Best capture settings?

Good to know that Ulead capture problem has been solved.Although I have Ulead,I prefer Virtualdubmod for capture using Picvideo MJPEG codec.AFAIK,video is captured as series of BMPs.Now MJPEG is Motion JPEG i.e it captures as series of JPEGs.Since JPEG is much smaller(file size) than BMP,MJPEG produces a much smaller file while quality is acceptable(compare a BMP to a JPEG).As for resolution,try to match the output resolution.If u see too many frame drops go for a lower one.And USB is not good for video capture.Firewire or Capture cards r much better.

VirtualDubMod has the same problem that Ulead has. It won't show the picture coming from the VCR, and won't show my capture card.

Firewire or Capture cards r much better. Right, I know, but I am stuck with a USB card. I only have $50 in my bank (seriously!) so I can't buy stuff for a while until I get more money for my birthday.

Well, I am thinking, the entire video is 3.5 hours long. So to burn on a DVD it would not need to be SP quality. What quality should I use then, so it looks the best it can at 3.5 hrs on a standard disc?

Hy drfsupercenter,

I don't know how much fast is your computer but I've just buy a new one with a video IN card from MSI manufacturer and cost me 60$ Canadian to buy it. I'm doing some capture rigth now from a bell expressvu receiver and it's very fine. Can make mpg1/2/4, burn DVD, listen FM radio and do lots more.

I suggest you to go on MSI web site to check the specs.

Good luck !

If your capture device/software allows try capturing at 1/2 D1 (352x480). This is a dvd compliant resoltion. If you can't capture at this resolution then capture at the highest resoution you can and encode the capture to 1/2 D1. I use VBR set at 1000 kbps min, 3000 kbps average and 4000 kbpsmax. Then author it and you should have no problem putting this on a SL dvd. This should give you a good quality back-up.

Won't 352x480 be more tall than wide?

Is there a 500xSomething?

no. it's 1/2 d1 and 352x240 is 1/4 D1 and740x480 is full D1. Any of the 3 are a full dvd compliant resolution. Actually 704x480 is a dvd complant resolution also.

drf, u might want to see this:

http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/video-capture.htm

Interesting, but this is the weird part. I went to the computer store last night and talked to one of the tech guys. He said that he uses a USB capture card and uses Roxio to capure at 720x480 29.97 fps without any frame loss. He said that USB IS capable of doing it, but the software like Ulead/Pinnacle takes up too much memory. I found one called Fx Video Cap that works OK but still drops some frames, but works great otherwise. Now, I bought this REALLY cheap PCI capture card, it captured fine at 29.97 fps without using that much memory, but didn't look good any bigger than 320x240. I will be returning it soon. Now, would it make sense to sell my USB card on eBay and invest on a good PCI card? I was also thinking of calling Pinnacle's support line and explaining the situation, and seeing if they could do some sort of replacement thing.

Just another random question, is there any way to get the Closed Captioning off of VHS tapes, so when burned to DVD you can still have the captions?

Drf, in my experience employees of Computer Stores - Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. are the last people you want to get any advice from. Almost anyone in this forum will give you better advice than you'll get there.

For video capture the hardware device counts more than the software you are using to capture. You need fast throughput of data to transfer analog video to your PC with good results. In terms of PCI cards, firewire or USB 2.0 devices, all things being equal, USB is at the bottom of the list. No software can get around that. The only big variable there is hardware compression or not.

A capture device with hardware compression really makes a big difference. It frees up the workload on your CPU so even slower systems with modest memory can still get a good capture. So a firewire device with hardware compression, like the Canopus boxes, can get better results than, for example, a good PCI card without hardware compression.

If you need a good low price capture card I'd recommend the Hauppauge PVR-150. It's a PCI card that uses hardware compression. It will capture straight to full-res mpeg2 without dropping frames. You should be able to find one for $50-60. I don't think you'll be able to find a decent capture device less than that.

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html

Drf, in my experience employees of Computer Stores - Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. are the last people you want to get any advice from. Almost anyone in this forum will give you better advice than you'll get there.
Yes, but the guy there is a computer expert, they pay people to help others with computer problems - I asked the tech, not the people who ring stuff up.

And my device does NOT have hardware compression, is that the cause of it not working right? Would it make sense to sell my card on eBay and buy myself a comprable PCI card?

Well, even if he's a "computer expert" if he's working retail his agenda isn't to give you the best info.

It's not that devices without hardware compression won't work right. Hardware compression only means that all the encoding of the video is done right on the card itself. This really frees up the resources of your PC. Now your CPU doesn't have to worry about encoding the video at the same time it's trying to write it to your hard drive.

There are some good PCI cards without hardware compression, like the ATI cards. Since the throughput of PCI is so much faster than USB they can still give good results without hardware compression.

I don't want to tell you whether to sell your capture device or not. That's up to you. But, if I had a USB capture device without hardware compression and I was dropping frames on a consistent basis, I'd definitely dump it and pick up a PCI card with hardware compression, like the PVR-150.

How much does the PVR-150 cost?

And, does it override Macrovision? That is a must for me.

You should be able to get the PVR-150 for between $50-60 if you shop around. Yes, it ignores Macrovision.

Thanks, just curious with that card (or the DVC90), can you get caption data too? That is helpful for real-time capture off of TV (my mom is gonna get cable in my room soon)

--EDIT--

Oh yeah, what is the max. resolution and framerate for that card?

Also, I just saw a pic on the Net, it shows a coax in and a yellow RCA in. Where do you put the audio? Does it get the coax's audio, and where does the red and white go? (this is for two different setups - plugging the VCR in with RCA, or using the Channel 3 setup via coax)

It's got a mini jack line-in for the audio, I use a stereo RCA to Mini cable for the audio from my VCR to the PVR-150.

I've never tried using the closed captioning. I think it supports it though. I just did a screen grab of my 150's help file for captioning:

http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/4837/150captions4jc.png

Edit:
Well, I just played around with my 150 for 10 minutes or so but I wasn't able to figure out how to display close captioning. Captioning may or may not be supported with that card. Just don't want to give you false hope on that feature.

Now, does the card need to support captions? Like my DVC-90 would NOT have caption support?

And, with your experience with the 150 card, how would you rate its features, out of 10? The Dazzle would be 7/10, just because it is unable to do HQ encodes. Probably because it does not have hardware compression, and I don't have a great amount of memory.

Bottom line, would you say it's a great product, or one of those Chinese companies that can't even use proper grammar in their help files?

As far as caption support for a capture card, I really can't help you there. I never use captions so I never worry about it. I do believe (but I could be wrong) that a capture card needs to specifically support closed captions for them to display.

If your price range is below $60 or so, I don't think you're going to do much better than a card like the Hauppauge PVR-150. I've had mine for 18 months or so and have absolutely no problems with it. I'll give it a 9/10.

It captures great quality from live TV and VHS tapes straight to DVD compliant mpeg2. My ATI All-In-Wonder card does a great job with live TV too but it chokes on Macrovison tapes which the 150 breezes right through.

The only time my 150 has problems is with very old tapes recorded in EP mode. I'm talking old tapes, like 20 years old. But that's not so much the 150's fault but that the tapes are in such poor quality.

But I don't want to sell you just on the 150! Get other peoples opinions on good cards too. I'm just saying for the money, and my experience, the 150 is a great capture card.

Well, you are right that I do have limited money, I am even selling some old children's books on eBay to make money :rotfl:

Now, just curious, how much RAM do you have and how fast is your CPU? That helps me, because if you have the same as me I know it is a smart choice.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=4839414

This card is more money than I thought... where did you find it for $50?

I bought mine at CompUSA about a year and a half ago. With rebates I paid $56. Shop around, be patient, and you'll find it for $60 or less.

I've got a Pentium 4 running at 3.0 GHz with 1 GB RAM. But, that's the beauty of hardware compression cards. Because all of the video work is being done directly on the card itself, your CPU speed and RAM don't matter as much. Your PC isn't processing the video, the card is.

Well I only have 2GHz CPU and 768 MB RAM.

And, even on eBay, those cards are expensive... I guess I will wait until I get the money for selling stuff on eBay and see how much I got.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0212432

Hmmm, this says that the maximum capture resolution is 320x240, how big does yours capture?

Hmmm, that's the wrong one.

Now, there are two PVR-150's, and the Media Center Edition seems to be cheaper... what is the difference other thatn that the MCE has RCA audio inputs?

I don't know a lot about the MCE version, I've got the standard 150. But, I'm almost positive the MCE version doesn't come with capture software. You would have to use free software like GB-PVR or SageTV.

Hmmm, should I call the manufacturer and ask?

The MCE version will use the capture features of a PC using the Windows Media Center version of XP. For people with other OS's they need to use some other capture software.

This link gives a good description of the features of the MCE version and lots of reviews from people who bought one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00064GI2O/103-7736245-1489443?v=glance&n=172282

Well, what do they mean by Media Center software? Wouldn't something like Ulead work for capturing?

I think I will call the maunfacturer if there's a phone number, just to check.

Hauppage makes good products. IMO you would be happy with the 150-mce card. The red and white connectors are for left and right audio. Standard video/audio connectors are color coded, yellow=video and red/white are for left and right audio.
Windows media center OS has capturing software but with any other version of windows you have to use a separate capture software which is no big deal.

Well I just called the manufacturer, they said that I should get the normal one, since the MCE doesn't come with the software, and the remote is kinda cool, that doesn't come with the MCE either. He said that some places have a $20 mail-in rebate, so I will call around and inquire on that.