Video 8 capturing advice required.

[blinky]

Hi guys,

My old man wants to transfer video from his Sony Video8 camcorder to his computer.

Specs

AMD XP 2000+ (1666MHz real clock speed)
Asus A7M266 motherboard (AMD 760 Northbridge, VIA 686B Southbridge)
256Mb Crucial PC2100 CAS2 (4 way interleave enabled)
32Mb Creative Geforce 2 GTS (NO video in)
40Gb Seagate Barracuda ATA100, 2Mb Cache, 7200rpm (Primary Master)
Liteon 48x12x48x CD-RW (Primary Slave)
On-board sound via C-Media Sound Chip.

Windows XP Professional

Obviously we need a capture device. I was thinking of a PCI TV card with a composite input such as an Aver or Hauppage. Any comments or suggestions? I know he doesn't want to spend a lot of money.

I downloaded some tools and stuff e.g. VirtualDub

Whats the best way of capturing the video that's simple to do?
Is M$ moviemaker (part of XP) any good?

What's the best resolution from video8 and what is the best file type/encoding?

I know that the holiday videos he want to transfer are on 90 minute tapes and most of the videos are at least one tape. I'm aware of the 4Gb FAT32 limit and will change the partition to NTFS with PM8 before he starts capturing.

I don't know if he wants to store them as VCD/SVCD or just wants them as video files.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[blinky]

Bump!

[Zozark]

I just recieved a Dell Dimension 8250 with the intent of doing exactly what you are trying to do. I have read several bad reports about Moviemaker, however I have not had any of the problems that have been shared within the forum. Alot has to do with the quality of CD-R if making (VCD's) and the make of your DVD. I have been very impressed with all of the features within Moviemaker.

[kini mini]

Hi Blinky

I'm in almost exactly the same situation as you, except I'm buying a new computer

My dad doesn't want to spend much money either, so I've settled on the Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP, on the grounds that it's about AUD$110 and there are a lot of people using it in Sydney so getting help is very easy. I have also downloaded video captures from these people which are pretty good.

From reading what other people have posted, I'm going to capture at max res (720x576 for me since I use PAL) and then use Tsunami to convert to MPEG-2 SVCD and/or VDub for DivX.

I am getting a 80GB WD hard drive with 8MB cache to do my captures (funnily enough it's great for games ). You will probably need a little more space than you have now, I'm sure your 40GB is at least 3/4 full. Drives are really cheap now anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.

OT a bit - my Video8 camcorder won't play back properly any more, picture has 3 white lines on screen no matter which tape I try. You happen to know of any solution or shall I just keep scouring the second hand markets?

[blinky]

Thanks for the info

Kimi Mini - Sorry I can't help you with your video8 problem. I've never used the camcorder - I just stick to computers

[blinky]

bump

[kini mini]

That's ok

[ncgoldwinger]

Blinky,

The cheaper route would be to buy a PCI capture card of some sort as you mentioned but it has a few drawbacks.

Analog Capture:
1) To capture in an uncompressed AVI format which would give you the best quality capturing in analog you are looking at using 1 GB per MINUTE of hard drive space. His 40 GB hard drive would quickly become full in no time.
2) Some capture cards allow capturing directly to MPG format but this is quite heavy on the CPU and sometimes produces dropped frames which will end up loosing synch with the audio if the lost frames count is high.
3) Using #1 method will mean he will need to add another hard drive dedicated to capture plus the cost of the capture card.

Digital Capture:
1) Digital capture only uses 13GB per HOUR. Since the capture rate is so much lower the chances of dropped frames are slim to none especially with his AMD 2000.
2) The audio and video are fed through the same port (firewire) thus no loss of audio sync with the video.
3) Using this method your dad would have a better chance of not having to add another hard drive but would need two other pieces of hardware.
Firewire card - $30 (4th down in next link)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=11&manufactory=13...tby=14&order=1
Canopus ADVC50 - $200
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bh4.sph/FrameWork.class?FNC=ProductActivator__Aproductlist...ID=F2B3B324D10

I know you said he didn't want to spend a lot of money but this is the two options and the pros and cons. To me the digital capture would offer less problems and give him better results. The final choice naturally would be up to him.

Regards..
Rick

[blinky]

He won't spend that amount of money on a Canopus. The camcorder only gets used once per year.

I guess the best option would be to capture directly to MPEG and drop the resolution a bit.

Would the XP2000+ be fast enough to do the MPEG coding on the fly.

[ncgoldwinger]

Blinky,

I would say that the AMD 2000 would be plenty fast enough to capture directly to MPEG. I would turn off or close all apps that are running to give the CPU full control when capturing. Turn off screens savers and disable anti-virus and the like.
I can't recommend any of the TV cards as I have never used them before. You could probably search the web for user reviews on them to get some feedback. There is a guide here on vcdhelp that describes capturing to MPEG using the WinTV card and TMPGEnc.

http://www.vcdhelp.com/wintvpvr.htm

Good luck
Rick

[blinky]

thanks for the info. Going into town to look to see what's available