Looking to start capturing TV shows, need help in general

[mreed80]

First off, thanks for this great site.

Ok
1. I am looking to start capturing TV shows to my computer and need a more powerful computer. What is the minimum requirements to get a quality recording?
2. What is the best capture device?
3. I want to capture the shows and burn them to a DVD.
Does this work well, any success stories and how well the quality of the program shows up on the DVD

Thanks so much! Any info would be great!

[Xtasy2002]

Athlon 1700+ CPU
256MB PC2100 Ram
Visiontek Xtasy Everything Video Card (AGP)
WD 120GB 7200RPM HD

^ Using that system I can capture virtually everything from TV, VHS, Digital Cable, Sattelite, Camcorder, etc.. I use VirtualDub (Free) for all of my captures, because it's a superior program. For TV recording you can use the WinDVR that comes with the Xtasy Everything.

If you want to burn DVD go for the Pioneer DVR-A05 & buy TMPGEnc plus and Ulead DVD Movie Factory. You will be able to fit 2 or 4 hours on DVD depending on what quality you like.

The only thing that sucks about capturing TV to DVD is cutting out the commercials. It's tiring.

[mreed80]

Thanks, that helps a lot! One more question if you don't mind.
I was doing TMPGE for making so VCDs for a while, but my computer is just so slow in processing, it took forever.

Could you let me know how long it takes to run TMPGE on an hour long TV show? Well, probably 45 minutes after editing out the commercials.
Do you edit out the commercials in TMPGE or are there some software with Xtasy?

Anymore info from people would be much appriciated.

[Dodzzz]

For basic editing (cutting off commercials, adding noise-reduction filter, correcting colors etc) TMPGEnc will do the job superbly.

on my old system P3-500, encoding ratio is about 1:8 for VCD resolution and 1:15 for DVD. but if you add noise reduction filter, the ratio would increase.

[rsuave5]

i capture tv all the time using power vcrll. i cap at 720x 480 and use tmpgenc to convert to dvd compliant mpeg 2. my dvds look as good as the original ! i dare you to find a difference.

on the comp specs xtasy did give some good specs. but a little slow. id say get the best cpu you can afford! i have a 2.0 and i long for more. at least 512 ram! especially for advanced programs like premiere.

i have a 2.0 cpu and 512 ram an hour mpeg takes me almost 1 1/2 to encode or avi to dvd. tv shows are about 1 :1 a half hour takes about a half hour.

i remove the comercials myself! i record and stop before each comercial so i have s clips to a half hour show. i encode each and then join with tmpgenc mpeg tools. editing them later led to problems with sync and others. i have recorded in dv-avi format then edited with premiere or moviemaker cutting out comercials etc. you can also record the tv show from tv to your video camera then firewire it to your comp. this is a dv - avi you can add effects titles transitions to. and thats fun but i usually cap,encode, burn

[mreed80]

I love this site! Thanks all

[ImaWeTodd]

I've just started doing captures myself. I'm creating compliant DVDs from Cable and VHS cartoons. I am not completely happy yet but here is my process:

- PIII 800 and avermedia card
- Schedule with TitanTv and cap with virtualvcr
- cap to mjpeg at 352x480 48k 192 audio (I may change to 720)
- edit commercials with vdub and some smoothing/sharpening filters
- demux audio with vdub and encode ac3 with softencode
- encode video mpeg with cce 3 pass 5100 avg
- author dvd w/ maestro

I get pretty good results. I can do almost everything in batches w/ templates, except edit the commercials. I can actually cap and do other things at the same time without dropped frames. virtualvcr and sourceforge drivers on win2k seem to use low cpu. I'm sure this will change with 720 cap.

Here is a FAQ link which has some good info if you are just starting out (like me )

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=a881b6b90f3100c39d240d877b55aa8c&threadid=32575[/url]

[fmctm1sw]

I cap TV shows all the time with a celeron 366 (@433). It takes about 5.5 hours per one hour of source for standard VCD (which is basically all I make).

[energy80s]

I mainly capture TV shows and convert to MPEG2 CVD or half DVD resolution files. I use a DV camcorder with passthrough to give me a DV .avi file from raw analogue footage and also have a Hauppauge DTT card for grabbing the digital TV stream live off air in full D1 broadcast quality - depending on which channel I'm capping from. Then I use TMPGenc to convert down. On my XP1600 PC using CQ coding MPEG2 on "High Quality" it takes about 1 hour 20 mins to encode 30 mins of video at 352x576.

[ImaWeTodd]

energy80s

I have a DV cam. I thought about doing DV passthru, especially from rented vhs tapes. However, I read that due to copy protection that this does not work. My cam does not really support passthru so I would have to go to tape then to pc. Do you have a problem with this? Maybe it is just a problem going to dv tape.

[musher70]

This is my current system specs, though im always looking...

Lian-li pc-60 case
Intel P-4 2.4 533
Asus P4B533 board
Mushkin 512 DDR 2100(Hi-Perf)2
Pioneer 105 DVD_RW
TDK VeloCD 40x
Gainward 650XP Video card(128DDR w/VIVO)

Nothing else left to buy right now, except a tmd fan for cpu...
forgot, i got some colored lcd fans for case too..

[menace]

I have an amd 1700+
512Mb DDR
40GB 5400 HD
64MB ATI VIVO

My routine is different than most but thats why you asked--to get everyone's opinion.

I do a direct capture at 352x240 @ 2500kb/s video and 192kb/s audio using ATI's multimedia center. Then I use M2-edit to remove commercials then I mux with Tmpgenc then burn a non standard VCD with nero--The results are very good (not DVD you understand but as good as TV). The beauty is that a 1 hr show takes 30 mins to put on a 90min CD and most of that time is removing commercials. For a daily show its very hard to keep up and do all the encoding thats normally required.

[energy80s]

energy80s

I have a DV cam. I thought about doing DV passthru, especially from rented vhs tapes. However, I read that due to copy protection that this does not work. My cam does not really support passthru so I would have to go to tape then to pc. Do you have a problem with this? Maybe it is just a problem going to dv tape.

The Macrovision problem is to do with your DV Camera's inputs. My Canon won't allow Macrovision signals to pass either. As I don't have any pre-recorded VHS tapes (just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of home recorded stuff) it doesn't affect me. To bypass Macrovision, you have to illegally strip the sync pulses off the source tape. A Time Base Corrector will do this as a byproduct of cleaning up the timecode! However be warned that the cheap "copy busters" are rubbish. You will be looking at £200 or £300 for a basic TBC. Unless you have a lot of pre-recorded films, I wouldn't bother - just buy the DVD's instead!

[menace]

Just as an aside on macrovision--if you have an ATI card you can install a patch so that macrovision is ignored--THIS IS BY NO MEANS AN ENDORSEMENT TO COPY VIDEO bt if you have aging VHS that you want to save this is the ONLY way of doing it short of re-purchasing everything again--which, I'm sure, is exactly what the movie industry wants! Just a tip to any interested.

[Xtasy2002]

this is the ONLY way of doing it

Nah there's other ways of doing it. Such as using Visiontek Xtasy Everything 1.08 WDM (No macrovision here).. Or for any other card you could buy a Sima Color Corrector Pro & map VHS through that, it also strips Macrovision.. <-- That unit might be worth it either way because it takes poor quality VHS & you can enhance the image 10x before capture.

[ImaWeTodd]

Thanks for the replys ...

I didn't know that tv cards also inforce macrovision. I have an AverMedia card and don't seem to have any problem caping from my SVHS deck to my pc. Actually, I have only really done this on very few commercial tapes . Cartoons that are not on DVD. The tapes may not even have macrovision protection. I've noticed that the DVDs (when available) of the subject matter, are not encrypted.

Thanks for the input on the 'Sima Video Copy Master' type of product. I'll save my $46 ~ 30 British Pounds (or is it 42.5 Euros?)