My first capturing project....please help:)

[vitamine]

aite....this is my first project and I am really excited about it. First I like to say how awsome this site is--like another game copyworld or somtin--and how I am glad to find this site. Anyways, I am planning to do some capturing and transfer to them to either regular cds or even dvd cuz I am thinking about buying one soon. I have a 6800 DDR video card from ASUS and it has a regular rca Video out, 1 Svideo out, and 1 Svideo in.

I have two projects in mind. One is that I have a video camera and I would like to be able to transfer from the tapes recorded into my computer and save them. Second, my mom watch lot's of movies and most are on tapes. Her collection is huge and growing. I would like to transfer those tapes into my computer and save them in on regular disks, or even in DVD disks in the future.

My questions now is with the Video card that I have, is it good enough to do what I want? What software is best to use with my card if I should use it? And how good is it compare to if I go out and get a capture card and what's the best one out there? I mean I want the best quality so I wouldn't mind spending a little more. Also, what software should I use for best results and what formats should I use for best results?

[penamty]

I don’t think it is possible to give a short answer to such complex questions, I would recommend first you try the sections on the left since all the information they contain has been tested by more experienced people (I have been into digital video since a little more than a year and I still consider myself a newbie). Also try the search option in the main menu of this site, you will find that many other people have done similar projects and asked similar questions.

Given that digital video is such a flexible format you will find that most times what you can do depends really on your final project (DVD, Divx, VCD, SVCD etc), your target media (CD or DVD) and what compatibility you want with home DVD players.

I agree that this site is one of the best to get started into digital video, but don’t get disappointed if sometimes you don’t get an answer to your questions, I have also been in that situation before and have always found what I was looking for by doing a little extra searching into the site. (Is not that people here are rude, they just expect us to use all the wealth of information already here)

[vitamine]

Dont get me wrong.....I am serching. I just want to see if you guys could give me some tips.

[presto]

Maybe someone with a DVD burner will let you know how succesful they are at the kind of thing you want to do. I only have a CDR-W burner so I am limited to VCD's and SVCD's. So far the results are pretty limited. I can make nice quick SVCD's that are not as clear as a good VHS recording. They look more like something you recorded on the slp setting of VHS. They also have a slight "computery" look to them. When other people watch they don't really know why but they say "Did this come off a computer?" The movement is not as smooth as on tape. Close but not quite. It looks ok but it "feels" wrong.

Or I can take my time and use 5 or 6 different programs to get a video that looks every bit as good as VHS. It takes many hours for the computer to encode the mpgs. You would never be able to transfer your whole collection that way.

It happens that I have a lot of instructional tapes where I am concerned with having easy access to the information that they contain and not so concerned with the video quality. Capturing them with VirtualDub and then editing and burning them with Studio 8 works great.

[jacknjt]

buy the pana e30 or e20
u can store 6hours of good quality on a dvdr
easy to use and save a lot of times

[penamty]

I really don't know the capabilities of your card, but if it can capture to AVI maybe is enough for you purposes, if not, try to test it with virtualdub and see if you can capture to AVI there. I have limited experience with VHS to CD but what I have done is first capture to AVI using the Huffy codec at 640x480 resolution, then convert to VCD or SVCD using TMPEGenc and then burn using Nero. The results are ok and if you don't need to edit your captures, is really very straightforward. It is true that the encoding process is time consuming but if you have a fast computer it is not that critical an issue (besides you can do the encoding overnight).
This is the general process I follow, but of course it never is that simple and you will probably need to do some experimenting to find out the particular settings for your captures and encoding, also keep in mind that you will never get your end result to look better (or the same for that matter) than the original.
About the computer look to the SVCD's that Presto mentions, I don't have that problem, but then again there are a lot of things that could affect the look of an encoding, and there is also the subjective factor.

[presto]

Penamty, I think when I use the procedure that you mention I do get better results. It is when I use Studio 8 to edit that I get the slight computery look. It is worth it for the extreme ease of editing and menu creation.

Did you know your can edit with mpg Tools in TMPGenc? After you encode the mpeg just go to mpeg tools. It lets you cut out sections without re-encoding the mpg so you don't lose quality. When editing mpg1 you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to go frame by frame quickly or slowly and editing is a breeze. With mpg2 you can't move very quickly through the video and editing is tougher. On some mpg2's TMPGenc crashes on me when using mpg Tools. I wonder if there is some codec or something that I need to fix that.