Camcorder to PC transfer

smilodon · August 23, 2003, 01:49:09 AM

Anyone know how to transfer video to a PC?

If so............

I have an old Hi-8 Camcorder with composite video and audio outputs (two phono-like sockets)

I've a Elsa Gladiac 920 GeForce 3 Graphics card (with monitor connector and a TV out socket) which I'm assuming cannot be connected to the camcorder

I've an Audigy Sounds Card with a firewire port.

Can I assume that I cannot connect the analog camcorder to the firewire port?

Is there a digital converter that would lie between the camcorder and the firewire port that I could use?

Should I just get a pci analog capture card and use a 'direct composite video out to capture card' lead and a similar lead from the sound out to the PC sound card?

Or what? Ta

TeaLeaf · August 23, 2003, 08:15:10 AM

I would also be interested in this as I have an ageing video camera (also Hi8) with some video of my kids etc thatI would love to digitise.

TL.

Red_Thunder · August 23, 2003, 11:23:33 AM

thats a me 3 :|

I got a cam end of last year bought a 70 quid bit of kit i thought would link it , now i cant take it back casue the box is fux'd etc
im a cam to pc n00b

Dan

Gh0st Face Killah · August 23, 2003, 12:52:57 PM

I found this device which may be the answer to your problems.

http://www.dvdirect.com/shop/product.asp?sku=PSY5087

Its on an american site and I haven't found a uk site for it yet.

tugs · August 23, 2003, 04:51:38 PM

Well, I use a miroVideo StudioDC10 Plus for analogue capture - now branded as a Pinnacle, I think. It captures to M-JPEG format which is basically full frame rate full resolution capture (give or take intelligent capture which ignores the lines usually used for teletext, and hence aren't visible anyway). Sound capture is done (simultaneously) through your normal sound card, so if that's rubbish, you have an issue. It's a good compromise though, and a darn sight cheaper than the DC500 and the like, which _do_ include sound capture onboard.

When you're choosing a capture card, look carefully at the framerate of the captures the card can produce, and the resolution.

Also bear in mind that for the purposes of video editing once you've got it on your PC, cards that capture as MPEG make editing a real pain. This is simply because MPEG uses key-frames, then encodes the difference between the previous frame and the current one - so if you edit at any point other than bang on a key frame, the software has to do all sorts of jigging about to make the stream valid again - which usually also makes it very slow. Note the difference between MPEG (just described) versus M-JPEG, which simply encodes every individual frame as a JPEG, which is quite fast to edit.

There are other solutions out there (many of them) - just check the specs, cos if you capture anything other than full framerate full resolution, it's not worth it IMO.

DV of course is much easier - firewire, baby! :-)

TeaLeaf - if you want to talk about capturing that stuff some time, let me know...

TeaLeaf · August 23, 2003, 04:55:56 PM

QuoteTeaLeaf - if you want to talk about capturing that stuff some time, let me know...

Know.

TL.

tugs · August 23, 2003, 05:52:27 PM

FYI, Pinnacle DC10plus PCI card:

http://www.insight.com/uk/apps/productpres...t_id=PINSA037EZ

And the pinnacle MovieboxDV mentioned above:

http://www.insight.com/uk/apps/productpres...t_id=PINSA03G6T

(as examples - definitely not the only solutions out there...)

smilodon · August 23, 2003, 06:30:42 PM

As I'm looking for a dirt cheap option I think I'll grab a simple Analog Card and err aquire some editing software :wink:

Thanks for the advice

Gandalf · August 24, 2003, 08:13:22 PM

how about this little puppy?

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/produc...d=16829&cat=462

tugs · August 25, 2003, 10:14:30 AM

Looks interesting. Some more research reveals this:

http://www.the-wizards.com/catalog/product...products_id=313

...which confirms that the device captures "Video up to thirty frames per second at CIF resolution (352 x 288)" - this is roughly speaking VHS quality, compared to broadcast quality (720 x 576), although the 352 suggests it's probably dropping the teletext lines prior to encoding, which is good. However, if your source material is VHS quality to start with, and you capture it at VHS quality as well, I can't help wondering how destroyed the final product would be.

There's no mention of the compression, so I presume it's MPEG, not least as it's USB and doesn't insist on USB2. MPEG needs around 1.5 MBps or something like that.

It all comes down to the old GIGO problem - even if your source material isn't the best quality, logic tells you to capture as best you can. Ever tried doing a VHS to VHS copy? It's not good - and I'd worry that the end result was watchable but not pleasant. If you're doing this to make a more permanent record of your camcorder tapes, my personal advice would be to capture the best you can so you've got the maximum information to work with when you decide what you're going to output it to.

tugs.