Which video capture card

[maddrummer3301]

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[alanball]

Hi Maddrummer3301,

thanks for your input. I had a look at the TV Wonder Pro and I get the impression the cards only capture in MPEG and not AVI which is what I want as I need to do quite a lot of editing on the finished capture.

Can you confirm if the card you have captures in AVI or just MPEG?

Thanks

[maddrummer3301]

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[alanball]

Hi Maddrummer3301,

I have been looking on the internet at the Canopus ADVC-50 but came across this site:

http://forums.dvdoctor.net/archive/inde ... 11346.html

where people have been having problems when capturing VHS tapes with Canopus units, it sounds a similar problem to the one I have when using the passthough on my Canon Cam. From comments on the site it sounds as though theADVC-300 gets over the problem, but that unit is too expenisive for me.

Thanks again

[maddrummer3301]

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[alanball]

Thanks Maddrummer3301, comments most welcome.

As I said earlier in another post, I do have a Canon DV cam with passthrough but having problems with getting 4 frames that are black and white every few minutes if tapes have been captured in LP mode.

It's funny but I was just looking at our local trademe site to see if I could pick up a cheap cam. My friends is a Sony and works well when capturing though passthough.

Regards

[Vincej]

as a newbie to analog I'm still confused by this conversation. On the one hand I think everyone is saying that if you buy the right card your analog MPEG's will be converted into avi's within the card eg ADS DX2. so I go the the ADS webs ite and look at the DX2 and there is absolutley no mention of any avi to be seen.

Please explain what I don't get and then please explain what I need to buy as I have 35 old analog tapes I need to burn,.

thanks Vincej

[GuyL]

as a newbie to analog I'm still confused by this conversation. On the one hand I think everyone is saying that if you buy the right card your analog MPEG's will be converted into avi's within the card eg ADS DX2. so I go the the ADS webs ite and look at the DX2 and there is absolutley no mention of any avi to be seen.

Please explain what I don't get and then please explain what I need to buy as I have 35 old analog tapes I need to burn,.

thanks Vincej

First, there is no such thing as "analog MPEG". MPEG is digital. What most cards claim is that they can capture directly to MPEG. That is because most have hardware on the cards to help accomplish this. Encoding directly to MPEG during analog capture is very computer intensive. Having hardware assist in the process is very beneficial. However, not all cards support capturing in other formats so it is good to check - especially if you want to edit the captured video. It is suggested it be done in AVI.

[Vincej]

Still don't get it - if my goal is to arrive at an AVI file for VS to work on shoud I not see on the ADS DX2 that it will capture to AVI ?? In my mind that means that I plug in my analogue camera > I stipulate AVI on the ADS DX2 device > I capture > I get AVI out the other side for VS to burn. If I am wrong could someone please explain it in kindergarten terms.

If Iam right coud someone explain why I don't see AVI on the DX2 product description ? If the DX2 is wrong device coud someone please tell me what device I need ?

Thanks Vincej

[Ron P.]

Hi Vincej,

According to what I've read ADS TECH DVD Xpress DX2 it does not allow capturing to DV-AVI.

Capture audio and video via the USB port to your computer hard drive or "Direct to Disc" (CD or DVD disc)
Exclusive "Audio-Lock" technology for perfect lip synch
Capture video directly to popular video formats; DVD (MPEG-2), SVCD, VCD (MPEG-1), MPEG-4 and DivX
Capture directly to Sony PSP video and Apple iPod video formats
Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness and Hue controls
Use the Included CapWiz application for easy video capture direct to your desired video compression format
Record to your computer hard drive or "Direct to Disc"
Exclusive Hardware Encoding chip inside DVD Xpress creates the highest quality video without putting extra strain on your PC
Compatible with all CD and DVD writers
USB 2.0 connection to PC (USB 1.1 compatible)

One bad thing that I noticed is that it uses USB to transfer the video. Firewire is the recommended method.

The best method for you, is to buy a special purpose editor like Womble. It is designed for editing MPEG video. Your device will capture to MPEG2. While you can use VideoStudio to burn DVDs from MPEG2, any editing done you will risk problems such as quality degradation, and lip-sync problems. Womble would allow you to edit MPEG without that much risk. In fact some of the "expert" or pros on this forum use it..

Ron P.

[rwernyei]

The ADS Pyro A/V Link is the only external capture box offered by ADS that converts analog to digital by firewire transfer in DV AVI.

[Vincej]

Ok How about the ADS VIDEO EXPRESS for a meer $55 that DOES specifically mention capturing to AVI ???

http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV-1 ... BAV-191-EF


Is there anything else I shoud look at ??

More imprtantly is the hypothesis outlined absolutley correct that I shoud go from my analog camera and capture straight into AVI ?

Many Thanks Vincej

[Ron P.]

The ADS Pyro A/V like Rwernyei suggested...

Avoid if at all possible devices that only use USB to transfer. For one thing it must be a USB2.0. While that is a fast USB, it still can cause problems. Firewire was designed for fast, large data transfers.

In order to capture to DV-AVI from an analogue source the video data is going to have to be converted to digital. This is best done by a third party device. I use my old Sony DCR-TRV120 camcorder. It has "pass-through" capability. Meaning it converts the analogue to digital, therefore I don't have to worry about my computer keeping up. Capturing analogue into your computer, your computer is going to have to be able to keep up, while it is being converted to a digital format. You will have to have a real powerful system for this.

Ron P.

[Vincej]

Thanks for that Vidoman - the Pyro unit is $600 and all I am doing is just a bit of archiving of family memories - no clever nothing - just straight onto dvd.

I need a cost effective solution to get my MPEGs into AVI. The reason is simple : before burining I need to convert from PAL to NTSC. Everyone screams at me that I shoud not be doing this is MPEG - I must first get into AVI. But I do nto want to spend $600 on a card which will never get used again once this archiving is finished.

Ok USB2 is not the best - but I am dealing with analogue Hi8 tapes here.

Bottom line will teh ADS DVD Express convert to AVI ?? Have I read it correctly ?? If it's not a good unit can anyone else suggest somehting else - I'll go to $150 if neccessary.

Many Thanks Vincej

[heinz-oz]

The talk about mpeg and AVI, very frequently, loses sight of the fact that AVI is NOT a file type like mpeg 2 is. AVI is a wrapper. It can contain highly compressed video like DiVX, mpeg4 etc. When you look at the web site for ADS it clearly states Compressed.AVI. All these types of AVI are entirely different to DV-AVI, which is still compressed, but only slightly and lossless.

A glass of water does not define the quality, does it. A glass of waste water is still a glass but a glass of spring water, even though it's still a glass, is certainly something different. Please pardon the analogy.

User beware, DV-AVI and any other form of AVI are not the same thing