Newbie video capture questions

[RR]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

I want to transfer a bunch of Video 8 (camera) tapes to Video CD for both
convenience and permanence reasons. My camera has analog output only.

From reading this newsgroup, it seems I should stay away from USB 2 capture
cards. Though lots of reputable manufacturers seem to have moved to USB 2
(Belkin, Hauppauge).

PCMCIA is good for me (laptop is convenient), but I'll go with PCI if
necessary.

Basic questions:

1. The PCMCIA cards I've looked at talk about 30 fps at 320 x 240
resolution. That seems very small. Is that really the right resolution to
capture my Video 8 tapes? Is 30 fps fast enough?

2. A quick calculation tells me this is about 2.3 Mbytes per second with 256
colours, or 4.6 Mbytes per second with 65536 colours. What speed,
resolution and colour depth would I need to achieve my goal?
(Trying to figure how much disk space I need.)

3. Am I wasting my time, or can I do this for around $50 to $100?

4. The Hauppauge USB Live II claims CIF 352 x 288 at 30 fps. Is this what I
want (even though it's USB)?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

> I want to transfer a bunch of Video 8 (camera) tapes to Video CD for both
> convenience and permanence reasons. My camera has analog output only.
>
> From reading this newsgroup, it seems I should stay away from USB 2
capture
> cards. Though lots of reputable manufacturers seem to have moved to USB 2
> (Belkin, Hauppauge).

Yes, stay away from USB(2)


> PCMCIA is good for me (laptop is convenient), but I'll go with PCI if
> necessary.

PCMCIA sounds scary to me. Go for PCI.



> Basic questions:
>
> 1. The PCMCIA cards I've looked at talk about 30 fps at 320 x 240
> resolution. That seems very small. Is that really the right resolution
to
> capture my Video 8 tapes? Is 30 fps fast enough?

NTSC is 30fps, so yes that's fats enough. However, since your video is most
likely interlaced, I wouldn't recommend you capture to VCD (352x240), but
instead go for SVCD (480x480) as this format supports interlace. DVD burners
are also dirt-cheap these days, so why not go for this option instead?
352x480 offers an excellent compromise between size and quality, and is
legal DVD spec.


> 2. A quick calculation tells me this is about 2.3 Mbytes per second with
256
> colours, or 4.6 Mbytes per second with 65536 colours. What speed,
> resolution and colour depth would I need to achieve my goal?
> (Trying to figure how much disk space I need.)

If you use a card withouy hardware compression, you would need quite a lot
of HD space. You can grab in several chunks, but anything less that 40gb
really isn't recommended. It is possible, though. I used to do video editing
on a P200 with 10mb HD space.


> 3. Am I wasting my time, or can I do this for around $50 to $100?

You can pick up a good capture card for well below $100. I use a Hauppauge
WinTV, which I paid around $40 for, and there are quite a few other brands
out there at similar prices.


> 4. The Hauppauge USB Live II claims CIF 352 x 288 at 30 fps. Is this what
I
> want (even though it's USB)?

It would be 352x240 at 30fps for NTSC. 352x288 at 25fps is PAL. You can use
those resolutions for VCD, but like I said, you are better off going for an
interlaced format, or your video will look rubbish, and you will need a
capture device that has a higher resolution than that.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

> I used to do video editing
> on a P200 with 10mb HD space.

Correction: 10gb