Analog -> Digital capture: Dedicated vs Graphics cards

  • Thread starter Thread starter robert gray
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robert gray

Are there opinions about respective advantages of, say, the Canopus
ADVC-100 (or similar Pinnacle product) as opposed to, say, one of the
ATI All-In-Wonder card? (The Canopus is obviously cheaper than the
high-end ATIs, but with an ATI you get an improved graphics card, too.)
Thanks!
NB Crossposted to alt.video.dvd.authoring, alt.comp.hardware,
alt.video.dvd.software, rec.video.dvd.tech, alt.video.dvd.tech
 
I have experimented with several different methods of video capture. Video
cards (yes, even ATI), TV cards, Capture cards, etc. Each proved deficient
in one way or another.

I just got the Pinnacle/Dazzle DC-150 device, now I'm a happy camper. 10
minutes after opening the box I was capturing video from an attached VCR,
it's that simple. Because the mpeg encoding is done within the device, I can
use my computer as normal whilst doing the capture. The unit has a seperate
engine for encoding audio and video, so they're ALWAYS in synch.

I like it a lot.
 
After two previous efforts, I'm now giving this another go:

One of the previous efforts was an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro. Although this is
a bit historical now, based on this experience and an Xpert @ Work,
pathetic misnomer, normal VGA card, I'd avoid ATI ...

Both cards have always been beset by driver problems which still continue.
Neither W9x or W2K recognise the particular variant of either card, only the
general family, a particular problem with the AIW because you need the
capture drivers installed. In W9x, I had phantom devices appearing in DM
using the drivers off the CD. When I first upgraded to W2K, neither card
had decent drivers, leading to multiple boot failures with blue screens.

The AIW began its life with me in a 330 Mhz PII, considered quite fast then,
with SCSI UW disks running W9x. It could capture AVI at 320*200 but the
longer the capture the more the sound and pictures were got of sync. Since
then I've upgraded that PC to a 1GHz PIII running W2K with all the latest
software drivers, etc, but despite this the AIW now actually performs worse!
Even at the worst quality on offer it cannot capture anything without
dropping frames, and additionally I often have the whole prog freeze up
when I press the stop button to end capture. Apparently the card was very
specifically designed for use with MS Video For Windows, an outdated W9x
standard that's fallen by the wayside. When I discovered this I tried
Ghosting an old W98SE build temporarily back onto the PC, and upgraded to
the latest OS SPs, drivers, software, etc, but the card variant is still not
recognised, and the software wouldn't even launch (illegal op) even when
tried with three different sets of drivers in turn.

While I can't blame ATI for the VFW standard becoming obsolete, verily I do
most heartily and bitchily blame them for all the other problems I've had
with both these cards.

Now my other PC is looking more promising. It's a Gigabyte SINXP1394 MB
with a 3Gb P4, an MSI FX 5600 VTDR VGA/capture card, and SCSI HDs. I can
now capture at best quality on offer without dropping frames, which brings
me to the next obstacle, the capture rate is:
32 x 720 x 576 x 25 / 8 = 40 Mbytes / sec, or over 2.4 Gb / min.
Clearly I need compression, but the only codec offered by the capture
software is UYVY. How can I obtain mpeg codecs?
 
I have the ATI AIW 8500DV and it is a nightmare of drivers and software
problems, then if you can actually get it to work you may have audio-video
sync problems depending on which sound card you have. I put it on the shelf
and got a Sony DVMC-DA2 external DV encoder and it needs no drivers or
software and works great. It is no longer being made, but the Canopus
ADVC-100 works just as well.

Mike T
 
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