Video editing solution? Burning to DVD?
- Thread starter Santilli
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Fushigi
Storage Is My Life
Shouldn't that be "Curse you Sony, for releasing it wrong"?Santilli said:
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
No, it should be "Curse you Sony, for existing in the first place."
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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By the way, the quality of stuff is pretty close to the original tapes. The REALLY bad tapes seem to improve with the limited amount of tweaking you can do with WindVD, but, the fair to good ones seem about the same, or slightly less, as an end result.
Still, it's nice to be able to backup stuff, that's not replaceable.
s
Still, it's nice to be able to backup stuff, that's not replaceable.
s
Santilli
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Working with Win DVD Creator 2 right now. Converting some of my old fight tapes to DVD.
I was going to post how it didn't use much of the processors, but, you guys were right. Right now, as it's doing the creating, it's using a steady 55-65% of all four virtual processors.
Looks like a leave along and come back sort of task.
s
I was going to post how it didn't use much of the processors, but, you guys were right. Right now, as it's doing the creating, it's using a steady 55-65% of all four virtual processors.
Looks like a leave along and come back sort of task.
s
time
Storage? I am Storage!
I'm looking for an update to this thread, particularly on hardware connection solutions. Will any old VIVO display adaptor do, or is a TV card a better idea? I notice that Leadtek offers a basic capture card, but I have no idea if it's any use at all.
For a VIVO solution, I need a PCI-e card. How about a Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro?
For a VIVO solution, I need a PCI-e card. How about a Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro?
Santilli
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Well, my Plextor has installation particulars that are a bit weird. If not installed in the proper order, the software acts very strange, cuts off, works once in awhile, etc.
I have a note from Plextor on it, and, the limitation is that it only runs with one kind of software.
The software does see the 800 XL ATI card I have as a video capture card, but, I haven't tried to use it, because if it works, then I've just spent a bunch of money on a hardware box for nothing.
:wink:
S
I have a note from Plextor on it, and, the limitation is that it only runs with one kind of software.
The software does see the 800 XL ATI card I have as a video capture card, but, I haven't tried to use it, because if it works, then I've just spent a bunch of money on a hardware box for nothing.
:wink:
S
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Wow, you can really hear the crickets chirping around here lately.
So, no-one's set up a video capture setup this year?
So, no-one's set up a video capture setup this year?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
This is my 5th day of teaching 22LITERALLY retarded (sub-70 IQ) 14-year-olds how to build computers.
For the last two weeks, every time I've thought about computers, a vein in my forehead has started visibly throbbing.
For the last two weeks, every time I've thought about computers, a vein in my forehead has started visibly throbbing.
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
Nothing this year, but I had good luck with a Radeon 9x00 VIVO card and some third party software from Intervideo called WinDVR.
I've also used the ATi TV wonder (rebadged conexant PCI capture card which is as generic as you can get). The ATi hardware was actually very picky and the ATi software was crap, but I think they have probably got the issues worked out by now. 3rd party software works well with this generic chipset.
For most of my needs I'm actually using an All-in-wonder card w/ ATi Remote. The ATi software is kind of lacking for PVR/DVR uses, but the capture quality and features have always been great. Unfortunately the All-in-wonder cards only work with ATi and a small handful of other software.
I have seriously considered bying a program called SnapStream and throwing out the ATi software because snapstream does such a better job as a DVR.
I've also used the ATi TV wonder (rebadged conexant PCI capture card which is as generic as you can get). The ATi hardware was actually very picky and the ATi software was crap, but I think they have probably got the issues worked out by now. 3rd party software works well with this generic chipset.
For most of my needs I'm actually using an All-in-wonder card w/ ATi Remote. The ATi software is kind of lacking for PVR/DVR uses, but the capture quality and features have always been great. Unfortunately the All-in-wonder cards only work with ATi and a small handful of other software.
I have seriously considered bying a program called SnapStream and throwing out the ATi software because snapstream does such a better job as a DVR.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Greg, there's a patch for the Plextor device to work with various Ulead video editing programs. So that's a help. WinDVD Creator and Ulead MovieFactory both work pretty well.
Um...
The barebores $25 Bt878s like the LeadTek/Sabrent et al. units CAN do a pretty good job, depending on which card you get and what inputs/outputs you're using. The biggest factor for me is that some cards seem to handle direct MPEG capture better than others. Picture quality is generally decent but not spectacular. The Plextor units tend to be better about that much, at least.
I'm still down on Hauppauge stuff. But I've seen $60 AverMedia hardware encoders that I thought were just fine, based on limited experience (a few hours while building and testing a system).
Um...
The barebores $25 Bt878s like the LeadTek/Sabrent et al. units CAN do a pretty good job, depending on which card you get and what inputs/outputs you're using. The biggest factor for me is that some cards seem to handle direct MPEG capture better than others. Picture quality is generally decent but not spectacular. The Plextor units tend to be better about that much, at least.
I'm still down on Hauppauge stuff. But I've seen $60 AverMedia hardware encoders that I thought were just fine, based on limited experience (a few hours while building and testing a system).
Have any of you used a capture card utilizing the ATI theater 550 Pro? I've been interested in the info I've read, but I haven't found any cards using it yet.
Santilli
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Mercutio said:
Welcome to my world... :lol:
It could be worse, MUCH worse.
Try K-6 with a range of gifted, but violent, to 12-18 months, and non-verbal, in a 6th grade body...
Then it's just me. If you aren't doing this sort of stuff all the time, it's difficult to remember the proper settings, and, the default settings don't do you any favors, either.
s
Santilli
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time
Storage? I am Storage!
Pretty much the same as Greg stated at the start of the thread: convert VCR recordings to DVD. The ability to clean up the picture would be nice, but I think the main priority is reliable, easy to use software. If Ulead works okay, that might do, but it would be good to have options - such as Snapstream, for instance.CityK said:
My feeling so far from what Mercutio and others have said is that a TV card is probably the way to go (I don't think anyone had nice things to say about a straight VIVO card).
Although I can get Sapphire cards, none are TV cards, and I don't know where I can source ATI branded cards. This doesn't sound like a safe option.
I can probably get Aver Media products; there's also Compro, and Leadtek is easy. Which card is the question, though. For example, I asked about a Leadtek model without a tuner.
I don't want to spend much, and neither would the client who prompted this enquiry. I talked him into a Pinnacle card years ago that cost a fair bit but sucked badly.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Greg, dscaler is quite spiffy if your source video is nice. I wouldn't want to watch something that was poorly captured (e.g. Paris Hilton sex tapes) on it but it makes, say, caps from cable or prepackaged VHS tape look pretty darn good.
I alternate between being pissed at snapstream and thinking it's the greatest thing in the world. Right now I'd say take a pass on it. Ulead works great if you don't need to make a lot of edits. WinDVD better splicing bits together. Either one is fine but neither really have serious "clean-up" capability. You'll need something a bit more powerful for that, and then you lose ease-of-use.
They aren't BAD by any means. I used ATI's MMC to schedule and record for quite some time before I started using Snapstream, and the output is generally acceptable. It's just... the $25 cards have gotten a lot better than they used to be. The FIRST time I bought a bt878 - back when they were $200, I could only capture to .AVI with a narrow group of codecs (not even all the ones I had on my computer!). The current cards support straight to MPEG capture and have much better drivers.
Anyhow, the AverMedia card that I tried and liked for the brief period I used it was the PVR 150 Plus. It had some of the same slight blurring issues I saw with my Hauppauge cards, but I'm less inclined to complain about that on a $50 card with drivers and bundled applications that don't suck more than the female cast of "Anal Snow Bunnies volume III".
time said:
I alternate between being pissed at snapstream and thinking it's the greatest thing in the world. Right now I'd say take a pass on it. Ulead works great if you don't need to make a lot of edits. WinDVD better splicing bits together. Either one is fine but neither really have serious "clean-up" capability. You'll need something a bit more powerful for that, and then you lose ease-of-use.
time said:
They aren't BAD by any means. I used ATI's MMC to schedule and record for quite some time before I started using Snapstream, and the output is generally acceptable. It's just... the $25 cards have gotten a lot better than they used to be. The FIRST time I bought a bt878 - back when they were $200, I could only capture to .AVI with a narrow group of codecs (not even all the ones I had on my computer!). The current cards support straight to MPEG capture and have much better drivers.
Anyhow, the AverMedia card that I tried and liked for the brief period I used it was the PVR 150 Plus. It had some of the same slight blurring issues I saw with my Hauppauge cards, but I'm less inclined to complain about that on a $50 card with drivers and bundled applications that don't suck more than the female cast of "Anal Snow Bunnies volume III".
Santilli
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Time:
The problem with cards are the input. My ATI TV Wonder wouldn't work, regardless of what I did, to take input from my VCR. It's probably fine for other stuff, like tv input.
Or, you can get in a situation where the cables cost way too much to attach the VCR, I.E. having to buy an S-video cable to connect your VCR.
Mercutio's original idea, of the Plextor, is an excellent solution The software is about as good as you are going to get, and, the quality is very good, and it provides a variety of connection options. Dell sold me one for about 130 dollars, and that included the software. Dscaler and the cards it works with, aren't exactly current, and I would not be surprised to find software conflicts with later OS systems.
The really annoying problem is poor settings for default, and, not being able to make mulitiple copies of a project, or having problems loading projects from disk.
It really comes down to if you used the software all the time, you would get good at it, but, this software is not easy on the occassional user.
s
The problem with cards are the input. My ATI TV Wonder wouldn't work, regardless of what I did, to take input from my VCR. It's probably fine for other stuff, like tv input.
Or, you can get in a situation where the cables cost way too much to attach the VCR, I.E. having to buy an S-video cable to connect your VCR.
Mercutio's original idea, of the Plextor, is an excellent solution The software is about as good as you are going to get, and, the quality is very good, and it provides a variety of connection options. Dell sold me one for about 130 dollars, and that included the software. Dscaler and the cards it works with, aren't exactly current, and I would not be surprised to find software conflicts with later OS systems.
The really annoying problem is poor settings for default, and, not being able to make mulitiple copies of a project, or having problems loading projects from disk.
It really comes down to if you used the software all the time, you would get good at it, but, this software is not easy on the occassional user.
s
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
1. callcct.com sells S-Video cables for $1.50 apiece. Even a Sony or JVC editing deck that has proper S-video output is only a couple hundred bucks, new.
2. You - the Granite Digital fanboy - are complaining about the cost of cables.
If your ATI card isn't able to take input from a VCR, I'm almost positive it's because of copy protection on the tape.
2. You - the Granite Digital fanboy - are complaining about the cost of cables.
If your ATI card isn't able to take input from a VCR, I'm almost positive it's because of copy protection on the tape.
Santilli
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Yes. OK. I've even gone to the red cables, since GD cables are 4 times as expensive. Likewise, cheaper terminators. I followed Supermicro's recommendations, and since they ship SCA boxes with the "red" cables, I figure they must be decent.
Yes, I also use monster cables, overpriced, also.
Actually, I was trying to get my home movies onto DVD, and for some reason, the ATI card wouldn't work.
I like the Plextor you suggested, and, it seems just fine.
By the way, Ken at Granite Digital has made up for the cost of cables in the past, with free tech support, replacements when I bend a pin, no questions asked, of the entire cable, and making an entire new scsi 5 station cable, when I gave him the wrong specs.
It's just scsi is getting so cheap, with 100 bucks for an LSI 320 card, 360 for a single channel raid, and SCA boxes are cheap as well, it's hard to spend lots for cables. Also, it allows me to build cheaper boxes, more often.
Plus, those extra 15.3K Cheetahs, while only 18 gigs, make great boot drives for office type machines...
I would like to say that between quality, and customer service, if I was rich, I would use nothing but granite digital products. I guess I need to work on the later....
s
Yes, I also use monster cables, overpriced, also.
Actually, I was trying to get my home movies onto DVD, and for some reason, the ATI card wouldn't work.
I like the Plextor you suggested, and, it seems just fine.
By the way, Ken at Granite Digital has made up for the cost of cables in the past, with free tech support, replacements when I bend a pin, no questions asked, of the entire cable, and making an entire new scsi 5 station cable, when I gave him the wrong specs.
It's just scsi is getting so cheap, with 100 bucks for an LSI 320 card, 360 for a single channel raid, and SCA boxes are cheap as well, it's hard to spend lots for cables. Also, it allows me to build cheaper boxes, more often.
Plus, those extra 15.3K Cheetahs, while only 18 gigs, make great boot drives for office type machines...
I would like to say that between quality, and customer service, if I was rich, I would use nothing but granite digital products. I guess I need to work on the later....
s
time
Storage? I am Storage!
I'm attracted to a hardware MPEG 2 encoder, such as the Leadtek PVR2000 TV card. It's supported by Ulead at least (and ChrisTV, I see), and the idea of direct MPEG capture without slowing your PC to a crawl seems appealing.
The target machine is an Athlon 64-939 3000, which is only 1.8GHz. I'm guessing that it wouldn't be the fastest software encoder around, although I realize quality can be better.
There's a similar (no tuner) capture card from KWorld that comes with Power Producer.
Thoughts?
The target machine is an Athlon 64-939 3000, which is only 1.8GHz. I'm guessing that it wouldn't be the fastest software encoder around, although I realize quality can be better.
There's a similar (no tuner) capture card from KWorld that comes with Power Producer.
Thoughts?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I think it's worth $50 to get a hardware encoder as well, but honestly, MPEG encoding with zero dropped frames is possible on even a pretty low-end 1GHz machine.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
But what if you're using other software at the same time? Is the margin that great?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
You pretty much want to dedicate a PC to vidcap no matter what hardware you have. It really sucks when your dedicated MPEG capture device can't write to the hard drive because you browsed to a web site with an extra-obnoxious Java app.