What capture card to use???

[Mini-Me]

I want to move all my video tapes(some 450+) to DVD using a capture card.

I have tried Leadtek cards, and found them to lack in picture quality.

I have tried Vstream cards(using Conexant Broadcast Decoder chip), and quality was good, but purity problems were and issue, as well as severe colour burst problems in the top half of the frame.

All the videos I am planning to move, are NOT Macrovision protected - they are my archive video tapes of mainly programmes recorded off the TV.

My tapes are in the PAL standard, so I really need a card, that specifically works only with PAL, and does not support any other standard. The reason for this, is that with multi-zone cards, I have had so much trouble, with the chipset thinking that a slightly irregular video pulse from the VCR as a different video standard, and trying to switch to NTSC or SECAM.
This is only for an instant, but is sufficent to degarde the picture quality so much so, that the captured version is inferrior to that of the master tape!
:(

What I need, is a video capture card, that accepts PAL S-Video input(and composite for other times...), and stereo audio, and can capture full-screen 640 x 480 resolution(with reference to the PC resolution.(i forget the actual PAL DVD resolution)).

I don't really care about how many hundred dollars such a card would cost, so long as I can get a good quality copy of the tapes in my archive.

Can anyone here suggest a card or external USB box they use with some success???
(preferably internal, so that the capture software can more easily work with it...)

Thanks guys.


G.

[saphalline]

May I suggest something from Canopus? They are among the top-tier manufacturers of the more professional video converters. The Canopus 1394 ADVC100 (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-144-201&DEPA=1) listed on Newegg has gotten many good reviews. I don't know if that's the one for you, perhaps a bit more shopping is in order, but it at least gives you a good starting point. And price! $244 - whew!

I definitely suggest that you look into more of these external units, however. There's only so much you can put on a PCI card before you hit a limit! External units can be larger, use multiple PCBs, use more powerful parts, use outlet power, have more ports, and are not affected by the RFI and EMI noise inside your computer (which I think was the cause of your frequency-hopping problems before). And as long as you use WinXP, you shouldn't really have any problems importing video from an external device. What video capture app do you use?

[Mini-Me]

Thanks very much for that info - I will check this out.
At $244, that's about $500 in NZ cash, plus freight - getting costly, but I'd still get one, if it worked well.

I hear what you're saying about external units.
I am looking at these too.
The one I found was a Genius brand, but would only capture a 200 x 388 or something like that, which is not a high enough resolution.

If you know of any good extenal USB2 capture devices that can handle full-screen PAL video when capturing, please let me know!
:)

Tell me: What is the speed of the USB2 bus vs the PCI2.1 bus???

I thought that the PCI interface would be faster?
(perhaps I am totally wrong, and should be looking more at USB2 capture devices...)

I use Cyberlink Power Producer 2 Gold as my DVD editing software, and have found this to be an excellent package!
:)

Thanks for any replies.


MM.

[saphalline]

The PCI bus is slightly faster at 133MB/s vs USB 2.0 at 60MB/s. However, since capture cards typically convert the video stream to a compressed format before transferring to the system, I don't think you'll ever have a problem with USB 2.0's slower speed. At least not at the resolution and refresh rate that PAL & NTSC use. ;)

Firewire (IEEE1394a) = 50MB/s, Firewire 2 (IEEE1394b) = 100MB/s, so these are also external bus options.

Hmmm... I've heard of Cyberlink, but not that specific program. Well, if I ever make my own DVD's, I'll look into that one! :D

[Mini-Me]

ADDITIONAL: Got myself a USB2.0 capture box to play with - it is very good, although, it eats up the CPU - 86% usage when capturing on an AMP Athlon XP 2400+ CPU.(512MB DDR system ram), am about to buy a new CPU, cos I plan to take this 2400 one, and put it in my workshop PC(yes, it can take it!), so speeding up both for the price of one!(if you see where i'm coming from!)

Cyberlink PowerDVD is their most well known software, but PP2 Gold is really excellent - can capture directly from multipule capture cards(saving you having to record sperately in a DVR), and edit the video, insert motion menu's with or without sound, set chapters - great software.

Anyway...

To saphalline: I've pulled out the Vstream card, and am now using just the USB2 box - this COMPLETELY eliminated the aforementioned picture flashes and other strange behaviour of the internal card - you suggested this might be the cause, and you were right!
:)

Only problem I have now, is with the CPU usage, which also causes interruptions in the sound for about 5-seconds, while the PC is gettting the video-stream setup. This is only for around 3-5 seconds after pressing record, and the CPU is doing 100%, then it drops back to around 86% constant(with all screensavers turned off), and A/V sync is ok then aswell(a/v sync is out during this 5 second period too).

Many thanks people!


MM.