Slashdot Mirror

You're right that you're going to run into hardware problems unless you choose very carefully.

As is the case with most things related to analogue/digital conversion (and also to video editing), the sky's pretty much the limit when it comes to the amount of money you can sink into your equipment.

For starters, a broadcast-quality VCR will set you back quite a bit. Great capture hardware's going to do you no good if the quality of the source is poor. We'll leave this part as an exercise for the reader.

Now that you've got a decent VCR, you can go splurge on an expensive Analogue-Digital converter. Any decent-quality device won't offer all of the unnecessary "bells and whistles" (such as hardware-based MPEG/WMV encoding) that the parent poster describes. Instead, most pro-grade boxes will take an analogue signal (RCA, S-Vid, or even BNC if you want to go all out), and output a standard FireWire DV signal that any decent video editing software should be able to handle. Canopus' hardware is very well-regarded for these purposes. Their products range from somewhat inexpensive (~$150) for consumer-grade products to appallingly expensive for the pro-grade stuff.

However, the fact that you were considering using a TV-tuner card to do the capture seems to indicate that you haven't done anything like this at all. If your content is bad enough that you really NEED to be "in control of every step of the process", you're better off outsourcing this to a professional. Otherwise, a decent VCR and A/D converter should clean up the signal pretty well for you. You can always take care of things like de-interlacing in software later on.

I might also recommend stepping down from your podium, and considering editing your video with non-free software. I can't help but think that the gap that exists between Cineleera and Final Cut Pro is even bigger than the gap between Photoshop and The Gimp (which is pretty huge). Most professional studios use either Avid or Final Cut (and I'm really not trying to be an apple fanboy here -- Apple and Avid basically jointly own the entire industry). Compared to the rest of the costs of video production, Final Cut is a steal.

Alternatively, there are VHS/DVD-R decks out there that will automatically make dubs for you. Sony makes one, and it costs around $200 the last time I checked. Quality's not going to be the absolute best, but will still be pretty darn good. And it's easy as long as your source doesn't have macrovision.

We need a box with firewire in, coax out

Not quite what you are asking for, but have you seen the Canopus ADVC-100? This handy device will convert (DVD-quality) video (not RF) to/from DV-encoded firewire.

Great stuff...

Then don't bother with USB, use Firewire as it can handle the bandwith better, take the Canopus ADVC-100 with composite signal in, DV signal out.

USB2 is fast and all, but it still lacks bandwidth allocation and syncronus transfer.

I think you mean Canopy, not Canopus.

Reading reviews at
VCDHelper I picked the Canopus equivalent product over the Dazzle one. I get no dropped frames and perfect audio/video sync. I am alot happier compared to the days when I used my Matrox Marvel G400. The Dazzle is rated at 7.2/10 with 41 votes and the Canopus is rated at 9.4/10 with 85 votes.

BTW, VCD help has a bunch of Video Capture guides that seem to be better than the one in the article.

The Canopus ADVC-100 is $300. It doesn't have its own tuner, but I'm sure you could use a spare VCR for that.

I'm not certain why you'd need one if you already have a DV camera, though. Doesn't your DV camera have analog inputs?