Video capture recommendations - please help!

[dud]

I wish to transfer old VHS and 8mm camcorder tapes to a digital format and be able to master VCDs on my PC. My goals are to be able to preserve old home movies, TV shows, etc. to CD to protect and store them in a number of different formats (most important is MPEG). I also wish to be able to transfer some of these videos to my PDA (again in MPEG format). Video and audio quality is very important. Please provide advice on what card/adapter you would recommend as a "best value" solution. My current "best-value" option is the Dazzle 80 (about $69.99) that should be able to allow me to do everything I wish. I'm not smart enough to make the educated decision I require so please comment ....

 

[ThatDumbGuy]

i use an all in wonder radeon 32mb ddr agp card. about 125ish nowadays. check out the reviews around and check out rage3d.com. don't know too much about the dazzle, sorry... I assume it is USB?

 

[amature]

If you want to write to a disk, you should consider DVD (4.7 GB) instead of VCD (760 MB).
Contrary to popular believe, consumer VCD's and DVD's do not last forever. I think I read that they last about 5 years.

 

[ThatDumbGuy]

you could always just get a huge hard drive and store them there, too, if/when you have the money or desire. and dvd writers are way out of most peoples price range, it at least appears to be in this case when someone wants to capture the cheapest effective way possible. but again, if/when you have the money or inclination, this could be an option too... they will drop in price over time.

 

[rbaibich]

<< Contrary to popular believe, consumer VCD's and DVD's do not last forever. I think I read that they last about 5 years. >>



They last way more than that. If you bought a good media, you'll probably won't live to see it die.

 

[FlipSide]

First of all you have to know which VCD format you want to create, PAL or NTSC. The hardware you want should be capable of capturing what standard you need. For NTSC (that the signal used in North America and Asia) you need 1150 kbs for video and 224kbs layer 2 for audio at 29.97 frames per second. Video is set at 352X240. For PAL (europe)same video and audio kbs at 25 fps. Video is set at 352X288. If the capture hardware is capable of capturing at this specs then you are fine. Anything below will sacrifice the quality. However if you want MPEG2 or DV then you need higher specification on the capture hardware. Goodluck.