• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Workability of video capture hardware external unit or card

J

Jerry

Senior member
I find we need to capture some video from previously taped VHS televised interviews, for inclusion into a presentation file.

Is there a going preferred ?best buy? in this area, at this time. We already own Pinnacle Studio Ver 7 as a stand alone, so would not need this as an enticement to purchase the Pinnacle board, alone, if that were a deciding factor.

We saw a $69 PIXELVIEW until at Best Buy, which could be used with any computer that has a USB port.

We welcome any feedback on what might be a good buying choice for very limited audio capture to the hard drive.

Thanks, Jerry
 
i just got the dazzle 80 at target for $69, it's a usb box with video ports, i have only started to mess with it and havn't started the project yet but it works well and has alot of compression options
 
Is there any reason to assume that the quality of the feed - thorugh the dazzle 80 or the like - would be of a lesser quality than an in computer dedicated card, such as is bundled with the Pinnacle system ?
 
i can't think of any, the only reason i went external was potability and easy access to the ports and no irq issues
 
I just picked up an ATI TV Wonder USB capture "card" and it works perfectly fine. The quality isn't the best, but not bad for its price of $50 (50% discounted thru my job).
 
That brings up the element of the "quality" . If it is USB, then it is obviously not a card, but a USB device. The one I saw at BB had RCA video, RCA audio, S-Video and one other.
This factor of "quality" is a curious one. Any URLs for reviews and the like, out there ?
 
I asked a similar question about USB tuners (specifically the ATI USB TVwonder) and most/all responses were "don't do it"

My concern was, does USB 1.0 have the bandwidth to handle video?


Seems we are looking to do about the same thing, please post if you find a good solution
 
yes, mine is a usb device with rca/s video inputs
usb 1.0 should have plenty of bandwidth for ntsc/pal video
 
Will do. Was the advice you were given that the "in-slot" cards are natively more able to handle the streaming video due to PCI or AGP speed ? Or was it another factor ?
 
Well, if you want good resolution, broadcast video has about 480 lines of interlaced video. When capturing uncompressed at 640x480 @ 15bits of color, needs ~5MBytes/s + plus audio. Some USB adapters have onboard compression to get around this, but I'm not sure about the pixelview. On the other hand you can get a pci capture card for a similar price though you may not get stereo sound or svideo input, but can capture at higher resolutions and compress later to get a better picture.

I got a hauppauge wintv (it has the brooktree 878 chip) that has coax and svideo in, stereo sound and fm tuner for $100. It captures 640x480 @ 30fps just fine. You can find much more detailed info here
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top