Make digital version of 5 min. of video tape?

[Muse]

I have a video tape I don't want to lose. I can copy the video because I have two VCR's, but I'd prefer to create a digital file. I'm new to this sort of thing. I do make MP3's of analogue audio, so I'm doing something I figure is similar. What do I need to do this and how would I do it? Is it worth doing? Do I need a special card to do this?

I have a couple of VCR's (both SVHS, although this tape is VHS), my video card is an MSI geforce2 64 MB Starforce 831 with video out. See the link below for other specs on my main system. In a nutshell, it's an Athlon 1.2 on an Epox 8K7A, 512 MB DDR, etc. GTXP soundcard, etc. Thanks for any help here.

 

[Peter]

You need a framegrabber or TV-in card, a speedy harddisk, and the appropriate software. The TV card transforms the incoming video signal to a digital pixel stream, to be displayed on your graphics card, or piped into a file on your hard disk for later editing or replay.

regards, Peter

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Peter
You need a framegrabber or TV-in card, a speedy harddisk, and the appropriate software. The TV card transforms the incoming video signal to a digital pixel stream, to be displayed on your graphics card, or piped into a file on your hard disk for later editing or replay.

regards, Peter

Is a "framegrabber" just another term for a TV-in card or is it something else entirely? Any links, hints, threads about this appreciated!! Thanks.

BTW, I have WD800JB and WD1200JB HDs, so that shouldn't be a problem. I just need to get that pixel stream!

 

[Peter]

Framegrabber cards are TV cards minus the receiver function, processing video signal input only, not antenna signals. Advanced models have on-card data compression to offload the system while streaming data toward the hard disk.

Plain simple TV cards do the job, provided your system's PCI bus and your hard disk have good throughput.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Peter
Framegrabber cards are TV cards minus the receiver function, processing video signal input only, not antenna signals. Advanced models have on-card data compression to offload the system while streaming data toward the hard disk.

Plain simple TV cards do the job, provided your system's PCI bus and your hard disk have good throughput.

I started doing some research and I have no idea what a framegrabber card might cost but for something like $65 it looks like I can get fantastic features including video capture, TV live and recording, FM and FM recording as MP3, Mpeg4 video, remote control... man, it's amazing. There are a few cards but I'm thinking mostly of the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP, Deluxe version (I guess), which I think is the FM supporting version ("optional"?). I do a lot of FM ---> MP3 and I have to hassle dealing with FM sources at the moment. Of course, you need a good clean stereo FM signal to produce good sound and I don't always get that. How well this card might handle that I don't know. Of course, a big part of that would be the antenna signal I'd have to provide.

 

[FrustratedUser]

I've been doing this using a ATi TV Wonder VE with good result.

Capture with the bundled software at the highest quality you can and then compress to VCD using TMPGEnc (352*240 @ 1150 kB/s with constant bitrate, mpeg 1)

As you can see on this site you can get better result with SVCD but since VHS is already loe quality a VCD will be OK. You can play it in your DVD player.

And you do not need a 2GHz P4 to do this. I use my trusty old Celeron @500MHz with a 60GB 7200 rpm WD HD.

Good luck.

 

[Peter]

You don't need a speedy CPU at all, just fast I/O.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Peter
You don't need a speedy CPU at all, just fast I/O.

...if you don't plan on using real-time compression (which means that you must have not only fast I/O, but also a huge amount of space on the opposite end of the I/O).

Anyway, Muse, there's nothing to worry about since your hard disks provide lots of space as well as fast performance.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: Peter
You don't need a speedy CPU at all, just fast I/O.

...if you don't plan on using real-time compression (which means that you must have not only fast I/O, but also a huge amount of space on the opposite end of the I/O).

Anyway, Muse, there's nothing to worry about since your hard disks provide lots of space as well as fast performance.

True,
I forgot to say that the compression is what needs computing power. It took me around 5 hours to compress a 4.7Gb (75mins) video to VCD format on the 500 Celery (around 5 fps). That's no problem for me since I left it running over night and it was done in the morning.
To compress in real-time you'd probably need something like a XP1800 or a high end P4.
(Correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[oldfart]

You need a video capture card and a way to capture audio. You can use line in on your sound card. The capture will be an AVI file. Capturing and converting to MPEG real time looks pretty bad IMHO. You are better off converting after the capture. As far as what format to convert to, that depends on how and where you want to play the video file.