Video capture card for camcorder tapes?

finn · 2 November 2005 at 9:55AM

Hi everyone,

Hope someone can gave me some advice.

I'm having a dvd writer fitted to my pc next week,
and I was thinking of having a video capture card
fitted at the same time.

I'm a bit of a novice, so I'm not exactly sure of what I need.

I need the card to transfer old 8mm camcorder tapes on to
dvd, and do some of the cards double up as tv tuners too?
The tv tuner part is not essential, but it was just
a thought.
Would I also need special software to edit the video?
And being a moneysaver, I'm not looking to spend too much!!

My pc is a dell 8400, with P4 3.0ghz, 1gb ram and a Radeon 128mb
pci express x300se graphics card, if this helps.

Many thanks

Matt

brummybloke · 2 November 2005 at 12:12PM

when you say 8mm tapes to dvd what tapes are they? hi 8? bog standard 8mm?

check your camcorder, see if it has a little cable interface, the interface will be VERY small, if it has you should be able to buy a firewire card with cables, this plugs into a spare pci slot on the pc and you can link your camcorder direct to the pc and using windows movie player ( free on xp) you can make digital recordings.

there are better movie making software but as you said you wanted to save money the xp one is already installed and is free ( provided you have windows xp)

you may find this helpful

http://www.videohelp.com/capture

finn · 2 November 2005 at 12:18PM

cheers brummy bloke,

I'll have a look at that site
It's for bog standard 8mm tapes.
The camcorder is a 5 year old samsung,
I can't see any outputs on it apart from the
video out.
I should have said I have a couple of vhs tapes
to transfer also.
Can anyone recommend a card?

Matt

payless · 2 November 2005 at 12:35PM

If it as not got a firewire socket ( our other pc connection) you could use a basic pci TV card with AV or s-video inputs - although getting software/ hardware to match is not always easy

also some standalone units - that plug into USB, but these are more costly

brummybloke · 2 November 2005 at 12:44PM

if you know the model number of the camcorder you could also try a search for that camcorder and see if any forums cover what you are after, you may not see the connection ( it may be next to where you put the tape in) or it may not have one.

WinTV cards seem ok, my friend has one and uses it for exactly what you wanted ( convert vhs/ 8mm to digital and to watch tv on his pc) he paid £90 but the one he got he says should have been £140, this was however 2 years ago, no doubt the same card is now about £60

star1_2 · 2 November 2005 at 1:33PM

TV Caputure cards work fine for basic capute of Video and Camcorder output, but check the resolution they work at. I personally use a Pinnacle USB caputre box - (it offers higher resolution that basic TV capture cards).

Make sure you have sufficient disk space for storage of files and for rendering. Also keep the capture to the highest resolution possible throughout the capture, render and burn process - this results in the best quality end result.

For software - look out for magazine deals and sample downloads - I obtained a copy of Power Director which is fantastic for capture and video editing. Other packages do more - but are significantly more expensive eg. Pinnacle 8&9 are good - but take ages to render the captured files to disk. Various other utilities are availaible, look at https://www.downloads.com for free and sample software. Also Nero video utilities get a good review - you may have a copy with the writer you purchased. Alternativly Ebuyer.co.uk do an OEM version of Nero for under £10 (although you will need to check this is the full suite that does video capture/editing too).

Good Luck.

:cool:

finn · 2 November 2005 at 2:48PM

Hi there,

Big thanks to everyone who has replied,
maybe the usb box would be the best
bet, if these produce better quality results?

I'll have a shop around and see how cheap I can get one.

Thanks

Matt

Poppycat · 2 November 2005 at 3:30PM

Some video cards have tv in as well as tv out so you can capture from them too. I sue to use my now old Gforce VIVO (video in Video out) gainward card for thsi purpose and got reasonable results.

helen21_2 · 2 November 2005 at 3:39PM

Soz to hijack thread but this is lappy i got Medion Md 95101 -trying to find info on it

think it this or similiar to this

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/TruHome/TruComputers/TruComputersLaptop/780944

Will i need anything else to get video off Hi8 camcorder onto dvd?
Got dd cam for xmas and dont really know what i need to transfer

P.s not techie minded so need lamen's terms

finn · 2 November 2005 at 4:15PM

Thanks Star 21,

Is the box you use anything like the Pinnacle Dazzle digital
creator 90?

It's here on Amazon for £50
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00026Z6S8/qid=1130944400/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-8066565-8939041

Or does anyone else have any info on these?

Thanks

Matt

ianian99 · 2 November 2005 at 4:28PM

why dont you get a stand alone dvd recorder, saw a few posts on here for really cheap ones, would give you more options and would be a bit easier to setup.

Video capture card for camcorder tapes?

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