Analog Capturing

Skywatcher wrote on 2/4/2004, 11:55 PM

Hey guys,

Newbie here. I've been using Vegas 4.0 for a year now and I think I've gotten it to do things the designers never thought it could. I would put this editing package up against any others out there! Here's my problem:

I'm capturing analog AV thru an ATI Radeon 8500 card. I am using S-video connections. Video and Audio Captures fine. Playing back the uncompressed AVI losses some quality, but I can live with it for now. After adding text (or not adding text), I rendering using the optimum settings and the final product is very poor and somewhat blurred. Even the text is pixelated and unreadable at lower fonts. At first, when I started using Vegas, I didn't have this problem, since I've learned more I started making setting changes and maybe I messed up something. The final product is going bact to tape for a TV Program and I need the quality back up.

What did I do wrong, and is it time to just invest in a Canopus ADVC 100. Help me please, It's okay to be brutally honest...the show must go on!

Skywatcher

Comments

farss wrote on 2/5/2004, 12:04 AM

If your serious about capturing analogue unless you've got a VCR with a TBC buy the ADVC-300. You don't need the extra features it has on everything granted and it does cost a bit more but come the day you need time base correction the extra cost will have long faded from your memory.

I just captured 3 hours from SP via the 300, I had the choice of it or a Miranda DV bridge going in component. The advice I got was the 300 would do a better job and the DV bridge is worth 5 times as much. Problem with the DV bridge is again no TBC so if you've got a jitter on the tape it'll look very nasty once it's digitized.
Of course you could spend even more and buy a more upmarket box than the 300.

johnmeyer wrote on 2/5/2004, 12:23 AM

A time base corrector is certainly a good thing to have, but I think your problem is not due to lack of high end equipment, but rather due to the fact that the 8500 captures video fields backwards when capturing to an AVI file.

Try this: Capture some video. Now, go ahead and render it, but this time, before you click on OK to render, click on the Custom button. Then, go to the Video tab and change the field order. It is probably set to "Lower field first." Change it to "Upper field first." See if the resulting video looks better.

I would also make sure you have the latest drivers.

I have been very unimpressed with ATI's support of this product. Fortunately, there is a very good site where you can get LOTS of support and questions answered. Here is the link:

Rage3d (and ATI 8500) Site

Finally, I find that I get better by using the "pass-through" feature on my DV camcorder than I do with analog capture in the ATI card. There are just too many bugs in their drivers (the audio has problems as well). However, if you get the latest drivers and are willing to stick with it, you may be able to get some decent captures.

Skywatcher wrote on 2/5/2004, 8:23 AM

Thanks farss, I'll look into the 300. The original video is coming in very clean from SVHS tapes so the 300 should cover me in the future...

Skywatcher wrote on 2/5/2004, 8:26 AM

thanks John,
I'll try all of that. Off to work I go, I'll try it when I get back home this evening and let you know how it goes...