Video Capture card recommendations?

F

Flujo

Changui
Does anyone have any video capture card recommendations? Initially I was going to go for a PVR250/HVR1300 from Hauppauge but now the Pinnacle Movieboard/box is looking pretty good despite the lack of Linux support. Software wise Premiere Elements is looking like the one to go for, being used to Photoshop, but I'm stuck on which card to choose.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.
 
It's time we have a technical discussion here, there have been many a topic about feelings, but no technical stuff.

I'd also go with Premiere series, although my friend says it doesn't support HDV and therefore has chosen some brand I hadn't heard before, can't recall the name now. But I think premire as of some recent version supports HDV.

About the video capture card I don't know. I don't have a video camera and thought they were mostly digital now anyway, so that you could just import it via USB. That's apparently not the case...
 
Ron Obvious said:
About the video capture card I don't know. I don't have a video camera and thought they were mostly digital now anyway, so that you could just import it via USB. That's apparently not the case...
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You're right most of the new digital cams do have either firewire or usb but I'd also like to do video cassette and eventually cinefilm, hi8; preserve peoples memories on more robust formats.

At the moment it's looking like the Hauppauge cards will do the trick. They are supported in both Linux and Vista and have hardware encoding. I might try and pick up one second hand so I can sell it on at the same price if it isn't suitable. There are also come cards from Compro that look interesting.

So you recommend Adobe. I have a demo of Elements but it won't run on my current system as it needs an SSE2 processor. Time to upgrade!

I'm more of an audio guy (as hobby) but want to get into video as well. The idea of putting sound to picture and having the result stir someones emotions or creating something that educates people is really appealing. A moving picture paints 25,000 words a second. :)

Do you dabble yourself?
 
Flujo said:
So you recommend Adobe. I have a demo of Elements but it won't run on my current system as it needs an SSE2 processor. Time to upgrade!

I'm more of an audio guy (as hobby) but want to get into video as well. The idea of putting sound to picture and having the result stir someones emotions or creating something that educates people is really appealing. A moving picture paints 25,000 words a second. :)

Do you dabble yourself?
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I've used adobe premiere 6.0 and 6.5 with a 1 GHZ cpu and only 512Mb of memory, but that was a while ago. Now with the dual core cpu it should be a lot smoother. I've only done hobby things, nothing serious.

Yes, a moving picture paints 25,000 words a second, but only 24,000 if you're in America. :)
 
Ron Obvious said:
It's time we have a technical discussion here, there have been many a topic about feelings, but no technical stuff....
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:lol: :lol: Yeah, I guess all that touch-feely stuff can wear on your nerves sometimes. :lol: ;)
 
Flujo said:
Does anyone have any video capture card recommendations? Initially I was going to go for a PVR250/HVR1300 from Hauppauge but now the Pinnacle Movieboard/box is looking pretty good despite the lack of Linux support. Software wise Premiere Elements is looking like the one to go for, being used to Photoshop, but I'm stuck on which card to choose.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.
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Flujo, what format/sources are you trying to capture? vhs, vhs-c, svhs-c, 8mm, hi8, digital8. With digital8 camcorders, you can capture both sony's (et all) 8mm and digital8 formats with the digital8 camcorder, no analog capture card required. Pinnacle does have a bunch of pci and usb based solutions.
 
Initially I'm just going to do VHS > DVD transfers but would like to eventually start transferring other formats too. What you mentioned is a great idea! I'm trying to find a camcorder that has video input and is not to expensive as I have to spend quite a bit on getting this computer up to scratch to deal with the encoding and also a decent all in one printer for scanning images, direct CD/DVD printing and labels etc. Will probably go for a E6750 with 2gigs and Adobe Premiere Elements 3 but I'm still undecided on which motherboard to get.

Love the video on Nuevotec by the way. The quality is superb! What do you use yourself?
 
Ron Obvious said:
I have an E6600 and MSI P6N-sli platinum, and I'm very happy with it. E6750 is probably even better.
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Sweet. The million dollar question is......how do the games run? ;)
 
I guess the would run fine, but I don't play any—except from an online football manager game.

But I need this for other stuff, such as cad-software. Actually I think only the silence of the system makes it worthwhile for investing in it. The cpu is so cool that you can build a system that is so silent that you can barely hear when it's on.
 
Flujo said:
but I'm still undecided on which motherboard to get.
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Gigabyte p35-dq6 seems to be great. :) 8 SATA with RAID, 7.1+2 Channel High Definition Output, Blu-ray/HD DVD Full Rate Audio Support, Crossfire...
 
pr said:
Flujo said:
but I'm still undecided on which motherboard to get.
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Gigabyte p35-dq6 seems to be great. :) 8 SATA with RAID, 7.1+2 Channel High Definition Output, Blu-ray/HD DVD Full Rate Audio Support, Crossfire...
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Nice board pr. Perhaps that will be the choice for my media & gaming monster computer. For now though it's looking like the P5K-VM mAtx board will be the one (has similar chipset to the one you mentioned). It has build in graphics which will be fine for running Vista and Ubuntu with Compiz, it also has firewire, optical out and gigabit ethernet so that's pretty much everything covered. Can always put in a nice gfx card later for games if need be.
Thanks for the recommendation.

Does anyone have any more capture card recommendations, anyone used the Compro cards?
 
Just a quick update. The computer bits will arrive this week but I'll hold out on the capture card incase any used camcorders turn up in local adds with video inputs. (nice one alan).

Thanks for your tips :).
 
Flujo said:
Initially I'm just going to do VHS > DVD transfers but would like to eventually start transferring other formats too. What you mentioned is a great idea! I'm trying to find a camcorder that has video input and is not to expensive as I have to spend quite a bit on getting this computer up to scratch to deal with the encoding and also a decent all in one printer for scanning images, direct CD/DVD printing and labels etc. Will probably go for a E6750 with 2gigs and Adobe Premiere Elements 3 but I'm still undecided on which motherboard to get.

Love the video on Nuevotec by the way. The quality is superb! What do you use yourself?
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I have an older Panasonic MiniDV GS120 camcorder that takes s-video or composite video (VCR or tV or whatever sources), and captures it to the MiniDV tape, in DV format (720x480 , 3.5MBps or 26Mbits). So that's one alternative to using a PCI or USB capture card. Of course, a capture card does the same thing. A DV camcorder that can take in or ingest video has a benefit of transferring old footage (say family reunions or something) from old VHS tapes to miniDV tapes.

I recently upgraded to the Intel Quad core Q6600 cpu, but am using a 1.5 year old Gigabyte P965 DQ6 (the equivalent is the P35 based DQ6). Great board, 8 SATA ports, 2 x16 PCIe slots, etc. Also use Premiere Pro 2.

Thanks so much for the compliments about Nuevotec.
 
Nice camera! Unfortunately a camcorder with video-input is going to be out of my price range (and am not willing to risk eBay), especially when there is no need to use the camcorder itself. I'll go with a capture card instead, probably an HVR1100 or HVR1300. The option of capturing old 8mm through the firewire connection on a hi8 camera is definitely something to explore in the future though.

On the computer front Intel have done a good job with these Core2's, they are so fast but at the same time very efficient. My old AMD 2600+ runs at over 50°C (with a quietish cpu fan) in idle and the E6570 is coasting along at around 30°C. Dual and Quad core systems are also so much more responsive. Your Q6600 must be bliss to use. Just to keep the balance between good and evil my next system will probably be based on an AMD so as not to fund Intel's plans for world domination. hehe

Thanks for your help everyone!

P.S
Now that the comp is up to it, running Adobe Premiere Elements is nuts. :) Love the automation lanes. It's similar to what you can do with automating vst plugins in Cubase. How things have moved on.
 
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