700 Broadway card

[vhelp]

see_one,

for me, when I do capturing w/ my ATW card at 352x480, using
Huffy codec, for 1 HOUR, it takes approx 12 to 15gigs (don't
quite remember, but next time I'll make an note of it)
* captured w/ HUFFY codec
* 352x480
* 1 HOUR
* Disk Space consumed: 12-15gigs
* another 700mb - 1.5gig per VCD higher maybe for SVCD
* Time to encode, is dependant upon your system (CPU speed)
but as an actual experience for me w/ T-Brd 900Mhz w/pc133
128MB ram, 3 hours w/ no filters used during the
encoding process, when making 352x480 xSVCD's.

If you don't have the patiance to wait for these long encodes,
then you'll have to do with Hardware MPEG1/2 capture cards.
These cap on the fly, but be worned, Quality is NOT as good
as and AVI capture and encode!!

Hardware MPEG ENCODE:
---------
PROS: piece of mind, min. quick time to cap/encode/burn/
3-5gigs of disk space, or more for TIVO silulation
CONS: quality so, so.

Software MPEG ENCODE:
---------
PROS: excellent quality**/configurable/other...
CONS: 20g min. HD/SLOOOOWWWWW, but worth it/2nd pc would be recommended just for encoding while you do
other more impotant things, he, he... but this is really
for more advanced people, unless you have one already or
can get 2nd w/ no problem.

CircuitCity has a 60gig (5400 rpm) for $99 w/ an additional
$20 rebate offer. Mind you, I got this Maxtor harddrive and
have NO problems. I cap to it via a network card, and
would U believe, no frame drop due to networked 2 pc's???
Yeah, maybe 1 every 10min or so, but that's not what I count
as frame drops, I mean loads!

VCDs:
About the only real good quality VCDs you can make are those
from DVD source materials. Cable or VHS are not that great.
Satalite, maybe. ...I've done a few in my testing and all, but
I haven't really done anything serious, other than DVD source.

SVCDs/CVDs:
* These are the best quality (well, better than VCDs) and require
MPEG-2 encoding.
* Sure you can make compliant SVCD (480x480.2520btrate) but you
could/can save on mpeg recourses and make 352x480 encodes, which
I am now calling (my encodes) CVDs. I've ben using this
for quite some time. Good quality... most of the time. Reduced
macro-blocks... quicker encodes... but require some learning
curves.

Capture Cards:
You don't need any special and expansive cards.
You can/will do fine with a cheap one, ie, WinTV GO, ATW, to
name a few, and both are around $69 or less... even cheaper ones
(cards) around for $39 or less. These cards are mainly for
capturing to AVI.
However, I'd recommend getting a good 4x AGP video card in
replacement of your PCI. It will help tremendously in your
capturing. At least for me, it did. I use to use the ATI Rage
128 PCI video card while using my ATW TV card, but dropped
way too many frames. When I went to the AGP route, frame drops
stop. I could be wrong. ...could have ben piggy-backing off of
the AGP WDM codec in some way. I know that as of this writing,
I don't have AnY VFW/WDM wrapper on my machine anywheres!
So, an AGP card (IMO) is recommended in aid of capturing.

-vhelp

** pending on your knowledge of encoding

[see_one]

Thanks guys. I want to tell you guys this. I understand that I need to get extra HD, thats no problem, OK. Right now, I have 16MB 3dfx VOODOO Banshee card but thats not the capture card, it's just a video card for gaming you know. As you have suggested to get a card that does the MPEG Encoding for better quality. How much will it cost approximately? Will it also be under hundred bucks? If not, then how much? Name the one that u have used. Also, when I install this card in my computer, do I have to connect my Monitor into this new capture card and what will happen to my existing card? I can switch them as needed when I am not recording, right. These are the few questions that I have in my mind. Also, the HD you are saying to get, is it external or internal? I already have one CR-ROM and a CDRW in my computer, I don't know if I have room for extra HD. If it's external you are talking about then it will okay. Can you tell me a little about this HD business too? It will be a great help from you to answer these questions? The way you guys talk about all these different kinds of encoding, goes over my head and I have to look up again and again what the names were that you guys are talking about. Anyway, one more thing:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software MPEG ENCODE:
---------
PROS: excellent quality**/configurable/other...
CONS: 20g min. HD/SLOOOOWWWWW, but worth it/2nd pc would be recommended just for encoding while you do
other more impotant things, he, he... but this is really
for more advanced people, unless you have one already or
can get 2nd w/ no problem
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this thing above that u mentioned is supposed to be good, but may be time consuming, doesn't matter to me. Please tell me exactly what Card and sofware do I need for this kind of encoding. Give me your estimate if you can. Your reply is a great help for me. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SHS]

Well if you want the eazy way without eat up disk space like crazy DivX5 (Stock setting)> TMPGEnc 2.52 (VCD Template)> Burn to CD as VCD with Nero 5.5.8.0 but thing is you need is fast CPU 1.2GHz or better/Fast Harddrive 7200 with UDMA66 or better this should take about 3to5 hours to do Note: depend on how long the show is.