All this Capture Card nonsense is confusing.

donhonk

I'm in the market for a capture card / stick. First of all, whats the difference between a card, and a USB stick? Performance I would imagine...? Anyway, I need it to capture old VHS tapes (Home Videos!) mainly. But I'd also like to capture some gameplay from my PS2/PS3/Xbox for Youtube quality stuff. And if they arent too expensive, perhaps HD stuff from my PS3. But thats optional. Anyone know of an easy / cheapish / reliable stick or card?

Also, what kind of programs should I have for editing this footage? I thank you very much.

logic7

usually the included crapware is ok for simple editing tasks. The Pinnacle Dazzle is prolly as simple as you wanna go.

Also, if any of theose VHS tapes are commercial movies, they may have that annoying ass Macrovision "protection" on them (it fucks with the picture so if goes extremely dark, then extremely light when copied). You'll want to get a capture device that ignores Macrovision protection.

http://www.videohelp.com/

^^^ They're a lot of help.

Personally, I'm still using an extra old Matrox Mystique 220 w/Rainbow Runner Video Capture add-on in a P3-1GHz machine running Win98SE (no drivers for anything newer than 98SE were released). I still have it 'cause it never stopped working and for converting my VHS collection to mpeg and xvid it's perfect. The included editing software is definitely not Premier, but it's fine for this simple task.

donhonk

Thanks much for the answers. And no, they aren't commercial tapes. I assume they are those mini VHS type things. I would like a card that just captures anything thats playing on my TV. Maybe at 720p, but thats stretching the budget. I assume this old camera they have has a TV out. So any good ones you know of?

Thanks again! :^: And actually, I just got Premiere recently! So I assume those will work nice together? (PS, I would like to be capturing some PS2 gameplay via Component! )

ecco the dolphin

Hm... if you want anything at 720p or above, you'll end up looking to spend more than USD$800, I think.

You can grab generic cheap capture cards that do standard definition NTSC/PAL for much less, though. You could also spend a little bit more for a brand name one - I think one that was recommended a while back was the Dazzle (which logic7 has already mentioned). I don't remember the thread that it was recommended in - I think it was a "How do I do a Let's Play?" thread about a year ago now.

I personally use a cheap Gigabyte branded PCI video capture card, and a D-Link branded USB capture card for video capture. I find the PCI capture card gives me less lag and a bit more flexibility in terms of video formats (but ends up using more CPU power), but the USB one is much more portable (I can use it with a laptop, say).

I also end up using virtualdub for simple editing (cutting frames and stuff)/recompression and AviSynth for a few of the more complicated effects (picture in picture, fading). They might be a bit overwhelming though since you end up being faced with a million and one options.

Barrakketh

eeccccoo tthhee ddoollpphhiinn wrote: »

Hm... if you want anything at 720p or above, you'll end up looking to spend more than USD$800, I think.

You can grab generic cheap capture cards that do standard definition NTSC/PAL for much less, though.

For some reason the last time I was looking at capture cards I couldn't find one that supported 480p for a sane price. I'm not sure why, but every single one was over $1,000 USD. They supported progressive scan for higher resolutions (almost all of them did 720p/1080i, some did up to 1080p), but not 480p.

ecco the dolphin

Barrakketh wrote: »

eeccccoo tthhee ddoollpphhiinn wrote: »

Hm... if you want anything at 720p or above, you'll end up looking to spend more than USD$800, I think.

You can grab generic cheap capture cards that do standard definition NTSC/PAL for much less, though.

For some reason the last time I was looking at capture cards I couldn't find one that supported 480p for a sane price. I'm not sure why, but every single one was over $1,000 USD. They supported progressive scan for higher resolutions (almost all of them did 720p/1080i, some did up to 1080p), but not 480p.

I'm guessing it might be something to do with the amount of bandwidth required for uncompressed video data at that resolution?

I remember finding some cards - they were PCI-X or PCI-e for newer hardware - none of them were PCI.

logic7

Also, have a look into the Matrox RT.X100 card. EXCELLENT card for a few hundred on ebay if you're looking to get into real-time stuff.


The Mystique/RRS combo that I have does compression in hardware on the fly (mjpeg), that's another reason I keep it in use. NTSC resolution with ZERO dropped frames in this machine (thanks, in large part, to the u160 SCSI card and 10K rpm u160 drives in the machine).

donhonk

Ah, I have no idea what I'm talking about. So I won't be getting any HD cards. (By that I mean, I had no idea of the prices.) Looks like a Dazzle would be a good choice for a person like me. Thanks for answering my questions! :^:

I thought this was a good video as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVH1_9HhX9w&feature=related

Daedalus

Barrakketh wrote: »

eeccccoo tthhee ddoollpphhiinn wrote: »

Hm... if you want anything at 720p or above, you'll end up looking to spend more than USD$800, I think.

You can grab generic cheap capture cards that do standard definition NTSC/PAL for much less, though.

For some reason the last time I was looking at capture cards I couldn't find one that supported 480p for a sane price. I'm not sure why, but every single one was over $1,000 USD. They supported progressive scan for higher resolutions (almost all of them did 720p/1080i, some did up to 1080p), but not 480p.

When they said they did 720p/1080i/1080p, they were talking about ATSC/QAM stuff, not uncompressed video from a component port.

Straight-up video in is still limited to 480i on hardware that can be had for reasonable money.

donhonk

Opinions on this? Looks pretty kick ass, I neve got around to buying a Dazzle. Might save up for something that truly kicks ass.

ZackSchilling

I don't know but that product looks like something people, myself included, have wanted for AGES. I am currently looking at it with great interest.

ecco the dolphin

ZackSchilling wrote: »

I don't know but that product looks like something people, myself included, have wanted for AGES. I am currently looking at it with great interest.

Careful. Under the tech specs for the card, it basically says that it does not support HDCP:

The HDMI standard sometimes includes copy protection encryption, such as commonly found on DVD players and some brands of set top boxes. When connected to these copy protected sources, the HDMI specification defines that Intensity cards cannot capture.

If you were to use this card with your PS3, say, chances are good that all you'll get is a black screen since the card does not support HDCP.

ZackSchilling

I don't plan on using it with anything copy-protected. Shouldn't the PS3 only use HDCP while playing a movie?

Daedalus

eeccccoo tthhee ddoollpphhiinn wrote: »

ZackSchilling wrote: »

I don't know but that product looks like something people, myself included, have wanted for AGES. I am currently looking at it with great interest.

Careful. Under the tech specs for the card, it basically says that it does not support HDCP:

The HDMI standard sometimes includes copy protection encryption, such as commonly found on DVD players and some brands of set top boxes. When connected to these copy protected sources, the HDMI specification defines that Intensity cards cannot capture.

If you were to use this card with your PS3, say, chances are good that all you'll get is a black screen since the card does not support HDCP.

The "Pro" version, however, says that it supports high-definition component video input, which is of course not encrypted.

ecco the dolphin

ZackSchilling wrote: »

I don't plan on using it with anything copy-protected. Shouldn't the PS3 only use HDCP while playing a movie?

As far as I can tell (and read, and experienced), it uses it everywhere.

I tried to hook up my PS3 to my non-HDCP monitor via an HDMI to DVI adaptor, and I got a nice black screen when trying to start it up.

Edit:

Daedalus wrote: »

The "Pro" version, however, says that it supports high-definition component video input, which is of course not encrypted.

True. I had automatically gone for HDMI video, but HD component video would be an excellent alternative.

Daedalus

Of course, I'm guessing it'll cost at least two or three hundred dollars. edit: d'oh, the price is right there on the site. $250 for the digital-only one and $350 for the "Pro" model. Yup. I mean, it's still a tenth the cost that high-def capture equipment was a couple years ago, but still, that's a lot of money.

Celestein

I actually have the BM intensity Pro and it's an absolutely excellent choice for prosumer capture.

Though it's actually a lot more expensive than it's price tag implies.

$350~ for the card itself.

$300+ for HDDs. You need a minimum of 3 drives striped in raid 0 to record uncompressed video, and it uses gigabytes per *minute*.

Optional: A high quality component switcher and spliter/amplifier. Since I record off several consoles the switcher is just a for convenience of not unplugging stuff all the time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009QW4MM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S1CEQ4

The Splitter/Amp is so I can actually play the game on my TV well recording, otherwise you have to play it on a window inside the recording computer at a laggy frame-rate with no sound. Which is OK if you're just recording a small segment, not so OK if you're recording an entire play-through.

Generally speaking for recording HD or full-quality uncompressed game footage, you're going to be spending at least a grand or more, not including video editing software or the computer itself.

So yeah, the next step up from a Dazzle or the like is pretty big jump =/

Seeks

Since we're talking about... capturing stuff... is there something like that Dazzle shown in the Youtube vid made for capturing audio? Like, from a keyboard with midi out, and stuff... though if it did more stuff, I wouldn't bitch.