what do i need to capture...

[azuberi80]

vhs tapes and all other analog media in the highest possible quality and then burn as dvd.

i am considering doing this as a business, so i am looking for the highest professional quality equipment. price is not really an issue but i am not trying to spend money i dont have to.

i need your experience in this field to break down EVERYTHING im going to need with brand names and model numbers.

for example i need to know how fast a processor i need, how much ram, how much hard drive, what brand and model of capture card and dvd-rw.

basically I need to know what worked for you and what you would recommend to someone for capturing and authoring at the highest possible quality.

Thank you for your help.

[LordVader]

where are you from ?

[BJ_M]

This is a good package - you would find that most studios would have more than this while little 'mom and pop' hole in the wall places would do with less..
As below -- any package i outlined would be under $40,000 completly outfitted --

another option to give serious consideration is the Apple system with Final cut pro and some add-ons and stuff..


required equipment----------------------------------------------------


DPS 2204-2T TBC, Dual Channel TBC IV System Time Base corrector

HoritaCSG-50 Color Bar/Sync/Audio Tone Generator Timer, Full Field or SMPTE Color Bars

Sony SVO-5800 S-VHS Studio Edit Player/Recorder VCR with TBC and RS-422 Control

Sony PVM-20M2U 19" Color Monitor, 600 Lines of Resolution, P-22 Phosphors, Tally, Blue Gun, Underscan, H/V Delay

Pioneer 7400 DVD player

misc test dvd player(s)

5:1 reciever (good quality)

Tannoy Proto-J monitors (x 5) + tannoy ps110 active subwoofer

SONIC DVD Producer or REELDVD

SEK'D - AC-3 Encoder (or other ac3 encoder)

Soundforge or wavelab (optional)

Single or dual cpu system - ultra reliable w/ strong warrenty and approved by DPS and AVID = well the IBM intellistation (dual xeon) or DELL workstation (dual xeon) are the only ones --- and the ibm has a lot better case and PS for a lot of drives.

dual monitors (i use all of the following: LCD 22" dual 1600 x 1200 monitors (viewsonic VX2200) and SONY wide screen W900's and FD500's and SGI 1600's LCD (18") and SGI 24" lcd panels ..)

I prefer the matrox parnelia graphics (however you spell it) for video work..

I suggest also (if your serious) a color calibrator - i use a SGI and also others - here is info on a nice one
http://www.dk-audio.com/PDF_filer/PM5639_00_PTV.pdf

rack and/or workstation

Good UPS like a BEST Ferrups 1200

DLT 4000 or 7000 or 8000 (if mastering - only)

Pioneer DVD-R A03 - A05 (any version) and/or Pioneer S201 (mastering only)

Another $1000-2000 on drives , media , tape stock , misc stuff , Beldin or Canare cable , Canare Connectors

all above a requirement pretty well

then one package from below:------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------
dpsVelocity 2d (www.dps.com) (comes with rs422 control and editing software (very very good)
Cinema craft encoder or main concept encoder (optional - above board comes with mpeg dvd encoder also)
-----------------------------------------------------------

OR

----------------------------------------------------------

Laird LTM-5000FS Analog / svideo / comp. to DV convertor (comes with machine control)

Sonic foundry vegas video or AVID DV 3.5 ( for editing purposes)

CCE or Main concept stand alone - optional as both apps above have encoders also

----------------------------------------------------------------------

OR
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(straight to mpeg option )

Sonic SD-500 Encoder (or SD-1000) (includes machine control) ((other mpeg hardware encoders as an option, several ways to go here)

Vitec DVD pro tools for editing mpeg2 files and ac3 files without re-encoding (for trims)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[BJ_M]

add to the above -> you said "other types" of analog media , do you mean what ? as in Beta SP ? or film to video services ...

give more info here and i can give more input ...

[crahak]

...And I was gonna suggest a dazzle

Seriously, you say you want to do it commercially, but do you want to do that just as a side job type of deal, or as a full time job?... I have done some transfers for some people, but I never got into this that deep. We're talking serious $ here... lol

[LordVader]

Dazzle products is Good Sugestion. You don't need anything else. This products do all the work for you.

If you want to burn MPEG material to DVD, you will have to work hard, and test lots of programs to find out wich one satisfy you're requirements.

[azuberi80]

i am from maryland.

second of all thanks for your help BJ M but my parents own a grocery/convenience shop and i have customers who would like their home videos (usually vhs) converted to dvd so they dont get messed up. things like weddings and birthdays.

i really dont need that high end stuff you were suggesting although i do appreciate your help.

im actually debating between a computer setup or a standalone dvd recorder.

i was actually thinking of basing a pc setup around the canopus ADVC-100 card i see so much praise about on this site.

[BJ_M]

well you shouldn't say "highest possable quality" :P (as so many do here "i want the best ........") ...


yes the ADVC-100 is a fine external box (not a card) ..

[crahak]

Dazzle ISN'T good lol.

I thought too you didn't want to spend all that $$ lol. I guess the ADVC sounds good...

Anyways, good luck

[joeshmoe2000]

i am also looking at the canopus ADVC-100
and am in the process of chosing the right Fwire card and software
this must work with a
PIII 1ghz
windows XP home
512 RAM
avalable PCI slots
very low budget
I too am from Maryland
any ideas
Joeshmoe2000

[BJ_M]

you should ask this question in a seperate thread -- also software for doing what ?

[azuberi80]

i am also looking at the canopus ADVC-100
and am in the process of chosing the right Fwire card and software
this must work with a
PIII 1ghz
windows XP home
512 RAM
avalable PCI slots
very low budget
I too am from Maryland
any ideas
Joeshmoe2000

yeah sounds like im gonna do something like this.

800mhz athlon thunderbird
windows xp home
lots of ram
lots of hdd

OR

a standalone dvd recorder.

[oldhack]

i like the ADS technologies USB INSTANT DVD Box. easy to install. i just have to find better software to suit my needs. its about 169.00 dollars

[crahak]

I don't know why people all want to load their PCs with so much RAM. Especially for encoding, unless you're really low on it, it won't speed up the process. It's all number crunching, you're better off with a faster CPU than a 800mhz. Just bought a Duron 1300 a couple days ago for 45$ retail box, I couldn't even buy something smaller throughout the whole country lol.

[BJ_M]

crahak's right - and ive mentioned it before , you dont need (much) memory for mpeg encoding .. but memory is pretty cheap and it certainly will not hurt anything , plus if running XP , well XP loves memory ..

[azuberi80]

how big are yall hard drives?

[Nelson37]

I have given such an enterprise some serious thought.

Outside of Professional Grade equipment such as BJM suggested, I will offer something I have noticed.

EVERY (note emphasis) real-time MPEG solution I have seen mentioned, ALWAYS as you dig deeper, you will find statements to the effect "quality is decent, but for best quality, capture at higher bitrates and re-encode downward." That suggests to me that other than the ability to make semi-decent real-time encodes, there is no real advantage to any of the real-time solutions. Therefore, anything which will capture full resolution without dropping frames with good visual quality will do, since you will be re-encoding anyway.

Possibly capping at bitrates above 5 MBPS might give acceptable real-time quality, but that limits you to about 1 hour per disk and cost of blanks, labels, and cases, along with burning times, (don't forget wear and tear on your expensive DVD burner), starts to become an issue. Cheap disks might help this but then returns and re-dos would increase as they seem to be less compatible.

To do this commercially, speed becomes a factor, conversion pricing I have seen is around $20 per 2 hour VHS tape, to make any real money you need to do around 5 a day, 2 hour capture plus 1/2 hour burn leaves about 2 hours to encode, and that means a real hi-speed machine. Factor in cost of hardware, disks, electricity, labels, cases, your labor, advertising, good quality VCR, etc.

If you want the equipment for your hobby and do this as a sideline, might bring in a few bucks. As a real business, I don't think it would fly. You would have to generate some real significant volume, which in turn would not be acheivable without spending some major cash on equipment. Such investment could probably be put to better use. Taking the above listed expenses (plus others) into account profit per conversion would hover around $10 a pop, you do the math. Not to mention the fact that the commercial houses will most likely be lowering their prices as demand improves.

One possibility would be to start with one PC, and start adding additional PCs as revenues allow. Each additional PC would double your output.

BTW, no offense meant to BJM, I think it is often invaluable to get some info from someone able to use hi-grade studio equipment, its just that as a practical matter, such equipment is totally out of my (if not most people's) reach. Though you DID ask "what would be best?"