Video Capture + Analog Capture card

kbruff wrote on 10/31/2004, 10:45 AM
Hello Everyone,

I am more of a audio person, but I want to use my Sony Tools for video to dvd applications. I was looking at the matrox rt x100 xtreme pro card, as a viable solution for digitizing analog video.Having no experience I am some what concerned about making a good choice. Basically I am seeking suggestions and tips on PCI based cards, and or stand alone dedicated digitizers.

Thanks - much appreciated,
KAB

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 10/31/2004, 10:56 AM
There's plenty of information if you use the search feature. My advice. Forget about the capture cards and get yourself a Canopus analog to digital converter (ADVC100) and save yourself all the headaches that many have had trying to get good results out of capture cards. Firewire (1394) is the way to go.
farss wrote on 10/31/2004, 12:17 PM
If you had that money to spend to start with I'd suggest the AVDC-300 or look into some of the higher end kit like the stuff from Laird or Convergent that'' take a component feed.
The situation with SDI into Vegas should change anytime soon, some are using the Declink card already even though it's not officially supported. If your only dilvery format is DVD you could speed the process up using a hardware mpeg-2 capture card but the good ones are pretty expensive. Down side is you really cannot edit mpeg-2 in Vegas.
Bob.
kbruff wrote on 10/31/2004, 1:20 PM
Hello - thanks Guys,

Well my budget is 500-700 on a good unit, I dont mind firewire in, since I have plenty of that my PC. Also I will be editing the video / audio and creating DVD's. In other cases I will be adding audio/ and video transition effects.

More comments please - these are helpful !!

Thanks,
Kevin
******
kbruff wrote on 10/31/2004, 1:42 PM
Farss said:

"If you had that money to spend to start with I'd suggest the AVDC-300 or look into some of the higher end kit like the stuff from Laird or Convergent that'' take a component feed.
The situation with SDI into Vegas should change anytime soon, some are using the Declink card already even though it's not officially supported. If your only dilvery format is DVD you could speed the process up using a hardware mpeg-2 capture card but the good ones are pretty expensive. Down side is you really cannot edit mpeg-2 in Vegas"

I am willing to spend $(500 - 700). I like the AVDC-300, I read through the literature and it will suit my needs very well.

Why do I need component feed? You mentioned that Laird and Convergent take a component feed. Does this mean that someone could feed in a more raw format than the information already encoded in the analog version?

What is SDI?

Explain more about how the situation with SDI into Vegas should change anytime soon.

What is this Declink card?

My primary delivery format will be DVD.

How will the hardware mpeg-2 capture card speed up the process.

What cant I edit video that is MPEG - 2 in Vegas? What formats can I edit?

Please respond, I appreciate the learning process.

Thanks,
Kevin
B.Verlik wrote on 11/1/2004, 12:56 AM
If you're really new to this, 1st the ADVC-300 is a much better unit than the 100. It will really help when transfering VHS or 8mm tapes to the DV world. I don't know what SDI is either, but farss is an expert and I'm somewhat of a novice (He's the professor and I'm Gilligan). The ADVC-300 will be great for the above mentioned and you can already load your camera directly to your PC via Firewire, so your ready to edit. .avi is the best format to edit with. mpeg2 is what you'll convert to (with Vegas) when your ready to make a DVD, but it's very hard to edit, once it's in that format. The other great thing about the ADVC-300, is you can use the firewire to output your .avi's to a regular TV, to see the real results. The trouble with video capture cards are too numerous to mention, but you can already load video from your camera straight into your PC via Firewire. Also, Vegas is an excellent audio studio too. I think the other stuff he's mentioned will make better sense, once you've done some basic video editing.
kbruff wrote on 11/2/2004, 7:32 AM
Hello:

Gr8steve said:

..." so your ready to edit. .avi is the best format to edit with. mpeg2 is what you'll convert to (with Vegas) when your ready to make a DVD, but it's very hard to edit, once it's in that format"

What do you mean it would be very hard to edit? -- You mean once it is converted to mpeg?

Thanks -
Kevin
******
ScottW wrote on 11/2/2004, 7:48 AM
Yes. Mpeg2 is very heavily compressed, and it's a lossy compression - once the info is gone, it's not coming back. While Vegas can read MPEG2 files, there's a lot more overhead associated with decompressing the information.

While DigitalVideo (contained within the AVI file) is also compressed it's not nearly as compressed as Mpeg2 - DV is also the native format used by Vegas. So, do your editing in DV then render the final project in Mpeg2 for authoring to a DVD (assuming that's your target media).

--Scott
Chienworks wrote on 11/2/2004, 7:53 AM
The other huge difference is that MPEG uses temporal compression, which means that many of the frames' contents are based on differences from previous frames. That means that most of the time in order to display a frame, Vegas must back up a few frames, possibly many, until it finds the previous fully defined frame. It must then build up the current frame by accumulating all of the partial frame information until reaching the current frame. This takes a surprisingly long time to do in an editing situation.

DV, on the other hand, does not use temporal compression. Every frame is complete and can stand on it's own. This makes indexing and displaying frames much faster.
kbruff wrote on 11/2/2004, 2:33 PM
In summary -- buying the ADVC-300, and using Vegas 5 would be a sufficient way to attempt to produce professional level DVD's.

Correct?

Thanks to all,
Kevin