Recommend a video capture card?

BrianD

Hi

Anyone recommend a video capture card for a PC. Would like to take in material (audio and video) from a camcorder. Nothing too sophisticated!

MagNOT

Hi
Unfortunatley I don't have an answer for you - but have a related question that you might be able to help me with (first time user so not sure if I should start a new thread or piggy-back on yours as it's a related question ... ????)

I have been using an old pc to capture video from my camcorder. Current pc drops frames in capture ... obviously not got what it takes when it comes to this kind of thing. I'd like to ideally get a new laptop that I could use to capture video ... any ideas what spec would be required ... what's most important when it comes to this type of thing - processor speed/RAM/Video Card??

Also, I have been using Nero7 Premium which is ok, but haven't found it fantastic. Not sure if there's better out there software-wise.

Sorry not to have been of help to you!

SouperComputer

If you want the best quality and the most control of the job, then you should use and older "framegrabber" card. BT 878 cards are one way to go, but philips have a chip which is better. I can remember the chip no though, so you'll have to Google for it.

These cards do not compress the video and give you a raw stream for manipulation. When you have done your editing and processing, then you can compress it using the codec and format of your choice.

Specs wise, you could get away with a P3, but the compression part will take FOREVER! So for this stage, the more horsepower the better. Also, the output from the framegrabber card will be mostly uncompressed and will occupy a lot of space, so you will need a big HD.

@magnot, chances are your computer is trying to compress the video as it comes in with a modern high compression codec. You need to compress it with a low-compression codec such as Huffy or MJpeg. This way you shouldnt drop any frames unless you are on a P1 computer!

Lump

If the camera outputs Firewire, that's the easiest way to do it, Audio and video down one cable. If the camera is a DV camera the footage is already compressed at 5:1, so have a card that will capture uncompressed footage is fairly pointless. If you have firewire, you can capture DV quality into the editing software. The only benefit of having uncompressed footage is if you're dealing with high quality graphics.

John

neildonoghue

these days you only really need a dv port on your mobo but if you want to get something with analogue video and audio i would say buy a pinnacle package..very good reliable cards and not mentally priced either