Camcorder Video Capture Help

Northtim

I have an analogue Camcorder and a leadtek capture card. Tried the capture some time ago and kept getting dropped frames etc so gave up. Have now got a good spec pc 3.5ghx ath64, 1gb ram etc so wanting to have another go.

I tried last night and chose the highest quality the pvr software with the card offered and all was ok except by the time I have got onto a DVD the quality is worse than playing the camcorder direct into the tv or recording onto vhs. Is this the best I can expect or is there anyone with tips/guides.

I use the yellow video cable and sound via the soundcard.

I have an ATI Radeon x700 pro in my new pc - would I be better using that to capture, it seems to come with a multi-pin adaptor to enable me to plug in the camcorder yellow cable but not sure where to start with that?

I am not expecting perfect quality but at least as good as vhs would be good!

I have been told that if I buy a digital camcorder and attach that by firwire it will play my hi8 tapes and may work better, has anyone tried this, looks like a camera may be about £250 which would be worth it if it will work to convert old tapes and be better for the future, I have 4 kids so lots of memories to capture. However as this is a money saving forum if anyone can recommend a way of avoiding that outlay it would be more preferable.

I think I was using optimal mpeg2 settings with the pvr software of approx 750x550 pal? Then used Nero to convert to DVD. Is there better (free?) software out there?

Thanks!

sammyy

To convert analogue to digital I bought THIS encoder from Dabs.It comes with WINDVD CREATOR 2.It plugs in via usb and is seen in windvd as another capture card.The program will enable you to create chapters etc. and burn as a dvd.I don't know if you can connect it to you camcorder via the leads(I connect to the vcr and capture that way,although I did need to buy a seperate lead as my vcr has a scart rather than composite or s-video)The dvds I had done using this have been fine with no loss of quality.It works out alot cheaper then buying another camcorder if thats all you want it for.

culpepper

Could be the mpeg encoder is not very good, the site below has excellent advice
http://www.videohelp.com/

Andrew12345_2

Hi Northtim,

Several things may be relevant, Hi8 has a resolution of 400lines in standard play on a top class tape, transfer needs to be by a good quality S-video lead to maitain this resolution (expect to pay anything from £35 to £100 for a good quality lead -TCI Taipan £55, IXOS XHV403 (124AV)£35 from a specialist hi-fi retailer ). By using the composite lead (a rca phono input -yellow) your imediately cutting the resolution to just above vhs quality. Even a cheep svideo lead would be better than this, your card has a more dificult job to encode from composite video as well so use an s-video input to get better quality! does your camcorder give out s-video (4pin plug) The extra pin sockets on the ati card are for a sound input although I don't know where you will get lead with all the pins on. a standard s-video lead will fit for picture and sound through the sound card direct should work. hope this helps

Northtim

I had both s-video & rca yellow plugged in but for some reason only the rca was showing the video? (the pvr player toggles between inputs but s-video was not appearing)

Apparently leadtek have updated their pvr software so I ay try that. I have some freebie editing software that came with the card also plus a cyberlink suite that came with the pc. I will have a play with that lot and see if it improves matters.

I am a complete novice with codecs - is there something I should be using, is mpeg2 the option to use?

Thanks for the replies!

scotty

The digital camcorders which play Hi8 tapes are the Digital8 models from Sony (most but not all digital8 camcorders take Hi8 tapes - check before you buy).

When I moved from analogue to digital I went down the digital8 route. Playing Hi8 tapes and recording to the pc works fine and I see little or no difference between the original tape played directly and the DVDs I produce.

The only downside of digital8 is that camcorders are larger than ones which use smaller format tapes.

One question, when you say quality is poor, is that playing the DVD on the pc or on a TV?

Northtim

scotty wrote:

One question, when you say quality is poor, is that playing the DVD on the pc or on a TV?

I used Nero to create the DVD files on my hard drive. Haven't burnt to a DVD yet but viewed on pc with media player I think.