Help

sKunkpep wrote on 1/4/2006, 11:45 AM

Thanks Johnny Roy , but i dont have that type of money, is there a cheeper version or converter box or what ever that was.
If you could, be very exact beause im only fifteen and i have no money so all i wanna buy is one cheep thing that connects my VCR to my computer, i dont know what a firewall router is, i think i have one ( Linksys etherfast cable/ dsl router with 4-port switch ) is that a firewall router. thanks

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 1/4/2006, 1:38 PM

I suggest, you don't bother with video cards with inputs. Also, stay away from Dazzle products. If you want to record your games "Live", you could use a box called "datavideo DAC-100". This is a converter that sells for Approx $180. and the output looks pretty good. It has Firewire and component in & outs and you can use it for vhs tapes too (comes with firewire cable too). But because it's a less expensive unit, it doesn't have TBC or correction filters and that can cause "Dropped Frames" when copying vhs tapes. (This ends up looking like hundreds of black frames that have to be spliced out and you may have a few seconds of video missing.) But I used to be able to record live and not lose any frames. Either straight from a video camera to the 'datavideo' or hooking my satellite system up to it.
Firewire is the way to go for video transfer
For recording just your desktop, you may look into "Camstasia", although I'm not familiar with it, I believe it will record your desktop like a video. Then you'd just drag that .avi into Vegas and edit.
Last option, is not bad, do a search to find out which of the older Sony Digital 8 camcorders have a feature called "Pass-through" (This is a way to use the camcorder as a converter box-search Sony's website for models) and find a used one on Ebay, using only a seller that has 99% to 100% rating. They vary from about $100. to $300 and are usually in fairly good condition. So this means you get both a camera with a decent picture and a way to convert your old tapes too. (This is what I did to improve on my 'datavideo DAC-100') as the Sony Dig 8's have TBC and correction filters and I do not drop frames anymore.
Not all Sony Digital 8's have "Pass-Through". Usually only the better models have it.
Trouble with video cards with inputs, is that unless you're a real computer nerd, most have trouble keeping sound and picture sync'd for more than a few minutes.
Unfortunately, there's no cheap way to do this, unless you have a friend with a converter box and he's willing to share for free.
I tried to take the cheap route and it ended up costing me more in the long run. I started with an Nvidia card with inputs, then the datavideo DAC100, then the used Sony camcorder. The Sony ended up being the best, but what an expensive road I took. (by the way, using the Sony Digital 8, aimed right at the computer screen doesn't look too bad either. Just set focus and make sure monitor is set for 60 or 75 Hz)

sKunkpep wrote on 1/4/2006, 2:34 PM

thanks

B.Verlik wrote on 1/4/2006, 3:36 PM

Here's a $39. solution for capturing .avis from your screen.
http://www.softforall.com/Multimedia/Screencapture/River_Past_Screen_Recorder07090011.htm
I've never tried it or know how good it is. It claims to output to AVI files and gives you a choice of codecs. There appears to be a downloadable trial of about 2MB

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/5/2006, 7:55 AM

Sorry, you didn’t say what your budget was. Do you have access to a miniDV camcorder? If so you can plug your VCR into the miniDV camcorder and pass that through to Vegas via the firewire output.

Getting back to your original post. Why not use the software that came with the Linxcel Video Grabber USB 2.0? It must have come with capture software. Just capture with that and edit the captured files in Vegas. I see it comes bundled with Ulead VideoStudio 7 so it must have a way to create a compatible video file for Vegas.

~jr