i have an ati wodner ve card

Discussion in 'Video capturing from analog sources' started by lcohen448, Mar 13, 2006.

  1. lcohen448

    lcohen448 Member

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    I want to tranfer VHS to dvd.

    I was wondering is that card good for capturing? Also is their software(ati multimedia) good enough for capturing. I also have virtualdub and dscaler and windows movie maker. I don't know which software is best to use.I was doing a little test yesterday so i converted a movie using ati sftware. Its in mpeg2 480 x 240. Should it be mpeg1. what's the next step,Iam a bit confused. I hope someone can please help me. thanks..
     
  2. Minion

    Minion Senior member

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    For DVD you MUST capture Mpeg-2 at 720x480 or 352x480 because at 480x240 it will have to be re-encoded which will take a Lot of Time and Totally ruin any Quality you Might have had....

    The ATI TV Wonder VE actually won"t even capture at DVD Resolution so I would say For sure that you don"t have a Good Card....

    You can use Different Drivers for your Card that will let you Capture at DVD Resolution...Do a Google Search for "BTWinCap Drivers" and download them and Install then and you will be able to Capture at DVD Resolution but not useing the ATI software as it won"t be Compatible with it with these New Drivers.....

    You can Capture to MPEG-1 at 352x240 and Make a DVD From that useing something like Tmpgenc DVD author but at that resolution the Quality will be awefull when viewed on your TV set.....

    Good Luck
     
  3. lcohen448

    lcohen448 Member

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    I installed that driver. Is dscaler a good program? I tried to use my ati prgrm but it has a different video capture device installed. Is there a way i can install 2 capture drivers. Because i want to capture and sometimes watch tv. Or should i just watch tv with another sfotware program
     
  4. Minion

    Minion Senior member

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    No you can"t have the ATI drivers and the BTWinCap drivers installed at the Same time but you can Now Capture at Full resolution with your Card instead of a Max resolution of 640x288 which Is what I think the Max resolution you can capture at with the ATI Drivers...

    If you want a Good Capture and TV watching program Try "InterVideo WinDVR" it will let you capture to Mpeg-2/DVD Format and it also supports TV Tuners so you can also use it for watching TV....

    If you want to Capture to AVI Format I suggest something like "Virtual-Dub" or "Virtual-VCR"....

    Cheers
     
  5. lcohen448

    lcohen448 Member

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    thanks for the help. I was looking for that software. I seen the software for like $80. Since i upgraded the drivers, maybe ill buy the software. Is mpeg2 a better quailty then avi format.The project iam doing is copying old vhs tapes and putting them on dvd. How many movies you think I can put on dvd if the movies are like 3hrs? Once I buy the software pretty much thats it.
     
  6. Minion

    Minion Senior member

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    Welll Mpeg-2 is the Format used on DVD"s and This Program captures to that Format so you won"t loose Quality from re-encodeing because you won"t have to re-encode which you would do if you captured to AVI format....

    You can really only Fit One 3 hour movie on a DVD If that....You Probably won"t get good enough Quality if you Captured at Full DVD Resolution (720x480) and Tried to put 3 hours on a DVD....

    Instead of Spending $80 on a Piece of Software why not Just invest that $80 and Get a Good Capture Card that comes with Good Capture Software??

    The TV Wonder VE is Not a Good Capture device at all and for that $80 you could buy a "Hauppague WinTV PVR-150" which uses Hardware Mpeg-2 compression which produces much better quality than Software Encodeing does and it doesn"t use any CPU power when Captureing with a Hardware encoder Card so you don"t drop Frames and you can do other things with your PC while captureing Video....

    That is What I would recomend you spend the $80 on as the Card only Costs about $75 on E-Bay or Best Buy ect and comes with Capture software and will Produce much better quality than the TV wonder Card which you can sell and buy some DVD authoring Software so you can Burn your DVD"s....

    Cheers


    PS: you should allways Try the Demo versions of Software before you buy it so you know you will like it....
     
  7. lcohen448

    lcohen448 Member

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    I was thinking of buying that card but the one with a FM tuner. Is that card a better card then the 150 win pvr-card? any difference. The only thing i see that it's a bit more expensive.
     
  8. Minion

    Minion Senior member

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    You are Talking about the "Hauppague WinTV PVR 250"?? It is exactly the same as the 150 model accept it has a FM Tuner for Radio so if that is a Feature you want then you go for it....

    Cheers
     

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