Video Capture vs Graphics Card

[Grampa Tom]

I want to transfer old VHS home video to DVDs and I just ordered a new
3 Ghz Dell but with a "low end" nVidea graphics card (5200). I want
to take Dave (and other people's) advice and get a decent video
capture card like Canopus (middle of the road, high end too $), but do
I also need a high(-ish) end video card like ATI 9700, 9800 Pro or XT?

Also, would the All-In-Wonder ATI cards act as both vid cap and
graphics? I don't need a TV tuner, but if it did *both* cap and
decent graphics, that would save $, wouldn't it?

The only thing is that my VCR and cam are both older analog and it
seems the All in W cards don't support RCA-in, so would I have to get
a analog/DV converter as well? There seems to be a lot to consider
before you get into this....

Thanks for any advice.

Grampa Tom

 

[kony]

I want to transfer old VHS home video to DVDs and I just ordered a new
3 Ghz Dell but with a "low end" nVidea graphics card (5200). I want
to take Dave (and other people's) advice and get a decent video
capture card like Canopus (middle of the road, high end too $), but do
I also need a high(-ish) end video card like ATI 9700, 9800 Pro or XT?

Absolutely not. This is practically zero requirement for video card
performance. Any old card will do fine, the 5200 you have is more than
adequate.

The advice you were given to get an expensive capture card is poor, there
will be negligable difference capturing from old VHS tapes (it'll look
poor no matter what). You'd likely be best off to capture uncompressed
because you might want to filter out some noise, and capturing to a
compressed format just means recompressing the whole thing, further
quality loss.

The other issue with the capture cards is the software... if you want the
bundled software it is then a good deal, that software is often a large
portion of the cost on a capture card.

Also, would the All-In-Wonder ATI cards act as both vid cap and
graphics? I don't need a TV tuner, but if it did *both* cap and
decent graphics, that would save $, wouldn't it?

There is no benefit for your purposes, the All-in-wonder will just limit
your options and leave you hoping none of the bugs in ATI's drivers affect
you. An AIW is always the worse choice unless someone simply MUST have
both features on the same card, in that one single AGP or PCI slot.

The only thing is that my VCR and cam are both older analog and it
seems the All in W cards don't support RCA-in, so would I have to get
a analog/DV converter as well? There seems to be a lot to consider
before you get into this....

S-Video is the common analog in port, most any card (unless it's a
barebones OEM model) will come with a composite (RCA) to S-Video adapter
cable. However you'll need another adapter cable that may not come with
the capture card, a composite (dual RCA) to male stereo phono plug, to get
sound from VCR RCA jacks to sound card aux-in 'phone jack.

 

[Grampa Tom]

Thank you VERY much. It is a jungle out there to a relative newbie
and I (we, probably) really appreciate that you take all this time to
help.

GT

 

[Andy]

I want to transfer old VHS home video to DVDs and I just ordered a new
3 Ghz Dell but with a "low end" nVidea graphics card (5200). I want
to take Dave (and other people's) advice and get a decent video
capture card like Canopus (middle of the road, high end too $), but do
I also need a high(-ish) end video card like ATI 9700, 9800 Pro or XT?

Also, would the All-In-Wonder ATI cards act as both vid cap and
graphics? I don't need a TV tuner, but if it did *both* cap and
decent graphics, that would save $, wouldn't it?

The only thing is that my VCR and cam are both older analog and it
seems the All in W cards don't support RCA-in, so would I have to get
a analog/DV converter as well? There seems to be a lot to consider
before you get into this....

I've used both the original 7200 and 7500 models of the AiW Radeons to
capture from video tape, and they both work fine. They have both
composite and S-video inputs. I've also used a Hauppauge WinTV card to
capture from video tape and the quality of the video is poorer than
that with the AiW.

 

[Grampa Tom]

The advice you were given to get an expensive capture card is poor, there

will be negligable difference capturing from old VHS tapes (it'll look
poor no matter what). You'd likely be best off to capture uncompressed
because you might want to filter out some noise, and capturing to a
compressed format just means recompressing the whole thing, further
quality loss.

I don't want to start a proprietary debate (well, maybe....) but this
is exactly what I and probably many others want to do: capture old
VHS, filter noise and dress up as much as possible, and put it on a
DVD.

We *might* want to put menus or titles, but this is secondary, and
there are many editing software packages that can do this. We want
the best basics first, then the fancy stuff later.

So I'll go out on a limb here and say that my research points to the
Canopus ACEDVio as my best bet (in theory), unless I want to go over
$1,000, which I don't think I want to do. The specs don't say noise
reduction, though. The ADVC1394 has a neat looking and convenient 5
1/4" bay, but the card is only one way - I couldn't play back through
through a TV, which would be nice to do directly rather than burn each
time you wanted to try something.

Is it too much to ask for people's opinions on the best vid capture
card? I know there's lots choice and lots of variables. In doing all
my reading, the problem is in what they *don't* tell you. You could
be buying something entirely unsuitable and only find out after you've
bought it.

So, it would help a lot of people, I'm sure for opinions on the right
card for simple vid capture, clean-up treatment, and ready for DVD or
SVCD/VCD. Fancy editing software can be obtained separately. This is
a hardware issue first. Any views?

Grampa Tom

 

[kony]

Filtering is done with software. Any basic $30 card with an S-Video port
on it is all you need, they're all capable of this simply capturing from
S-Video in, from a vcr or camcorder. Spending more will only get you
features not applicable to the job you describe, but only you can project
into the future, what else you might want to do with it.

There may be savings getting software bundled with the card, you ought to
be focusing on, researching the software instead of the hardware, and
which cards come with that software, since just about any capture card
will be fine for what you're wanting to do.

 

[Grampa Tom]

Thanks again.

One confusing thing.... the comparisons say that some cards "capture"
MPEG2, MPEG3, etc, and the basic ones "capture" AVI. Does this mean
that if you "capture" video from a VHS tape, that it gets saved in one
of these formats? Wouldn't it be best to get it in MPEG2 in the first
place if you were going to go to a SVCD or DVD?

GT

 

[kony]

Thanks again.

One confusing thing.... the comparisons say that some cards "capture"
MPEG2, MPEG3, etc, and the basic ones "capture" AVI. Does this mean
that if you "capture" video from a VHS tape, that it gets saved in one
of these formats? Wouldn't it be best to get it in MPEG2 in the first
place if you were going to go to a SVCD or DVD?

GT

You only want to capture to a compressed format if you won't be editing it
later, ie- adding titles and noise filtering.

If you didn't want to edit later, capuring to MPEG2 would be a good idea.
If you only had a small amount of HDD space for captures, capturing to a
compressed format would be necessary, since raw video takes up a LOT of
space, but IMHO, for your purposes it'd be better to just buy a
another/larger hard drive instead of degrading the quality of the output
even further.

Basically, it just happens that for your specific purposes the cheapest
simplest solution happens to be all that you need. Software is where
you'll be doing more of the work.

There are tutorials on the 'net about different codecs and editing, if you
wanted to capture to a lossless compressed format to save some HDD space
that would also be better than MPEG, but this is something you'll want to
look into after getting the card, getting your feet wet so to speak, when
you're ready follow the tutorials and see the results.

 

[Paul L]

capturing my 8mm analog tapes on my VIVO video card, I find avi files are
larger than mpeg2

 

[kony]

capturing my 8mm analog tapes on my VIVO video card, I find avi files are
larger than mpeg2

Exactly, that's what he should be doing, creating the largest files
possible by not using high compression, thus eliminating the associated
artifacts. However, "AVI" can be any number of codecs set at vastly
different bit rates too. It can easily be much larger OR smaller file
than with MPEG2.

 

[Grampa Tom]

This is great guys, thanks, but the literature doesn't explicitly
*say* that it captures video *without* compression. It either says
AVI or special compression like MPEG1,2, etc.

So, normally (if there is such a thing), does your simple capture card
capture video from a VHS tape without compressing it?

BTW, I think we should direct other people in my situation to this
thread, I'm sure I represent the common confusion.

Thanks again

GT

 

[Grampa Tom]

There is a capture "device" (an external unit, not a card) that is
"bi-directional". If I got that, could I play my DVDs (and other
video format files) directly on the computer, and have them play on
the TV?

GT

 

[SpongeBob]

I want to transfer old VHS home video to DVDs and I just ordered a new
3 Ghz Dell but with a "low end" nVidea graphics card (5200). I want
to take Dave (and other people's) advice and get a decent video
capture card like Canopus (middle of the road, high end too $), but do
I also need a high(-ish) end video card like ATI 9700, 9800 Pro or XT?

Also, would the All-In-Wonder ATI cards act as both vid cap and
graphics? I don't need a TV tuner, but if it did *both* cap and
decent graphics, that would save $, wouldn't it?

The only thing is that my VCR and cam are both older analog and it
seems the All in W cards don't support RCA-in, so would I have to get
a analog/DV converter as well? There seems to be a lot to consider
before you get into this....

Thanks for any advice.

Grampa Tom

FYI...The ATI AIW 9000 (don't know about the others) supports RCA in...I've
used it to transfer video from my old VCR and it works fine. Transfer may be
captured in various formats AVI, MPEG1 or MPEG2. Kony is correct concerning
the ATI drivers...they can be a bit hit or miss. Also, this particular card
is quite inexpensive now ~$120. I'm satisfied.

 

[kony]

This is great guys, thanks, but the literature doesn't explicitly
*say* that it captures video *without* compression. It either says
AVI or special compression like MPEG1,2, etc.

So, normally (if there is such a thing), does your simple capture card
capture video from a VHS tape without compressing it?

Yes, in general they all will, but if you have a very specific question
about a paritcular capture card you may have to ask someone owning that
specific capture card.

BTW, I think we should direct other people in my situation to this
thread, I'm sure I represent the common confusion.

It's not all that different what you're wanting to do, compared to other
true capturing (opposed to simply copying something over firewire that's
already captured by a camcorder, was already in digital format). It's
just that you'll be starting with a poor quality source (the old VHS
tapes) and know you want to do more editing than simply frame cuts.

 

[kony]

There is a capture "device" (an external unit, not a card) that is
"bi-directional". If I got that, could I play my DVDs (and other
video format files) directly on the computer, and have them play on
the TV?

It has USB connection to the PC?
The TV out quality of such devices can vary, you'd want to hear reports
from those using the specific device. Often capture cards also have TV
output, it's not necessary to use an external device. Some external
devices might have a corresponding internal PCI card (or rarely would
connect to an AGP video card itself, like a Matrox Marvel G200/G400), but
if it's only the external box connecting with USB then you'd want to get
one using USB2, and of course have the USB2 capability on your PC.

However, those external-only boxes do compress the video to MPEG before
transferring it over USB to the PC, it would be lower quality for same
reason I mentioned previously, because you would be recompressing a second
time after editing.