Video capture audio question

[Broncho]

My supervisor is thinking about getting a video capture card to take some of his home videos and convert them to VCDs and I'm trying to help him make a decision on what to get. Unfortunately I know next to nothing about this since I have never done anything with video capture. I do know a lot more about computers than he does so that is why I'm trying to help. The one thing neither one of us is sure of is how do you get the audio from the tape into the system? I know the video capture stuff is just for the video and I'm assuming you have to connect the audio part of the signal to your sound card. Does the software that comes with most video capture cards record from both sources at once or what? Basically, I was hoping someone could give me a brief explanation about how all this is hooked up and comes together to get a video file with audio on to a computer. Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

[Pariah]

Depends on the capture card. Most do have audio recording capabilities. For the ones that don't, you need to use the line-in on a soundcard. The software used to capture always captures video and audio simultaneously into a movie file format it supports unless you specifically tell it not to capture one of them.

 

[Broncho]

Okay, that is kind of what I thought. Most of the ones he has been looking at have actually been external devices that go through a USB port. I don't think he really wants to open his computer up. Most of those have only shown connections for the video and nothing that we could see for the audio. Some of them didn't even mention coming with any software. Well, now I have a better idea about this and can give him some better advice next week. Thanks for the help!!

By the way, does anyone know how good of a quality the devices that are external and hook up through a USB port are? I figured as long as it was a good name manufacturer (Radeon, Belkin, etc.) it would be ok. Am I figuring wrong?

 

[rbV5]

Here is a good site with video capture info, unfortunately their card comparison feature is down for maitenance untill July but its coming right up. He may want to reconsider a USB device, as they have the poorest quality in the bunch. Just remember that analog video capture is demanding on even the most powerful systems, and VHS to VCD can be tricky to get decent quality. Don't get me wrong, its very fun/addicting, and totally doable with fairly inexpensive components and for the most part readily available, powerful freeware. It just pays to research it fully.

btw, none of my capture cards do the audio capture, it is handled by my soundcard via line-in.