Help With Video Capture

[proufo]

Hello to all.

I need for work purposes to transfer VHS tapes to V-CD format, to be played from the hard disk in the PC monitor. The computer that would do this is a PII400 W2000 Server. Tapes are between 40 and 50 minuts long.

I had my mind set on a Provideo card that has both hardware V-CD encoding and a sound card. It seems this card is no longer available so next choice is a WinTV 250 that has a tuner and MPEG 1/2 hardware encoding capabilities.

But this card has no sound capabilities so a separate sound card must be installed. I only need folded mono at 8-bits if that helps. It's for translation purposes.

I'm concerned about CPU utilization, that may lead to synching defects in the resulting files. Synching is quite important for my work. No noticeable lack of synch should exists between the voice and the lips movement from beginning to end.

Need to select an inexpensive sound card that would run with a low-powered (PII400) W2000 system (that also runs other apps), and that will create adequate video files. It seems that when used in NT/2000 systems, some or all sound cards use a lot of CPU processing, even if they have hardware coders.

Any help is welcome. I can't afford to make a wrong choice here. Also can't afford to upgrade anything else on the computer at this time.

Many, many thanks in advance.

 

[bizmopeen]

Hello to all.

I need for work purposes to transfer VHS tapes to V-CD format, to be played from the hard disk in the PC monitor. The computer that would do this is a PII400 W2000 Server. Tapes are between 40 and 50 minuts long.

I had my mind set on a Provideo card that has both hardware V-CD encoding and a sound card. It seems this card is no longer available so next choice is a WinTV 250 that has a tuner and MPEG 1/2 hardware encoding capabilities.

But this card has no sound capabilities so a separate sound card must be installed. I only need folded mono at 8-bits if that helps. It's for translation purposes.

I'm concerned about CPU utilization, that may lead to synching defects in the resulting files. Synching is quite important for my work. No noticeable lack of synch should exists between the voice and the lips movement from beginning to end.

Need to select an inexpensive sound card that would run with a low-powered (PII400) W2000 system (that also runs other apps), and that will create adequate video files. It seems that when used in NT/2000 systems, some or all sound cards use a lot of CPU processing, even if they have hardware coders.

Any help is welcome. I can't afford to make a wrong choice here. Also can't afford to upgrade anything else on the computer at this time.

Many, many thanks in advance.

I would highly recommend checking out www.dvdrhelp.com, which used to be www.vcdhelp.com. They've got an amazing range of information for anyone interested in encoding, authoring, and burning DVD-R, VCD, SVCD or you name it...

 

[proufo]

I would highly recommend checking out www.dvdrhelp.com, which used to be www.vcdhelp.com. They've got an amazing range of information for anyone interested in encoding, authoring, and burning DVD-R, VCD, SVCD or you name it...

Thanks bizmopeen.

I find the info at vcdhelp overwhelming, can't really make a decision based on the info there. I sometimes believe that things are more difficult/complicate than what they really are, but in this case i can't afford to make a mistake.

Thanks again and regards.

 

[petermwilson]

Hi,
I havent't done it personally but i have recorded ntsc to my hd drive from a direct feed ala Tivo (sort of) and i think if you checkout ATI's ALL-IN-WONDER version of video cards you'll find the components nedded for your process.

Peter m.

 

[Scottmoose]

Hi,
I havent't done it personally but i have recorded ntsc to my hd drive from a direct feed ala Tivo (sort of) and i think if you checkout ATI's ALL-IN-WONDER version of video cards you'll find the components nedded for your process.

Peter m.

That's the one to go for, though there are often cheap TV cards that also offer video capture & record in real time MPEG1. I've used them quite a bit in the past, and they're quite good. Best bet / quality that I've found possible is to record directly into MPEG1 using the ATi card, then convert and burn using Nero's VCD authoring. There's lots of ways of doing it -that's my favourite. It's not as easy as you might think, unfortunately. :friday: If you can get it done well, it's useful. Truth be known, most of the VHS tapes I've bought over the past few years I've recorded onto VCD format, simply because it doesn't degrade like tape, and more particularly, CDs take up very little space (which in my house is at a preminum). The tapes then went to charity shops. I still avoid the dodgy car-boot sale variety -only VCD's I now buy are official ones, usually from the far East if it's something unavailable of DVD yet.
Scott

 

[proufo]

Hello to all.

I finally got the WinTV 250 card. So far it is everything I expected and more, as it provides a line input which wasn't supposed to be there.