USB 1.1 based video capture quality

[n6nfg]

I need to be able to watch VHS tapes and a Nintendo Game Cube
on a laptop screen (you know to keep the kids entertained in the
car). Rather then buy an expensive mobile TV entertainment center,
I would like to use my existing 15" laptop screen (works great for
playing DVD's). The laptop runs XP, so some of the older solutions
(like PCMCIA or zoomed video) won't work here. It might be nice
if the solution had a TV tuner also.

Has anyone had experience using one of the USB 1.1 based video
solutions? I don't want to "capture" the video, just watch it live.

Specifically would action in a video game be compromised too much
by the limited USB 1.1 bandwidth?

Is VHS quality video tolerable to watch live? Does the frame rate
suffer (jerky motion) or are there lots of macro-blocks or ???

Thanks
-n6nfg

[loudanddeep]

Ok....let me start by saying this....

I have a USB capture device, and it does fine.

The people who say that the bandwidth of USB wont work, are looking at the wrong part of the pipe....

They are comparing the data rate of the video in uncompressed format....
the usb devices compress the video IN THE DEVICE, the data stream sent down the cable is less....and the bandwidth is sufficient.

If that explanation does not suit you, or anyone else, they are free to come to my house and watch it work.

peace,

dave

[drewson99]

If that explanation does not suit you, or anyone else, they are free to come to my house and watch it work.

hee hee, sounds like you've been challenged on this before.

n6 - i hope you take a lot of really long road trips, because starting up your laptop, all the wires, devices, etc involving the gamecube/vhs etc. will probrably have you running out to buy one of those in car entertainment deals after the kids start insisting to play on short little trips around town.

Andy

[n6nfg]

loudanddeep:

I have a USB capture device, and it does fine.

Ok, which one do you have? The capture card section on
this forum lists a few USB solutions. I don't know if they
all have similar encode/compression capabilities over USB.

Note that I will want to be viewing the image full screen, not
just in a standard CIF 320x240 size. I don't know if all the
solutions give you this option...

Thanks for any more info

-n6nfg

[n6nfg]

drewson99:

n6 - i hope you take a lot of really long road trips, because starting up your laptop, all the wires, devices, etc involving the gamecube/vhs etc. will probrably have you running out to buy one of those in car entertainment deals after the kids start insisting to play on short little trips around town.

You have a point here Are you speaking from experience??

-n6nfg

[loudanddeep]

Ok, I do have to say that if your goal is to watch external video sources on your computer, I would say a capture device might not be what you want...


I have an ADS Instant DVD.....it works fine.

However, my usb device, which encodes video in hardware, incurs a delay of about 1.5 seconds. This would not work for playing games.
Also, my card does not have a decent full screen option....it is not ment to watch tv or movies or external video....it is designed to capture it.

Yes, I can see the video, but that is not what it is optimized to do.



I would actually reccomend you get a TV in card. There are a lot of them out there....some of them might have a composite video in.

I think there are some fairly cheap cards out there....not sure.

peace,

dp

[Greg12]

I have a USB 1.1 card n i wish i could return it.


It cannot capture higher than 352x240. You must capture to a compressed format and it drops hundreds of frames.


You can get some TV cards and such cheaper than USB devices and you can get better quality


I have a Dazzle DVC-80, POS!

[drewson99]

n6 - my brother is 20 years my junior, and when I visit my dad all he wants to do when we get in the car is link up our gameboys, which is fine in limited doses on long trips, but you know kids. pretty soon he wanted to be playing every minute of every drive, even when we were only going a few blocks away! this drove me nuts and I didn't even have all that hardware to worry about.

[n6nfg]

Ok I have two replies, one person (loudanddeep) seems to be
satifisfied with his, although he doesn't recommend it for
purely "watching live" as there is no full screen option, and
the encoder delay would make it useless for video game
play. The second reply (Greg12) isn't satisified with his for
video capture, although he didn't really comment on what the
live viewing experience full screen is like.

Come on you guys, all the comments in the capture cards list
for USB cards and we have no more opinions?? Remember,
I am interested in full screen live viewing, NOT capturing.

Please, if you have one of these USB devices with TV, speak
up

Thanks
n6nfg