Analog Capture

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"Janice" <janice@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c9a212ba5b43cad98a2ec@news.individual.net...
> I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
> Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
> anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
> product I've looked up on the web.
>
> --

You can find "bad reviews" for sliced bread on the web. There
are often those who's expectations of a product are not matched
by what the product really is.

There are some who have issues with their system that conflict
with a product, and they are unable, or unwilling to correct the
actual cause of the incompatibility.

There are simply bad products.

There are sometimes good hardware with bad drivers, or
capture software. (This can be corrected in many cases, by
finding, and downloading the right software.)

There are good devices suited to one strategy, but not to
another. ( Are you looking to work with material that has
already been professionally edited, or making your own
"Movies" from scratch?)

There are some here who can only "Approve" of what
works in their situation and won't tolerate the suggestion
that any, other than their own methods, can provide an
acceptable result. They can't conceive of those working
with different source material and to a different purpose,
could obtain good results using a procedure different
from their own.

I can describe what I've found to work for me, with my
objectives, but can't apply that to your situation unless you
provide more information regarding your intentions.

Luck;
Ken

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

Consider this: a used Sony Digital 8mm video camera could probably be had
around $200 with a bit of looking.
Many of them have an analog passthrough which amounts to exactly what you're
looking for.

Hook an analog source up the camera (the ports act as ins or outs, depending
on mode) making sure there's no tape in the camera.
Switch to the appropriate mode (detailed in the camera manual) and hook up
Firewire. The analog source is digitized by the camera A/D convertor and
piped through the Firewire port.

Voila!

I've seen the devices you've likely tried - ADS USB2.0 "boxes" ... I was
unimpressed as well.

Your next step up, as I see it, is an expensive, professional level
digitizer box but those would almost certainly be more expensive than a
basic, used D8 camera with A/D conversion. Example:
http://www.videoguys.com/ADVC.html ($500, pro-level)

I see the camera as a middle ground here. Make SURE the camera has this
feature before buying. Many of the lowest-end or older model did NOT.
(I'm using a Sony TRV-320 for this by the way)

Good luck!

Chris


"Janice" <janice@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c9a212ba5b43cad98a2ec@news.individual.net...
> I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
> Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
> anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
> product I've looked up on the web.
>
> --
>
> Emails sent to janice@mailinator.com will not be read.
> Send emails to janice240obe@yahoo.com instead.

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"Janice" <janice@mailinator.com> schreef in bericht
news:MPG.1c9a212ba5b43cad98a2ec@news.individual.net...
> I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
> Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
> anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
> product I've looked up on the web.


I have good experiences with Canopus ADVC 55 converter for this.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl
URL http://home.hccnet.nl/mccm.vos/

ICQ 326628

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What kind of digital????? .AVI? .MPG?

Most here assume you want to go to .AVI. You don't need to. The quality
difference between a good Canopus Mpeg realtime hardware encoder and the
time consuming route suggested here is minimal. I would also report that
the ADS instant DVD 2 produces very good captures, so I disagree with others
here.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AKXX...





"Janice" <janice@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c9a212ba5b43cad98a2ec@news.individual.net...
> I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
> Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
> anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
> product I've looked up on the web.
>
> --
>
> Emails sent to janice@mailinator.com will not be read.
> Send emails to janice240obe@yahoo.com instead.

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

Check out the Canopus ADVC products:
http://www.canopus.us/US/products/index/products_homeus...

Also, the ADS Pyro A/V Link is a good choice:
http://digitalvideosolutions.com/ads.htm

--
Larry Johnson
Digital Video Solutions
webmaster@digitalvideosolutions.com
http://www.digitalvideosolutions.com
877-227-6281 Toll Free Sales Assistance
386-672-1941 Customer Service
386-672-1907 Technical Support
386-676-1515 Fax

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Janice <janice@mailinator.com> wrote:

>I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
>Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
>anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
>product I've looked up on the web.

Hi Janice,

It depends upon what you want to do. If your intent is to be able to
capture video in reasonably high quality and do serious editing before
you burn back to tape or to DVD, etc. then you should probably get a
DV converter.

If you only want to capture TV programs recorded on VHS and cut out
the commercials before you burn them to a CD or DVD, then you can get
one of the many analog to MPG converter boxes.

I recommend that you get a DV converter since you then have the option
of capturing to DV, or use Software capture to convert the DV stream
to MPG on the fly, for those times you only need MPG.

To convert to DV, you could use a DV or D8 camcorder with pass
through, an external "box" or an internal card. There are a number of
camcorders, boxes and cards on the market. I have had excellent
results with the Canopus ACEDVio internal card which will convert
analog to DV and then DV back to analog for playing back to tape.
But, as I said, there are many different products available.

If you plan to capture VHS, the most important thing is to use the
very best VCR you can find as your source. If at all possible, use a
VCR with S-Video output and a time-base-corrector (TBC). If your
capture hardware/software does not have control of brightness, tint,
saturation, contrast, etc. then you may need to also get a processing
amp to go between your output signal and the digitizer.

You want to have THE VERY BEST POSSIBLE OUTPUT SIGNAL TO DIGITIZE.

You can do a little "clean up" of the digitized signal, but if you put
garbage in, you are only going to be able to get garbage out! I use a
top of the line JVC S-VHS vcr to play VHS tapes and digitize with the
ACEDVio card and have had better results than with half-a-dozen setups
I've used over the years. The ACEDVio card works better than any Sony
or Canon DV camcorder I've ever tried, and it was much much cheaper
than the camcorders!

On the rare occasion when I want to capture in MPG I just use the
above mentioned ACEDVio card to convert to DV, then capture it as MPG
on the fly. I use Studio 9 (version 9.3.5) to capture the DV stream
to MPG. Although I don't use Studio for serious editing, I find it
works wonderfully to capture a few hours of TV, cut out the
commercials, put in a menu and burn to DVD. I've never had any
problems with Studio 9 above version 9.1, but I must say that Studio 8
was the worst program I've ever tried, with the possible exception of
Pinnacle's early Studio 400.

Hope this helps,

Susan

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In article <39bsmmF61stqeU1@individual.net>, mccm.vos@abc.net says...
>"Janice" <janice@mailinator.com> schreef in bericht
>news:MPG.1c9a212ba5b43cad98a2ec@news.individual.net...
>> I'm looking for a good analog-to-digital capture device (USB 2.0 or
>> Firewire) that I can hook up between my computer and VCR. What does
>> anyone here recommend? I've come across bad reviews for almost every
>> product I've looked up on the web.
>
>I have good experiences with Canopus ADVC 55 converter for this.

Noted, thanks.

The Canopus products do seem to have the best reputation, from what I've
seen so far.

--

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Send emails to janice240obe@yahoo.com instead.

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In article <YBnYd.133962$qB6.71053@tornado.tampabay.rr.com>,
video@digitalvideosolutions.com says...
>Check out the Canopus ADVC products:
>http://www.canopus.us/US/products/index/products_homeus...
>
>Also, the ADS Pyro A/V Link is a good choice:
>http://digitalvideosolutions.com/ads.htm

Thanks, I hadn't heard of the second one before.

--

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In article <113474mjhcs2p25@corp.supernews.com>, logos1@trip.net says...
>What kind of digital????? .AVI? .MPG?

Hi,

I haven't made a decision regarding the format yet.

>Most here assume you want to go to .AVI. You don't need to. The quality
>difference between a good Canopus Mpeg realtime hardware encoder and the
>time consuming route suggested here is minimal. I would also report that
>the ADS instant DVD 2 produces very good captures, so I disagree with others
>here.

Thanks for your input. The ADS Instant DVD looks like a relatively small
investment dollar-wise so it might be a good starting point. I could
always move up to something better if I get more into this as a hobby.

--

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In article <8pmdnbWw_KH5_63fRVn-jg@giganews.com>, kmaltby@sbcglobal.net
says...

> I can describe what I've found to work for me, with my
>objectives, but can't apply that to your situation unless you
>provide more information regarding your intentions.

Understood.

My intention is to take a few analog recordings such as home movies and
broadcasts taped off the TV and make them into DVD's, so they'll be
better preserved. I might want to do a little editing, e.g. to cut out
commercial breaks or resequence some segments, but nothing complicated.

--

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Send emails to janice240obe@yahoo.com instead.

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In article <rdydna6ynYLrw63fRVn-vg@rogers.com>,
cjpatten@KNOWSPAMrogers.com says...

>Consider this: a used Sony Digital 8mm video camera could probably be had
>around $200 with a bit of looking.
>Many of them have an analog passthrough which amounts to exactly what you're
>looking for.

Some at a web forum recommended that I go the camera route also.

>Hook an analog source up the camera (the ports act as ins or outs, depending
>on mode) making sure there's no tape in the camera.
>Switch to the appropriate mode (detailed in the camera manual) and hook up
>Firewire. The analog source is digitized by the camera A/D convertor and
>piped through the Firewire port.

My system is a Dell Dimension 8400 with a Firewire port built into the SB
Audigy 2 ZS card, if that's good enough.

Some other system specs, for what bearing they may have on what capture
devices I should or could use: Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM, 145 GB free on the
hard drive.

>I've seen the devices you've likely tried - ADS USB2.0 "boxes" ... I was
>unimpressed as well.

Actually I haven't tried any devices myself yet, just read about a few of
them.

>Your next step up, as I see it, is an expensive, professional level
>digitizer box but those would almost certainly be more expensive than a
>basic, used D8 camera with A/D conversion. Example:
>http://www.videoguys.com/ADVC.html ($500, pro-level)
>
>I see the camera as a middle ground here. Make SURE the camera has this
>feature before buying. Many of the lowest-end or older model did NOT.
>(I'm using a Sony TRV-320 for this by the way)

Thanks for the tips (and for sending an email as well as posting). I
apologize that it took me so long to get back to everyone who so kindly
responded with advice, but I was unusually busy for awhile.

--

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Send emails to janice240obe@yahoo.com instead.

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In article <id5431dqgkaq1p7aqlsga0e56pgaf206d6@4ax.com>,
nospam@nospam.net says...

>It depends upon what you want to do. If your intent is to be able to
>capture video in reasonably high quality and do serious editing before
>you burn back to tape or to DVD, etc. then you should probably get a
>DV converter.
>
>If you only want to capture TV programs recorded on VHS and cut out
>the commercials before you burn them to a CD or DVD, then you can get
>one of the many analog to MPG converter boxes.

Hi Susan,

Right now, my plans are along the latter lines, but maybe it wouldn't be
a bad idea to plan ahead in case I want to expand into more serious
projects down the line.

>I recommend that you get a DV converter since you then have the option
>of capturing to DV, or use Software capture to convert the DV stream
>to MPG on the fly, for those times you only need MPG.
>
>To convert to DV, you could use a DV or D8 camcorder with pass
>through, an external "box" or an internal card. There are a number of
>camcorders, boxes and cards on the market. I have had excellent
>results with the Canopus ACEDVio internal card which will convert
>analog to DV and then DV back to analog for playing back to tape.
>But, as I said, there are many different products available.

At the moment, after reading everyone's suggestions and looking up the
various recommended devices, I'm leaning towards the Pyro A/V Link, which
is a DV converter with a Firewire connection.

>If you plan to capture VHS, the most important thing is to use the
>very best VCR you can find as your source.

Agreed; I'm saving up for a good one.

Thanks for all your help.

--

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