Minion You mentioned several posts (a couple yrs too) back that you recommend using the ALL IN WONDER VIDEO CARD to convert HI8 Tapes to DVD. I want to take some of my home videos and convert to DVD. Is this still your recommendation? Anyone else have a recommendation? Thanks Bocko
You can do Much better than an AIW Card these Days even though the New "Rage theatre 550" Chipset used in the Newer AIW Cards does produce very good Quality.... I would Suggest something like a "Canopus ADVC-100/110" or a Hardware Mpeg-2 encoder Like the "Hauppague WinTV PVR 150/250"... You can also Get a Standalone PCI Capture Card that uses the Same "Rage Theatre 550" Chipset used in AIW Cards accept that this Card uses Hardware Mpeg-2 Compression and is a LOT Cheaper than a New AIW Card.... Like this Card here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1224450&Sku=P262-3016
You could Potentially end up with a Better quality DVD useing the ADVC-100 depending on what software you use to encode the Captured DV AVI file to Mpeg-2/DVD... The Point of haveing a Hardware Mpeg-2 encoder is to save Time and be more Convenient because the Captured Files can be Directly authored to DVD without any encodeing but these Hardware Mpeg-2 encoders do produce very acceptable Quality and are Cheaper than a ADVC-100..... Cheers
Ok, so I get this PCI card, do I need any software besides DVD burner software? If so, what do you recommended? At first I just want to get the Movies onto the DVD (no Editing). Perhaps after that I might want to do some editing. thanks again Bocko
Well you would need Capture Software and what Capture Software you use would Depend on what type of Capture device you have...Generally most Capture Devices should come with Capture Software.... Well if you get a Hardware Mpeg encoder Card all you would need is a DVD Authoring Program so you can add your Menu"s and Chapters and to author the DVD...I would suggest something like "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" or even "Tmpgenc DVD author" if you want something very easy to use.... If you want to do some editing of Mpeg-2 files I suggest a Native Mpeg editing program Like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" or "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" as they are Both Frame Accurate Mpeg editors that will not affect the Quality when editing and are very fast.... Cheers
Minion I appreciate all of your help. Looking at the PCI card that you recommend via Tiger, it has an AV in and a couple of coax. My Video Recorder outputs are S-Video and Stereo R and L. What is the connection between the Recorder and the PCI card? I was looking at some more devices. How about this one: TurtleBeach Video Advantage PCI Video Capture? Thanks Bocko
The Card in the Link I sent you Has an S-Video Input and you would Plug the Audio into your Sound Card so the S-Video out from the VCR into the S-Video in on the Card and the Audio would go into your Sound Cards Line in... Actually this Card here is the Same accept that is has more Inputs so it might be a Better option... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1220932&Sku=D10-1012 The Turtle Beach can capture to either Uncompressed AVI or to DV AVI which means that you would have to use the extra Step of encodeing the Capturted files to Mpeg-2/DVD...The Card Can Capture to Mpeg Formats But you would Have to use Software Compression which will generally not produce the Same Quality as Hardware Compression Pluss it uses your CPU to Compress so you need to have a Very Fast PC and you will not be able to do anything with your PC while Captureing accept Capture Video were with a Hardware Mpeg encoder you can Capture Video while Surfing the Net or Listening to Music ECT without affecting your Capture Performance.... The Turtle Beach uses a 10Bit Decoder Chip were the Other Hardware Encoder devices I suggested use a 12bit Decoder Chip which will Produce better quality Pluss the Cards have a 16mb Frame Buffer so you avoid Frame Drops and Sync Problems..... I would Go for the Device I just left a Link to because it has all of the Inputs you would need Like a Cable/Antennae Input and a S-Video Input and an Audio Input and a RCA/Composite Video Input.... Cheers
