Recommend SVHS Capture Card

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

http://www.aver.com/mpd/product.html

I tried to find my card (AverTV (Conexant Fusion 878A - of course I copper heatsinked this chip - need I say) made ~2002) but they don't seem to mention it anymore.

Apart from in their archive:
http://support.aver.com/faq.php?categoryid=28

Their current offerings state much higher system requirements for some reason. ( improved inefficiency perhaps?)

Drivers and their own software was pretty fiddly to get working. But once working there wasn't anything I couldn't do better than a so called professional. (upto a point - maybe Pixar or a hollywood studio could own me - maybe.)

[willawake]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

actually the finest video capture i have experienced was using a sony dv handycam.

[travistee]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I don't know why you want to bother with a capture card.

Pinnacle studio or Nero, ( I don't know which others) can capture DV with just any firewire connection, you don't need a capture card.
To capture a SVHS video an easy way is to copy it to DV then capture it from the DV camera.
SVHS tape or ( any source that has a SVHS connecion )works fine with that
studio breaker box I told you about before.

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I don't have DV, a camera, etc.

I have Laserdisk with an S-Video output. This is not a digital out, so I have to capture it and convert it.

I'm open to suggestion, but it does have to be relevant to my situation.

[Paul S]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I was staying away from this thread, because it looked like it was turning into a flame war!

I have several PC's with capture cards, so I have some experience to offer. I have not done much capturing from an external source, though. I usually just record TV shows for later viewing.

If you want to create a capture PC from an old PC, then a capture card with a hardware encoder chip. This will take the load of encoding, and not pass it off to the CPU. The only cards like this (that I know of) were the Hauppauge PVR 150/250/350/500 line of cards. But, these cards are now discontinued, and I don't know anything about the replacement cards. Maybe you can find a cheap one on eBay, as they only have analog tuners. Since we are switching to all digital broadcasts in the USA, they will become useless to many people.

Most other cards will do software encoding, and this can be very CPU intensive. A PC with a large processor is then best for this purpose. Most cheap cards will work this way, so don't spend too much money on one. You may want to avoid off brands and stick with well-known brands, though.

If you live in the USA, I do recommend getting a hybrid card. One with both digital and analog tuners. You then could also watch/record digital TV, but large CPU needed to watch HDTV.

It seems like I posted this stuff before....

Sorry if it's a repeat.

[Paul S]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

Fizzy, you asked about Linux support of the saa713x tuner. Here is some info on that:
http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index...aa713x_devices

[stevo1210]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I dunno much about the capture cards, but I just use my Leadtek DTV2000H hybrid TV tuner for that sort of stuff. Works well for me, except somethimes sound is out of sync by a split second.

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I'm only interested in transferring Laserdisk movies to DVD.

A TIVO box is great for TV stuff. It works, is cheap, and doesn't tie up my computer. I don't do movies or TV on my computers.

My capture workstation is an E8400, 4gb DDR2-800, and 1.2TB disk space.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

Here is a sample of one of my finished clips for your reference judgement. Whilst I have no varied experience. Perhaps sharing what I do know may help you some way.

rapidshare.com/files/149776099/MacG5.rar

Done in 2003 on my Athlon 1800 with 1GB DDR333 RAM and Geforce 2Ti graphics
card, captured at 8000Kbps (under half the maximum quality the card allows)
MPEG2 (capture cards default encoding - MPEG2 is the same format used on all
DVD's and early Blueray discs) then recomposed to lower bit rate DivX for space
saving, the quality reduced slightly during this process, but you might see potential. I
use PAL 720x576 pixels, but the card accepts any standard, NTSC, Secam etc. and
adapts resolution accordingly.

Also enclosed picture of the ancient video camera used to capture the 2003 footage and the ancient cheapo TV capture card - with Rubycon ZLH caps visible.

[i4004]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

bgavin, why don't you try ati aiws you have?

pcbonez, yes, saa713x should be well supported under linux.
the card itself doesn't matter much(as the design probably very lil or not at all..all using same datasheets etc.), it's the chip.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

pcbonez, yes, saa713x should be well supported under linux.
the card itself doesn't matter much(as the design probably very lil or not at all..all using same datasheets etc.), it's the chip.

~ Thank you !

[Paul S]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

Fizzy, you asked about Linux support of the saa713x tuner. Here is some info on that:
http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index...aa713x_devices

PCBONEZ, this was meant for you, not Fizzycapola.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

Thank you too!

[Paul S]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

bgavin, I still say you should get a Hauppauge PVR 150. Here's what I found on eBay:

http://computers.shop.ebay.com/items...&_osacat=58058

There is also the 250 and 350. The 500 has dual tuners.

[i4004]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

hardware mpeg2 is too limiting.
also, these encoders are usually crap, and are easilly beaten with software mpeg encoders.

about cpu usage take a look here
http://www.virtualdub.org/docs_capture.html

like i said, i was surfing the web and capping with celeron600.
cpu power was the problem prior to 2000.

[gdement]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

If all you want is an mpeg2 file, then hardware is probably the easiest way to get it done. Software based encoding is more flexible but probably more difficult to set up. I've never actually used a hardware card though, just assuming it's easier.

Software based, real-time encoding to mpeg2 is pretty bad from what I've seen. It's okay for 1 time viewing but not when quality is important.
So if you want real-time encoding then get something that does that in hardware. A software based card is best used to capture lossless. Meaning either uncompressed AVI or huffYUV (lossless compression format, which I recommend). The HuffYUV codec has to be downloaded online, it's not something the standard software set will give you. It's easy to install though.
Any lossless format implies a firehose going to the hard drive, so you need a partition scheme that can handle that without dropping frames.

Then you take your bloated lossless video file and edit it in VirtualDub. Take that output (still in a lossless format) and run it through TMPGEnc or something else to generate an mpeg-2. That results in better quality than doing it real-time.

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

I was surprised to see those Hauppage cards that cheap.

On the capture pass, I can just as easily capture full speed to some uncompressed format. Once captured, I don't care how long the recompress takes... I can let it run all night if necessary.

What I don't want is a loss of audio or video quality. I'm willing to wait on slower processes if necessary to retain the quality. The E8400 processor has plenty of horsepower.

[i4004]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

>A software based card is best used to capture lossless. Meaning either uncompressed AVI or huffYUV (lossless compression format, which I recommend).


you can use cheap card to vary compression at will.
i could present you with 3 video clips:
huffyuv, mjpeg(at different quality settings) and mpeg4@quantizer2, or3 and you wouldn't be able to differentiate any of them on playback speed.
and mpeg4 file would be much smaller than huffyiv or mjpeg.
i use such files because quality is good enough i can use them to improve quality later (if i have time/will etc.) and i can burn it straight away because bitrate is not too high.

>What I don't want is a loss of audio or video quality. I'm willing to wait on slower processes if necessary to retain the quality. The E8400 processor has plenty of horsepower.

in that case you want cheap card with saa713x chip.
you have recomendations, now go grab one from the newegg, or so...
or, again, try old aiw if you have a machine to put it in....offcourse, you can cap on one machine, and process it on another(big external hdd comes handy).

the process is not really that hard....if you can bundle service packs and drivers, you surely can do this...with a lil help from me and others...

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

>....if you can bundle service packs and drivers, you surely can do this...with a lil help from me and others...

I've been reading your posts both to me and others here, and have to ask, "why are you so damn nasty?" You behave like a spoiled brat teenager, and this tripe contributes nothing to legitimate questions.

Tell you what: I am not interested in what you have to say, so please do not address me any more. I don't give a shit how much you think you know, I'm not interested in hearing your pompous bullshit anymore. So shut the fuck up and go crawl back into your hole.

I suggest you stop ragging on other forum members. You will get more respect.

[i4004]

Re: Recommend SVHS Capture Card

why the hell did you take that as an insult?
i'm trying to encourage you, as some here have said it's hard to do.
(harder than buying cards with hardware compression, that is).

and what raging are you talking about?
i believe i had a quarell with paul s(about what is needed to decode hd contet) and with pcbonez(about failure modes of hdds) but it doesn't seem to me they're insulted by my opinions...we disagree, big deal.

as for you, just because somebody proved (not me, btw. original poster of that other thread) nlite is easy enough for novice users...again, so what?
to mention it here is offtopic, and i really used (the thing you quoted (and misunderstood) above) it as a compliment to you, for using something that appears to be a more complex program (ultraiso).

and this tripe contributes nothing to legitimate questions.

huhm?
i was the first one here to suggest a card for you. later on i suggested few more cards(in the post i linked). i also explained why cheap cards are better.

in that other thread, gonzo asked you same questions as i did. and said same things about nlite as i did(only i used more words to try to figure out what you have against it).

so i don't really understand your aggravation: when proven wrong i apologize.
when i ask and get an answer i say "thanks".
if spoiled brat teens are like that, then i guess i am...huh...
when i say i know something about capping, well....i do. i'm not too modest when it comes to that because i've done literally thousands of hours of that.
which doesn't mean i know it all, but i do know a lot about capping and video in general. that just means i can't let misinformation poison this thread.
you said you want best quality, and i told you what will get you best quality.
others in this thread have agreed. others yet didn't, but i did my best to explain why they're wrong.

Tell you what: I am not interested in what you have to say, so please do not address me any more. I don't give a shit how much you think you know, I'm not interested in hearing your pompous bullshit anymore. So shut the fuck up and go crawl back into your hole.

consider what you're saying, and to whom.
again, i'm trying to help you cap your lds.

as for addressing: if i see something i'm sure you're wrong about offcourse i'm gonna say it. seems like you're pretty lousy at saying thanks when corrected, or when you get the advice you looked for, but it doesn't matter.

something else: don't use that tone of voice with me: it just means that if we're ever to meet i'm gonna kick your butt instantly, no talk, no questions asked.
(slim chance of us meeting, sure, but the trouble is, i remember meaningless insults all too well...)
ie, i didn't use that language here, and i REALLY dislike when people use this forum-cloak to use filthy language for no good reason.
when i deserve such foul language i'll be the first one to admit it and then you can tell me anything you like(this has happened..i was wrong and accepted any and all criticism coming my way..).
but when i'm trying to help you and you insult me...it's just rude beyond what i can take.
so if we ever meet you're gonna feel just how rude i felt you were towards me here.

don't do it again: if you're not clear about what i ment when i said something, ask me.
insulting without knowing what i ment is meaningless.