Best Video Capture Card

Dreamawake wrote on 10/1/2001, 1:35 AM
What card(s) are you using to capture analog video? I know about the firewire cards to capture directly from DV camcorders and such. But is anyone capturing stuff from either older 8mm or VHS tapes and if so, what card(s) are you using? Pinaccle? ATI? Matrox? Also has anyone had good luck with a combo of cards (ie, graphic and capture as in ATI Radeon with a Pinaccle DV500plus)?

Thanks.

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 10/1/2001, 8:59 AM
A 1394 card and a Sony DVMCDA2 media converter box will be perfect for your needs.
fosko wrote on 10/1/2001, 2:19 PM
SONIC EPM,
How does that compare to the ATI All in Wonder card I use curently ???
SonyEPM wrote on 10/1/2001, 4:05 PM
From a strictly personal standpoint, I'll say
"Vastly Superior".
Dreamawake wrote on 10/2/2001, 11:35 AM
Ok..sounds like a good idea. I've been doing some looking around and they are pretty standard everywhere. Does anyone know where to get the best deal on a Sony media converter box? And I've read some forum posts elsewhere that people had no problems importing analog video using the converter, but they did have many problems exporting it. Any reports like that?
Chienworks wrote on 10/2/2001, 12:23 PM
From my experience with ATI video capture, i'd say SonicEPM's
response was "Vastly understated". Consider ATI's video capture to be non-existant. If that's what you're
using, you might as well not even bother.

On the other hand, i do like ATI's video out. That seems to be very
clear and stable. The only difficulty i have with it is that the image is
slightly squashed vertically and doesn't quite fill the TV screen top to
bottom.
fosko wrote on 10/2/2001, 3:50 PM
WOW !
This is kindof disappointing,just in that I thoght the ATI card was HOT. LOL
well, as I stated once before, I've fairly experienced in Audio, but brand spanking new to this video stuff, so
I appreciate the advice. I'll take it under consideration.

I looked on EBAY and saw some of the SONY boxes for about $250-300.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is this card you talk about using in conjunction with it. The generic one ? Where can I find one ?

By the way, Chein, I'vebeen meaningto tell you I like your website. That's VERY close to what I want to do for some churches in this area and got some good ideas. Once I get everything up and running I'll share them wioth you if you like.
Chienworks wrote on 10/3/2001, 10:23 AM
Fosko: thanks for your comments :-)
It looks like we may be starting the project up again soon, which will be
exciting.

Also, i too bought the ATI card because of all the advertising hype. It
turned out to be a big disappointment for the video in. But it was a cheap
card so i'm just writing it off as a learning experience. I needed a new
video out card anyway, and it's performing just fine for that.
Dreamawake wrote on 10/3/2001, 1:26 PM
Ok Chien...what is your setup like then? What do you use to capture video and what kind of resolutino are you getting? Are you outputting back to VHS tape or DV tape?

Thanks.
fosko wrote on 10/3/2001, 1:41 PM
OK, This is going to be embarasing, but how else will I learn. . .
I myself have:
Pentium III 1gig w/ 512 megs memory
ATI All In Wonder Pro Catpure card
Panasonic PVDV 400 Digital Palmcorder
and of course . . .
Vegas Video 2.0 h

I'm getting the impression here I should not expect any kind of decent
quality ???

How would you guys proceed from here ??
Where would you invest (remembering capital is EXTREMELY limited to what's
left over fom my day job :-)??
Dreamawake wrote on 10/4/2001, 8:45 AM
Does anyone here on the forum use the firewire card and the media converter box from Sony? If so, can you tell us how well it works and the quality of what you are getting?

Thanks.
SonyEPM wrote on 10/4/2001, 10:00 AM
We use the Sony Media converters with 1394 cards here at SF for Vegas development. Great box, excellent picture quality. If you want analog component>DV or SDI>DV converters, a few companies make those, but the price is a little steeper.
jboy wrote on 10/4/2001, 1:02 PM
Again, many camcorders transcode analog/digital on the fly, and they make more economic sense that spending $250-300 on a single purpose standalone device. I've never heard there's a qualitative difference between the two. Check out Sony's digital 8 camcorders for a cheap solution, (but not the TRV-130, Sony's disabled this feature in this model. Also, see if you can find any of the earlier generation Dig8's still around-TRV 120, 720, etc-they all have this feature and are likely to be close-outs).
Chienworks wrote on 10/4/2001, 5:28 PM
my system is home built and includes:
- ABIT BX13 motherboard
- Intel (yes, i'm a snob) Pentium III 866MHz
- 256MB PC133 SDRAM
- WD ATA/100 hard drives, 20GB, 40GB, 40GB
- ATI Rage Fury Pro VIVO 32MB 4xAGP (for monitor & video out)
- Hauppauge WinTV Basic for analog video in
- SoundBlaster PCI 128
- Windows 98 SE
- Creative 8X PC-DVD
- HP 9710 16x CD writer ($129.95 at Office Max! Get yours today!)
- Generic 1394 three port card
- VideoFactory 2.0a, SoundForge 5.0, Vegas Audio LE, Acid Pro 3.0, Siren 2.0
- Generic 56K modem & 10/100 ethernet card.

My video camera is a Panasonic PV DV900. I've printed to DV with
this camera and gotten disappointing results. It seems like every other
frame gets dropped. I've also used the ATI video out to record on VHS
with very good results, except that the image is slightly squashed
vertically and doesn't quite fill the whole screen top to bottom.

I have been able to use the Hauppauge card to capture full 640x480
video at 29.97fps for over an hour straight with ZERO dropped frames!
I believe this comes from having only Explorer, Systray, and Video
Capture running with absolutely nothing else in the background.