Best video capture device

[slash196]

My mom has been wanting to transfer all her home-video VHS to digital, and is looking to me to recommend components and a sub-600 dollar rig for that purpose. Problem is, I'm in another country, so the computer has to be prebuilt and the capture device has to be simple and WORK, because I can't troubleshoot it for her from six time zones away. She's no fool but she needs simplicity and value. I've never done much video capture so I'm out of my depth here. Suggestions?

 

[Scali]

There are a few solutions.
One is to use an ATI Radeon card with Avivo. S-video and RGB video input were standard on the more high-end Radeon cards in the X1000-era. I'm not sure if they still have it today, to be honest. You could look into the specs of a few Radeon cards and see if there's one with video in, in the pricerange you're interested in.
My brother used a Radeon X1800XT, and later an X1900XTX to capture video.

Another is to use a separate video input card. Eg the Terratec Cinergy series is quite good. Before he had a Radeon, my brother used a Terratec Cinergy PCI card.
Something like this: http://www.terratec.net/en/pro...che_daten_en_4392.html
It's a TV tuner card, but it also has direct s-video input for eg a VCR.
Another popular brand for TV tuner/capture cards is Hauppauge.
I believe XFX also has a selection of TV tuner/video capture cards.
Just make sure it has an s-video input rather than just the cable/aerial coax input. Although... technically you could even use the coax input. A VCR will generally have a TV modulator, so it can just output a coaxial signal. It will just degrade quality, and it's a bit more difficult to set up, because you have to tune the TV tuner to the channel the VCR broadcasts on.

For software you could use something like WinDVR. Most cards have such software included. It's very easy to use. Almost as easy as a VCR. Just select the input device/channel and hit record

 

[WildW]

Video capture can be a bit hit-and-miss with low-end equipment, depending on the quality of your video source. If your tapes are in good condition and play without jumps/noise/etc then you may be okay with one of the various cheaper input cards. These tend to suffer from loss of sound synchronization though if there's a skip/jump/etc in the video at any time - you lose lip-sync and it can be tricky to deal with.

I went through various TV cards and a couple of video input cards until I finally bought a DV Bridge. This is a box which takes your video input signal and converts it to Firewire - this is the same as a digital camcorder would output when you capture it on a PC. Firewire inputs are often present on motherboards or as a very cheap PCI card. The software is then any standard video editing program, including freebies like Windows Move Maker.

I bought a Canopus ADVC-110 after reading some very good reviews and opinions of it online. It's the best quality capture device I've ever had and has dealt well with some rotten quality old tapes I had without losing sound sync. Not cheap though, about £150 to £200 in the UK.

That's the "quality" approach. The easiest "Mom friendly" route is probably a stand-alone DVD recorder. I had an early one of these and the quality wasn't awesome, but I'd imagine they're much better now than 5 years ago. Then you have a DVD and it'd be easily transfered to any PC with a DVD drive.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

Originally posted by: WildW
Video capture can be a bit hit-and-miss with low-end equipment, depending on the quality of your video source. If your tapes are in good condition and play without jumps/noise/etc then you may be okay with one of the various cheaper input cards. These tend to suffer from loss of sound synchronization though if there's a skip/jump/etc in the video at any time - you lose lip-sync and it can be tricky to deal with.

I went through various TV cards and a couple of video input cards until I finally bought a DV Bridge. This is a box which takes your video input signal and converts it to Firewire - this is the same as a digital camcorder would output when you capture it on a PC. Firewire inputs are often present on motherboards or as a very cheap PCI card. The software is then any standard video editing program, including freebies like Windows Move Maker.

Makin the moves on that one chick since 1989...

 

[EliteRetard]

Originally posted by: alkalinetaupehat

Originally posted by: WildW
Video capture can be a bit hit-and-miss with low-end equipment, depending on the quality of your video source. If your tapes are in good condition and play without jumps/noise/etc then you may be okay with one of the various cheaper input cards. These tend to suffer from loss of sound synchronization though if there's a skip/jump/etc in the video at any time - you lose lip-sync and it can be tricky to deal with.

I went through various TV cards and a couple of video input cards until I finally bought a DV Bridge. This is a box which takes your video input signal and converts it to Firewire - this is the same as a digital camcorder would output when you capture it on a PC. Firewire inputs are often present on motherboards or as a very cheap PCI card. The software is then any standard video editing program, including freebies like Windows Move Maker.

Makin the moves on that one chick since 1989...

I'm pissed off and frustrated I just wasted 3 hours typing something no-one will ever see, that almost made up for it. I'm going to sleep now.

 

[elconejito]

You've got a couple of options, but the first one may be your best....

Outsource it. Many of the camera shops have a service that will take your VHS tapes and put them on DVD for you. Some will even put neat menus on them for you.

If she definitely wants to do it yourself, look for TV Tuner cards like those from Avermedia, Hauppaugge, etc. If it has an NTSC tuner (coax) or S-Video you should be good to go. Hook up the VCR, tune to the channel and away you go. Most of them come with software (which is hit or miss if it's any good) except for the OEM versions. You can usually control it with software like Premiere Elements or Movie Maker, sometimes VirtualDub, or even Window Media Center. ATI All-in-Wonder cards are a good choice as well, you could put an older model in the machine if the new ones don't come with video-in.

For editing the video, go for a quad core (or maybe triple from AMD). How much performance you put into the machine depends on how patient she is waiting for previews, encodes, etc.

EDIT: make sure you allow for a backup too. If she gets all this converted and then her hard drive crashes.... ayyyy

 

[slash196]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I especially appreciate the lack of Mac suggestions, cause that's WAY outside the budget. I may just recommend she have a professional handle them. Without that constraint there's plenty of play in the computer budget too.

 

[Modelworks]

If you have never done video capture and worked with things like codecs and encoding I wouldn't recommend starting just for a few projects. It takes a lot of time to understand what is going on and all the different formats and details.