Quandry - To use or not to use Software that came with Hardware?

[wenospeak]

Hello,

It's been a while since I've been to the forums, thanks to the good folks here. They helped me put together a really nice rig and I've been busy working on my website.

However, the time has come to start "Capturing" various media from old analog sources to my hard drive. I plan to copy vinyl Lp's, some VHS clips, some old cassette tapes, and some DVD material, etc.

I have three multimedia sources built into my rig, but I'm reluctant to install the accompanying software because of

1) possible systemwide conflicts or other system errors.
2) poor software design and unstable functionality
3) previous installations that have caused windows to lock up or crash

I've been audio ripping and encoding with Nero, without any problems, but want to start video ripping and I'm not sure that Nero's Vision Express 3 will do the trick.

I have:

onboard Realtek AC'97 (active - however it can be disabled in the bios)
ATI ALL-IN-WONDER X600 Series (Video Card)
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro w/breakout box (Sound Card)

Both ATI and Creative have newly updated versions of their "Software Suite" of programs. I've tried them in the past and found both to be similar in many respects including they are both system hogs that want to control everything. I've tried installing only one software suite at a time with both Creative and ATI and found that while Creative's software works, it's cumbersome and takes a long time to do anything. ATI's software on the other hand seems to have many more options and all the right functions, however, nothing works right.

I guess my question boils down to whether the ATI and Creative software really is so bad, that I should leave it off my system and look for high qulity dedicated software to handle my capturing and converting needs?

Any thoughts?

BTW - a detailed analysis of my system can be found by clicking here (http://www.jazzrockworld.com/ricksrig.html)

Many thanks,

Rick Calic

[saphalline]

Ooh, interesting quandry... ;)

IMO, the software that comes with the hardware isn't really worth it. I mean, it can do cool things, but there are much better software titles out there by people who actually specialize in software. :p

The exception would be the capture software that comes with your ATI AIW card. It might be good to capture video with that software since it can take advantage of everything in your VPU. But I would recommend capturing in uncompressed AVI format, and then using another program for editing.

[wenospeak]

Ahhh Saph to the rescue - thanks...

Yeah, you're kind of confirming my feelings, especially regarding the ATI software, boy oh boy, do I wish it worked. It's actually pretty amazing to see all the features and options. Of course, that's also the reason most hardware comes bundled with a third party software.

The more I think about this, the more it seems to be a dumb question. If the hardware folks made good software, they would be software folks. Or, I've never heard of a Nero Sound Card, etc...

Thanks for the right-o...

Rick

[saphalline]

Well, some software made by the hardware manufacturers is good. Stuff like drivers, firmware, and BIOS's. But even then, companies like Intel and ATI and NVidia have software experts on-hand for these duties.

Like you said, it's sort of a backwards situation. If ATI really could make stable software, they'd be on the leading video editing software teams. Ah well, we take what we can get.

[Mini-Me]

I use my machine for video-capture, editing, and DVD writing.

I use a Pinnacle AV/DV PCI card with Studio 9 software.

As Saph says, you should capture in uncompressed AVI format, unless you PC is a BEAST. Real-time MPEG encoding is CPU intensive, and can result in dropped video frames with anything other then the fastest of machines...

Raw AVI capture takes about 12GB/hour(Yes, twelve gigabytes!), and you MUST have 7200RPM drives as a minimum - the 5400RPM drives don't have the speed.

I find the Pinnacle setup to be excellent for capture of analog or digital video.
The AV/DV card is great, cos it has composite and s-video input, and also a FireWire port, so you can connect your digital video camera to this port(if you have a DV camera)

Currently, I use a 160GB drive for the capture buffer - this is where the captured AVI files sit, waiting to be processed.

Most of my capture is of my old VHS tape-stock, and Studio 9 software allows output of the edited video to other file formats(so long as a supported CODEC is installed for that format), and also to CD-R's and DVD's.

I output all my capture to DivX format, then use my home-network, to suck the DivX file across to my media-player box in the lounge.

Hope that helps.

BTW - Pinnacle kits are moderately expensive, but don't be tempted to buy cheap crap from electronics stores - I have tried several brands(including Leadtek, V-Stream, etc), and the capture results are rubbish. The Pinnacle series provide excellent quality capture for the money, IMHO.

Any capture card you decided to go with, should be installed on PCI1 slot, which is generally the bus-master slot. I tried putting my card(s) on other slots, and they did not work very well; put it on PCI1, and the problems vanished(largely thanks to people here on the forums, who pointed me in that direction!)


MM.