Give me the REAL BEST real time MPEG 2 capture crd

[arvin]

Hi all, I see that the most common problem about capturing is lossing of a/v synch.

oes anyone knows the best MPEG 2 capture card in real time or external device as Canopus ADVC-100 or Pinnacle Bungee, because everything I already tryed have the "blocks" like pixelization.

Can Pinnacle Bungee or Canopus capture the MPEG 2 in real time without this blocks

Thanks

[darkufo]

I use the Canpopus DV Storm 2. It has a hardward MPEG Encoder, and can capture directly to MPEG from any source. I ca capture from TV, Satellite, DVD, Camcorder inc Audio

Check out http://www.canopus.com for further details

It also is very good if you are working with Adobe Premiere as it has a lot of realtime features that don't require the parts to be rendered everytime.

[arvin]

Thats to much for me, what about Canopus ADVC-100? od Pinnacle Bungee?

[Barnabas]

Give the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 a try. It's the best hardware capture card I have seen out of the 6 or so I have tried.

[darkufo]

Well your post did ask for the best not the cheapest

[SHS]

darkufo Canopus DV Storm 2 is not a REALtime encoder, Have to buy the StormEncoder to get export rendering in realtime encoding that depend on DV Storm 2 kit you get some do and some don't so beware of that.
Far I know of the Canopus DV Storm it dosen't record rigth MPEG from get go.
For REALtime Hardware MPEG encoding that be the Canopus Amber or MVR-1000.

[spiderman2k1]

Dazzle 2 or Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 or 350. I use Dazzle 2 there a website to help you out if you go with dazzle 2 its www.dazzlegeek.com there a timer for the dazzle 2 so you can record TV show's I also have a AIW notbad but Dazzle 2 is better. Also I would rate Hauppauge and Dazzle about the same for real time MPEG2 capture's. Also there are thing that are better In the Dazzle 2 that are better then the Hauppauge and there are thing that are better in Hauppauge that are better then Dazzle. So I would say go to www.dazzlegeek.com it a message bourd and ask some question's and there a Hauppauge fan message board I do not know the site just do a search in google it's not that hard to find. ATI is not that bad it's good if you get it a really good deal with like around 80 buck's or so but is real time capture are you thing then Dazzle and Hauppauge are they way to go

[donpedro]

If you need external, Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe is an option too. It is replacing Bungee DVD. Quality of capture is good. There are of course some problems with O-O-S (out of sync) I believe that problem is within sofware (or drivers) and not box. So maybe... maybe they will fix it.

Just to warn you... If you will purchase hardware mpeg2 encoding card, you will not get ability to capture in AVI, which is the best if you need to do any editing. Editing MPEG2 is pain in the ... At least that is what I believe.

[BJ_M]

the BEST is about $25,000 if that is what you want ..... or do you have a more specific price range in mind ...

[splissken]

I have the PCTV Pro card, and you can either capture in MPG2 or AVI with it. It only costs about $80 and I've been pretty pleased with the DVD quality.

It does have some synch problems if you use their software, but I do my captures in either Ulead Video Studio or Ulead DVD Movie Factory and have absolutely no problems with synch.

[ValamirCleaver]

If you plan on doing any editing I would suggest capturing to AVI. I tried several different methods to edit MPEG-2 and either the editing points would be inexact or their would be audio synch problems. After many times of fustration I finally wised up and purchased a Canopus ADVC-100. No more inaccurate cuts or missynched audio. I capture to DV AVI with Ulead VideoStudio 7, easily edit and add titles and transitions, encode to MPEG-2 with TMPGEnc and finally author and burn to DVD. Finally I am able to easily produce professional looking DVD's. Get an ADVC-100. You will not regret it.

[rallynavvie]

I'm seriously considering a good MPEG encoder but am new to hardware encoders. A few people have suggested the Canopus Storm 2 bundle as it has the encoder card, capture card, and needed software all together for $1300 MSRP. I can get one at nearly cost so I'm wondering if it'd work for what I need it. I'd like an encoder that will enable realtime on Maestro as I'm sure that would be handy. I know the Canopus card will work with Premiere, and likely Avid. Will the hardware encoder also be quicker encoding than using my system and TMPGEnc to create MPEG-2? I know it sounds like an absurd question but I'm wondering how much faster it would be. Perhaps I can just get away with something less. Advantage to the Storm 2 Plus bundle is it comes with what seems to be the equivalent of an ADVC-100 for a 5.25" bay that interacts with the Storm card.

What would really be nice is a quality MPEG card like the Canopus one built into a GeForce4 4600 VGA board. I'm running out of PCI slots

[SHS]

Let say rallynavvie you do 2 hour capture and 30 min of edit out 15min of junk now you have 1:45 to re-rendering so that end up taking 4:15 long and dosen't count the CD/DVD burn time.
one thing I like say dump all VIA chipset motherboard mix bag like AMD & VIA should be fine.
I'm not sure about you dual motherboard rallynavvie I would check with canopus or ask on there canopus forum.
No the software encoding will not even come close to the speed of Hardware encoder

[vance43211]

For $50 get aver dvd capture card. add the neodvd software that came with it, update it through the internet, but don't use it to capture. use power vcr II (it automaticaly break it down in 20 min chapter segments) or ulead video studio 6 (don't use video 6 to burn the vcd, dvd though, u will still have them sync problems). capture in mpeg 2 mode. use neo dvd to burn.

it took me a lot of time last fall to figure that out. and the results were better than that $650(REALmagic DVR Digital Video Recorder) mpeg 2 adapter card that i brought from comp USA. i also got aver dvd from there.

[magicmycote]

I have a PVR-250. The card does a decent job of capturing at all resolutions/bitrates, at least as good as any other card mentioned here (except the 25,000$ one ). Although I like it, I must say that their drivers/software support is VERY shoddy. It seems to be not fully tested before release, and often times each new release fixes and old problem and creates a new one. If you are not intimidated by by experimenting with software, then the PVR-250 (or 350) is a very good card for the price (can be had for under 100$).

[arvin]

Ok, i have to close the circle, thank you for answering, as someone said, I asked fo r the best, I have to put it another way,
I have DVD writter and would like to purchase a real time MPEG 2 capture card which will give me the captured file quality same as original and which will capture 2 hours video without lossing a/v sinch and with no blockiness on video.

I have Leadtek Th Pro 170 My Vivo, and I capture in default DVD PAL or DVD NTSC settings bit rate 4000 and it looks bad-to many blocks, my friend have the same card and almost same copmuter and it looks good when he do that, so or maybe I didnt set my computer well fot this(hardware settings) or I will have to buy a new one.

I read that on HDD properties, "writte cache" have to be disabled, is there anything else what I will have to check.

Thanks

[arvin]

[b]for splissken:

Do you have, on captured video "blocks" on fast moving scenes or not?

[edsmith77]

arvin,
Although, I would not consider the ATI Rage Fury Pro to be a hardware mpeg2 capture device. I do use the MMC 7.6 in conjunction with the ATI RFP and am able to generate mpeg2 files that can be authored directly to disc (with an appropriate program). My system will just not let me capture directly to full D1. Just not fast enough.
However, I can get up to 480x480 at 8MB/sec with out any frame losses and at 48KHz. Although I can get up to 480x480 when I do mpeg2 captures, I prefer 352x480. I do not have a DVD burner but if I did, I would think it is only a simple matter to give it the captured mpeg2 stream and author to disk. What I do some of the time is capture at 352x480 and burn via vcdeasy to svdc without any problems at all. Unfortunately, my main house DVD player will not play SVCDs. However, my other standalones (APEX and Daewoo) play them just fine.
My cost for the card was less than $100. The quality is quite comparable to the source used for capture. Thus, bang for the buck this set up is hard to beat.
Lastly, BEWARE, quality is in the eye of the beholder. And on these forums there are alot of beholders.

[dcsos]

If you need to edit..listen to what Don Pedro has said...
You will need to capure in AVI or DV if you need to edit the captured clips.

The reason for this problem we have with MPEG-2 editing is the structure of the MPEG stream.. Its made up of real frames every 13 frames followed by interpolated bits of frames.
THAT IS, when you choose a frame to cut on, the editor goes to the nearest GOP or thirteen framed "KEYFRAME" and cuts there.
If there's a scence change in the gap , youre out of luck.
With AVI or DV, your cuts can be frame accurate
PS Mpeg-1 is the same deal, but I think the "keyframes" are closer together (hence greater file size for the same quality as mpeg-2)

[arvin]

Ok thanks, i see the best is to capture in AVI, but I dont want to edit videos, just want to capture them in MPEG 2 in real time with good quality or to capture in DV and after to convert them

[vance43211]

For $50 get aver dvd capture card. add the neodvd software that came with it, update it through the internet, but don't use it to capture. use power vcr II (it automaticaly break it down in 20 min chapter segments) or ulead video studio 6 (don't use video 6 to burn the vcd, dvd though, u will still have them sync problems). capture in mpeg 2 mode. use neo dvd to burn.

it took me a lot of time last fall to figure that out. and the results were better than that $650(REALmagic DVR Digital Video Recorder) mpeg 2 adapter card that i brought from comp USA. i also got aver dvd from there.

[vance43211]

For $50 get aver dvd capture card. add the neodvd software that came with it, update it through the internet, but don't use it to capture. use power vcr II (it automaticaly break it down in 20 min chapter segments) or ulead video studio 6 (don't use video 6 to burn the vcd, dvd though, u will still have them sync problems). capture in mpeg 2 mode. use neo dvd to burn.

it took me a lot of time last fall to figure that out. and the results were better than that $650(REALmagic DVR Digital Video Recorder) mpeg 2 adapter card that i brought from comp USA. i also got aver dvd from there.

try this way if u don,t like it take the card back to the store

or u can try a quartet gl at http://www.aurorasystem.co.kr/mvp/quartet_gl.htm

[SHS]

Yes dcsos Don Pedro has a good point oh that 13PAL or 15NTSC, min so call MPEG editor can't cut it, but I would like to point that this is some what not ture with a REAL MPEG editor like Womble MPEG2VCR is very frame-accurate editing it cut rigth where you put it and it can read 4+GB MPEG files with out any problem how ever with big files and it very fast ho but it not a cheap MPEG editor it will set you back $250.

[gf]

If you want a "realtime capture card" and you want to stay with Canopus, then may I suggest you look at the "MVR1000". This card does realtime Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 capture.


> NTSC and PAL compatible
> Realtime MPEG-2 D1, MPEG-2 half-D1, and MPEG-1 realtime encoding
> High-quality 3D pre-filtering
> MPEG-2 D1, MPEG-2 Half-D1 and MPEG-1
> IPB (MP@ML) and I-frame-only encoding
> Constant Bitrate (CBR) and Variable Bitrate (VBR) encoding
> High-quality, on-screen preview and playback

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

Video Format
> NTSC (720x480), PAL (720x576)
> CCIR 601 to square pixel conversion
Video Input
> Composite (RCA) and S-Video (miniDIN)

Capture Resolutions
> NTSC 720x480, 352x480, 352x240
> PAL 720x576, 352x576, 352x288

Video Compression
> MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818-2)
- Main Profile @ Main Level (I, B, P frames)
- I-frame-only support
> MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172-2)

Video Bitrate
> MPEG2 Standard 4M - 15Mb/sec
> MPEG2 Half D1/SIF 2M - 8Mb/sec
> MPEG1 SIF 1M - 1.8Mb/sec

Filtering
> 3D Y/C separation

Audio Input
> Stereo RCA

Audio Sampling Rates
> 32 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz (all 16-bit)

Audio Bit Rates
> 64, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320, 384 kbit/sec

Multiplex
> ISO/IEC 13818-2 MPEG-2 program stream
> ISO/IEC 11172-2 MPEG-1 system stream