Experience w/ GF4 Ti4200 video input?

[Sachmho]

Hey, anyone here have a GF4 and use the video importing feature? can you comment on it? i.e., how easy was it to set up, type of file imported as, odd codecs needed,what steps you have to take to make a burnable file, etc... i just want all your experiences on it. thank you

 

[meefmah]

It was very easy to setup, but the image quality was less than good. It wasn't good enough to bother capturing, editing and burning a disc(YMMV). I need a Canopus ADVC-100. I'm not sure what you mean by "video importing". Maybe "capturing"? You'll need the WDM drivers WDM 1.08 and a capture program. There are excellent tutuorials here.

 

[Sachmho]

yes, capturing. so what sorts of programs do you all use, also

 

[meefmah]

My card came bundled with Cyberlink PowerDirector. I no longer use VIVO for capturing. I have used an AverTV Studio($70 capture card), it was much better than VIVO, but not good enough. Go to the tutorials link in my previous post, you will find links to many different utilities.

 

[InsaneMorphius]

Using the following equipment for my DV machine:

XP2200+
MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU mobo
512MB Samsung PC2700
120GB WD Special Edition "Main"
160GB Maxtor "Storage"

I use ULEADs DVD Movie Factory for the software

After I capture the video I use the batch file converter to change from AVI to MPEG, then assemble and burn to SVCD using Nero

Any other questions, just shoot me a PM

 

[McCarthy]

I thought the video in-out hardware is the same as since the GF2 days. If so then it should be the same as on my Gainward GF2ti 450 VIVO - not too hot.

My Avermedia TV98 tv card is actually a bit sharper (have adjusted brightness/contrast/hue/saturation on both) and seems to have better color.

If your interest is to make small asf/rm/whatever files to show your buddies the neighbor's cat chasing the dog, it's fine. If you want to import movies or tv programming to burn as VCD/DVD, don't bother.

Don't know what to tell you to do instead though. In that boat myself. I've heard the ATI cards are better, but I don't know how much (reviewers just say "better"). Love to find a review that went from cheapest TV card to pro gear and included sample video capture for each, or even a screencap from a capture on each, but I can't find much for lame reviews, muchless good ones.

 

[meefmah]

McCarthy: Check out the tutorial link in one of my earlier posts. There are user comments on a wide variety of capture cards. You can catagorize by price, features, ratings.....etc. It appears we have had comparable experiences. I have seen excellent results using a Canopus ADVC-100, but it's $280usd.:Q

 

[Sachmho]

when burnt to an svcd, is the svcd a universal format that will play on all players that play svcd's, or do the files need odd codecs sometimes? i want to back up a bunch of old 8mm's, and be sure that in the long future the format is still workable. would it be better for me to burn the files as an mpeg-2 for future reliability? if so, i want to get a card that doesn't import the video into an mpeg format that needs an unusual codec. thanks for the info, please share all ya can.

 

[meefmah]

There's no guarantee that your choice of encoding or media type will be supported by future hardware. To assure that they will be readable in the future, you will have to dedicate a player and archive it with your projects. If you must, you can use the archived player to capture from and then re-encode.

 

[McCarthy]

when burnt to an svcd, is the svcd a universal format that will play on all players that play svcd's, or do the files need odd codecs sometimes?

No matter what codec you're using to create the file (Xing/TMPGEnc's/Ligos) the resulting file should still be mpeg2 complient in all respects. If it's not, like some of ATI or Creative's bundled codecs can sometimes be, then it won't work anywhere but on a computer that has their codecs.

i want to back up a bunch of old 8mm's, and be sure that in the long future the format is still workable. would it be better for me to burn the files as an mpeg-2 for future reliability?

As above, if they're SVCD, they are mpeg2. With a VCD or SVCD the mpeg file is still on the disc in it's original form, just find the big .dat file, copy it over, rename to mpg and you've got your mpeg back. Even if another encoding standard somehow displaces mpeg2 in the next few years I still have a hard time imagining a computer in the future not being able to work with the mpeg. Not that I think you'd have to, the worst that'll happen is DVD players quit playing VCDs and SVCDs, at which pont you put a couple in the closet like meefmah was saying.

if so, i want to get a card that doesn't import the video into an mpeg format that needs an unusual codec. thanks for the info, please share all ya can.

That's a different issue though. If you're getting a pro level realtime mpeg card then it's an option of course. If you're looking at something like a GF4/ATI AIW - consumer level cards then the ones like ATI's that do mpeg on the fly are what I call handy cards. It's handy for when you want to import some video quick and be done with it, no hours of reencoding to do. But the quality of realtime captures on handy cards isn't as good as recording to uncompressed and then crunching it down later - at which point you can do mpeg1 or mpeg2. Get a DVD-R drive and make those mpeg2's DVD complient and you're almost assured of easy playback for the rest of our lifetimes. (Everyone may not have a record player, or even an 8 track deck, but if you need one it'd take little time to find one. Same with DVD in the furture when we've all gone to something else)

--Mc