Could someone help a lost newbie on hardware?

Azen_Dragonus · Post by **Azen_Dragonus** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:08 pm

Does anyone know of some good hardware to use to connect the VCR to the computer?

kmv · Post by **kmv** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:22 pm

Err... a cable with RCA connectors?

Perhaps you are referring to video capture cards - which you will need installed in your computer in order to be able to plug in said RCA connectors.

Is that what you meant?

Azen_Dragonus · Post by **Azen_Dragonus** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:31 pm

I was thinking something more specific.. some brand name hardware... I know computers, but I just don't have some thing to do that with.

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 7:34 pm

Operating Systems can KILL even a Good capture card T_T

Win95 98 SE ME . . look on E-bay for ATI ALL-IN-WONDER Pro 4/8meg
. 4meg . . it allows you to watch and capture stuff from Cable TV ^^
. 8meg . . it allows you to connect VCR to Capture card ^___^
. 16meg . it allows you to go "to and from" your VCR with this card ^___^

WinME NT4 2k XP . look on E-bay for VIVO and you will find the 32/64meg
. 32meg . it will capture Video in an -almost- 3D clean Video ^__^
. 64meg . this is the $$$ . but not very useful T_T

if you figure-out which codec to capture with "VCR-1" and you have the Hard-Drive space "2gig per 3 minutes" then capturing "640 X 480" is possible ^^

note: when editing the Video's, de-interlace them first ^^ trust me ^___^

traxx

-- ATI, hmmm, they are simple and they do work ^^ ---just my opinion

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 8:35 pm

I recommend the Hauppage WinTV model 401.

Mix that with Virtual Dub and Picvideo's mjpeg codec, and serve.

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 9:42 pm

post-it wrote:Operating Systems can KILL even a Good capture card T_T

Win95 98 SE ME . . look on E-bay for ATI ALL-IN-WONDER Pro 4/8meg
. 4meg . . it allows you to watch and capture stuff from Cable TV ^^
. 8meg . . it allows you to connect VCR to Capture card ^___^
. 16meg . it allows you to go "to and from" your VCR with this card ^___^

WinME NT4 2k XP . look on E-bay for VIVO and you will find the 32/64meg
. 32meg . it will capture Video in an -almost- 3D clean Video ^__^
. 64meg . this is the $$$ . but not very useful T_T

if you figure-out which codec to capture with "VCR-1" and you have the Hard-Drive space "2gig per 3 minutes" then capturing "640 X 480" is possible ^^

note: when editing the Video's, de-interlace them first ^^ trust me ^___^

traxx

-- ATI, hmmm, they are simple and they do work ^^ ---just my opinion

That is wrong sir. The amount of memory on the cards has nothing to do with their ability to capture.

The memory on the cards is for texture & buffer storage. It has nothing to do with capturing. There is probably a small buffer foor the BrookTree capture chip that gets tacked ontop of a Rage family of chipsets(Rage Pro, Pro Turbo, LT, Rage 128) but that is it's own separate entitiy. It does not share memory with the card.

If you're going to get a All-in-Wonder get atleast a Radeon level All-In-Wonder. It uses ATI's custom capture chip which is loads better than some of the old BrookTree chips. I frankley would not get a VIVO / ALL-IN-WONDER card. FurryCurry is right about the Hauppage WinTV 401. Most everyone likes that card.

ATI's VCR1 & VCR2 codecs actually have been known to cause problems with Premiere. Before I was even into video editing, my HS teacher in the computer room assigned me the task of getting VCR2 captured video to work in Premiere w/o Premiere crashing. This was not possible and I was never able to fix the problem. ATI themselves admitted there was a problem but they didn't have a solution for it.

One more thing. 64MB cards are not exspensive. The thought of getting a 4MB video card makes me shudder >_<. Pricewatch is more your friend over eBay. DVDs are your friends over VHS.

~klinky

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 12:08 am

. . . and U-matic/Super-Beta-Max still puts DVD to shame ^^

. no argument that the old BrookTree chips are not that great and that VCR-2 is a lousy codec T_T however, the 8meg AIW captures in Mpeg1 under Wink2 and Primiere 5.1 doesn't install to Win2k - at least it won't install to my version of it! ~_~

. the value of ATI is "nothing" today, but great for a Newbe ^^
. . I never said it was the best!

. as far as 4/8/16/32/64meg are concerned, it alway's "floored me" that ATI never really had a Good Capture Codec and the PlayBack of the Video Captured alway's seemed to require more memory than the Card Usually had - to play it back T_T

hmmmm . getting back to the question that was originally asked; for ease of use, my card would be something from ATI for Direct VCR2Computer Captures. ^_^

traxx -- ever notice how the one who start the question of what to use never even gave us an idea of what he/she was using or had for a Computer! ??

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 12:51 am

post-it wrote:. . . and U-matic/Super-Beta-Max still puts DVD to shame ^^

I am not that well versed with standards invented in the 60s/70s. The thing is I can go into most video stores and walk out with anime on a DVD or a VHS. I can't go in and get a super-beta-max or a u-matics tape with anime on it. Thus your point is moot. Since there is really no way to compare the two.

. the value of ATI is "nothing" today, but great for a Newbe ^^
. . I never said it was the best!

A ATI TV Wonder w/ the <a href="http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/">open source WDM brooktree drivers</a> can be a cheap solution for someone. It allows for 640x480 capture. How well the bt878 performs when doing this I don't know.

I have heard good things about the Hauppage WinTX 401, I would trust it over the TV Wonder.

. as far as 4/8/16/32/64meg are concerned, it alway's "floored me" that ATI never really had a Good Capture Codec and the PlayBack of the Video Captured alway's seemed to require more memory than the Card Usually had - to play it back T_T

I am not sure what you mean by this? It took more memory to play the video back AFTER the capture or it took more memory to capture?

All the ram on a video card does is specify the largest frame buffer available as well as how many textures can be stored on the card(storing textures on card is faster than transfering them from main memory).

hmmmm . getting back to the question that was originally asked; for ease of use, my card would be something from ATI for Direct VCR2Computer Captures. ^_^
[/qupte]

ATI with the open source drivers would probably be the CHEAPEST solution. The Haupagge will probably give you better results and has better drivers out of the box. There is also maybe the possibiltiy of a DV200 which includes Premiere so you can be %100 legal and all.

Pretty much any computer, I would say atleast 500Mhz or greater with 5400RPM drivers in DMA mode should be able to capture huffYUV w/o dropping frames. Faster hard drives and processor would be nicer. But I don't think the computer really matters unless they're still using a P166 w/4200RPM 2GB drives

~klinky