MPEG4 Cap card/device

monsoonmcqueen · Post by **monsoonmcqueen** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:32 am

Looking to get back in the game after 4 years. I need some advice on a good card. I won't spend anything over 150 american. Getting an AIW card is out of the question, as I just bought a 9800. Something PCI or USB. The comp I'm running now is:

Athlon 64 3200 overclocked to 2.2
Gigabyte nforce3 250 mobo
2GB 3200 Ram
320GB of space
9800 256MB
8x DVD+- RW burner

That should be good to go. If I'm short on anything, please guide me in the right direction.

monsoonmcqueen · Post by **monsoonmcqueen** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:42 pm

I also have no idea what a good brand is. The last thing I used was a dazzle mpeg-1 usb unit.

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:03 pm

At this point you should probably also ask yourself if you really need a capture device. You've already got a DVD drive in your system, which in this day and age substantially obviates the problem of getting footage. If you've got videos planned in the immediate future that require sourcing from VHS or LD, then and only then should you explore the capture card market.

Changing to DVD-based rather than capture-based editing will probably mean some changes to your process, and probably learning some technical stuff, but it's not an insurmountable wall, and it pays a lot of dividends in terms of ease and quality of production. I'm doing this kind of changeover right now, and while it has not been headache free, it's definitely a plus not to have to worry about tuning settings for proper color balance, etc. Most of the difficult stuff is already set out in the guides, and it isn't too obscured by stuff that people who already have a process already know or already have their own ways of handling.

I haven't really ditched my DVC II, either; there's some titles out there that just aren't available on DVD and probably never will be. The card's just not in my new system yet, because there's no call for it.

hth,

--K

(who had previously believed himself to be the last operating editor without DVD capability)

monsoonmcqueen · Post by **monsoonmcqueen** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:21 pm

Well I'm not just going to de doing anime. In my free time I plan to do some live action stuff, so I'll need the ability to capture vid from a camera.

Torchlight · Post by **Torchlight** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:37 pm

you wont be purchasing a dv capable camera? O_o

i didnt even know you could buy non dv cameras any more

oldwrench · Post by **oldwrench** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:21 pm

Check this page. Plextor makes a good unit that captures in many formats including Divx and Mpeg4.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1428

Knowname · Post by **Knowname** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:47 pm

Oh, you have an A64.... well I'm sure it's got usb2.0 then lol. BUT I've never seen one, make sure you hook it up to a usb2.0 port, most front ports for 32 bit systems are usb1.0. If you don't want a usb device or a DV device than look here for suggestions.

RichLather · Post by **RichLather** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:17 am

Do you not have a FireWire port? USB 2.0 will do the job, but if your plan is to capture directly from a camera, you're best off getting stuff off a DV camcorder via FireWire (I do, and it's been great).

That said, I own a Plextor ConvertX M402U convertor box which will capture MPEG1 and 2 as well as DivX AVI, all in the hardware. This is what I use to grab stuff from VHS, and even have a VCR hooked up to the box solely for this purpose.

I'd recommend getting stuff from Newegg over TigerDirect. As you can see the price is better on Newegg, and Newegg's customer service is fan-frickin'-tastic.

NicholasDWolfwood · Post by **NicholasDWolfwood** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 1:30 pm

There is no specific capture card needed.

I use an I/OMagic PC-PVR, which uses the BT878A chipset...I can capture to any format I want with the opensource BTwincap drivers...I cap to MJPEG @ 720x480 now, although getting a card with processing capabilities (IE A DV500) would be better.