Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Video inputs for a computer

This is topic Video inputs for a computer in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-31-2003, 02:19 PM:

Is there some device that can take RCA or S-Video video inputs and transfer them to my computer into an MPEG or AVI file? My Hi-8 camcorder has a USB out and the quality is only So-So (probably 1/2 the resolution that is on the tape and a little bit jumpy).

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-31-2003, 03:09 PM:

Maybe something like this: Creative Labs MovieMaker Looks like it runs around $175-$200 depending on the seller.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 01-31-2003, 03:11 PM:

The Dazzle bridge will do what you want (into DV Codec). You might try Pinnacle cards as well. Pinnacle creates AVI files for you to be able to edit, and usually supplies MPEG coding (1 and 2) as well.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-31-2003, 03:17 PM:

Check out the ATI "All In Wonder" card

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-31-2003, 03:52 PM:

A second vote for the Dazzle bridge.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-31-2003, 04:19 PM:

I've never used any of the devices mentioned in this thread, so I'm not speaking from personal experience. But a little poking around in Google turns up some pretty harsh user reviews of the Dazzle product. Example: Dazzle Reviews The Creative Video MovieMaker doesn't do much better: MovieMaker Reviews. Sounds like neither of those products supports XP either. ?!

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-31-2003, 04:27 PM:

Too bad that USB output isn't firewire. I got a adaptec firewire card and Roxio software for movie creating/editing for $45. Iwas going to get the ATI card till I saw the adaptec card. The ATI card has about every type of in/out you can think of and I think it has aduio in/out too, but I can't remember

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 01-31-2003, 04:37 PM:

OK, to be completely honest here, the Dazzle bridge we use is hooked up to an IMAC, and works well with this machine (for capturing images to edit in IMovie). I haven't tried it on a PC. I use a Pinnacle card to capture S-video for editing on a workstation. Pinnacle is available in a number of cards and packages.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com

If you know ANYBODY with a mini-DV camcorder, you can use the in/out RCA connectors to transfer your signal into it (record to DV tape), and then buy a cheap firewire card for your computer to input the DV footage into your computer. The driver for your firewire card should automatically tag this footage as AVI DV, and many of these cards now have simple MPEG-encoding software enlosed. My recommendation, though, is to edit in native DV (intraframe codec) and only then make an MPEG (inter and intraframe codec) for the final product. It will be cleaner (although whether one notices the diference is debatable).

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-31-2003, 05:40 PM:

I've used the Dazzle bridge on both Mac G4 (firewire) and PC (capture card). I've yet to find any video software for the PC that I like. Doing video on a PC sucks.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-31-2003, 06:16 PM:

You like those pussy apple computers? [puke]

Just kidding [Wink]

If I had my way I'd get a Mac for graphics stuff and the PC for everything else. I've always wanted to experiment with a G4. I'm just so entrenched into PC equipment and software it makes it hard to switch

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 01-31-2003, 08:02 PM:

I use Premiere on a PC at work, but am convinced the problem lies more with the drivers for the video card than with Premiere. Yes there ARE problems, yes there are workarounds (which one shouldn't HAVE to do). AVI is basically a dying format (OK, it's actually dead). But some of us still use PC's for this stuff, well, just BECAUSE! It's THERE! It was BOUGHT for us by our bosses! Who wouldnt buy us the MEDIA 100's or AVIDS! Blame Miramax! [Big Grin]

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-31-2003, 08:50 PM:

Thanks guys, will check out those links. This is mainly for me to make VCD's of stuff that wont get transfered to tape and maybe do a little bit of editing.

Posted by Matthew Peters (Member # 1495) on 02-01-2003, 07:16 AM:

Matrox are also very good [Smile]

http://www.matrox.com/

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-01-2003, 09:01 AM:

My new GeForce 4 Ti 4200 graphics adapter also has a S-video input and came with Medion Power VCR which has all sorts of options for video recording. I haven`t tried it out though since I got the card mainly to fire at mutant aliens.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 02-01-2003, 11:20 PM:

For the money, ATI TV Turner card is a good buy. You can watch TV on your desktop, record video in multiple formats including VCD, MPEG and MPEG2 and burn them on CD or DVD. It accepts coaxial inputs, RCA inputs and S-video inputs. All for around $50.00. I have one and it works really good, however the only drawback is the lack of a video editor (but those tend to be in the $200.00 the $300.00 range). Plus I ordered one on a Saturday night around three in the morning and it was delivered to my house that following Tuesday.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=A46-4010

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-02-2003, 12:05 PM:

The Medion package also came with a little video editor and the VCR program supports time shift recording.