Guys,
I've been looking for a cheap option to capture my old Hi8 footage so I can edit and then archive them to DVD.
In the September issue of Computer Video Editing magazine there was a full page add for "movie edit pro 2004". My subsequent call was re-directed to Fast trak who are offering a package deal with a combo dv/analogue capture card, leads and the above software for £79.99.
The specs on the card state:
Digital Video: i.Link 6pin i/o port
Analogue Video: S-video input port and composite video input port
Motion capture up to 720x576 25 fps (PAL) and 720x480 30 fps (NTSC)
The alternative I've found (although lynxdv are out of stock) is the ADS Instant DVD Xpress which uses USB via a sort of breakout box
I'm on a budget of no more than £100 and these items would appear to fit the bill, but would like to hear your opinions.
Come on guys..I would of thought some of you may have some suggestions. I mean the Movie Edit Pro software was reviewed in the magazine (shame it didn't include the card) - I'm more interested in the hardware than the software, just don't want to get the wrong thing
Hi
A couple of general comments:
The FastTrak card looks to be possibly quite an old design - it also has no audio capability. This may not be a problem, but there again capture cards which use the PC's sound card have been known in the past to give enormous problems maintaining sync on long capture. And capturing VHS tapes can often require extremely lengthy capture files.
The ADS XPress captures full-res video over USB by encoding to MPEG-2 before the transfer to the computer.
So editing can only be done with software capable of editing MPEG-2 files.
This is not ideal, and may require a considerably higher spec PC than editing ordinary FireWire DV captures in order to allow the software to be responsive and crash-free.
You are probably not getting a very big response here because I suspect most people committed to video editing here if they have tried these sort of devices, have quickly moved on to the easy-to-use DV format because of the problems that some low-end devices give in use.
Thats my guess...
Regards
Paul
Thanks for the comments. I currently use a bog standard firewire card for my DV capture from a JVC camera. I'm just after something that will allow me to capture from my old Sony Hi8 camera via its analogue ports and be editable in Premier. The assumption I am making is that the capture card bundled with the software will have some form of compression codec, I don't want something that simply imports raw data at high data rates.
Broswing through the latest computer video magazine it seems that most of the current options are £300 - £1000 for a capture card and software. IMO the magazine is now steering away from the "consumer" to become a publication for the "semi-pro"
At this rate I'll be dragging out my old Iomega Buzz and re-formatting my machine to run on windows 98 
Hi Malcolm.
is it possible to hook your old Sony up to your JVC? if so u could copy onto DV tape and then import onto your computer that way....
Hi
If not then an analogue-to-dv convertor box would be better. A sceond hand one might be obtained in your price range because new they are just over £200, although sometimes (like at the annual IOV show) you can see a new one for as low as £125:
Canopus ADVC100 or ADVC55
DataVideo DAC 100
Miglia Directors Cut
ADS Pyro A/V Link
Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge
Thanks for the input guys...
Or how about a cheap 2nd hand Sony Digital8 camera. This can play your old Hi8's and export them out via Firewire. Some models also have AV-DV passthrough for your VHS captures.
Good luck
If you need to edit in Premiere, avoid anything that captures to MPEG.
I agree with PaulD that the simplest route would be an analogue -> DV converter box.
Anything new and low cost (and not MPEG or DV) is likely to use software compression during capture (and possibly not be capable of full 720 x 576 res capture).
What's the spec of your PC?
Tony
Thanks again guys.
OK I tried hooking up the Hi8 camera to the DV camera and got nothing, on checking the DV camera accepts video in only via the firewire port.
I've spent the last hour or so searching for my old Iomega Buzz to stick on the Win98SE partition, but I have a feeling I binned it a few months ago !
Spec of my PC: P4 1.5 ghz, 512K DDR ram (200mhz I think) - 40GB system drive (dual partition XP and 98SE) - 60GB store drive (50gb partition for video 10gb for documents) - both drives are 7200 rpm. - Gforce 64mb 440 graphics card.
Whilst the specs are not as high as the current PC's it suits my normal needs (capturing DV never results in dropped frames).
I originally purchased a second hand Fast master 2000 card, but had loads of trouble getting it to work with the PC under win98. The other problem was that I couldn't edit the footage captured when running any application under XP as there was no XP support or codec. I was lucky in that the person who sold me th card has agreed to refund the money and the card has been sent back.
As one of the board members pointed out, it may be cheaper to have the 8 or 10 Hi8 tapes transferred o DV tape, but then that rules out the fun of capturing from analogue sources.
I'll think I'll stick to heliopters.. they seem less complicated
Your PC should cope OK with software compression during capture - I used to do this on a 1GHz Celeron PC using an MJPEG codec at 720 x 576 from a PCI TV card. I'd normally use VirtualDub for capture because this has specific facilities for keeping the video and audio in sync during capture (with audio capture via the PC's sound card). Worked OK with a VHS-C camcorder as a source.
I do analogue capture now with a sub-£100 Hauppauge PVR-250 hardware MPEG capture card - but I don't use Prem for editing....
Tony
Tony, thanks for the info, and the Hauppauge PVR-250 looks interesting.
Just a few questions. What are the limitations of using MPEG -2 over DV-AVI. If I was to use something like Ulead DVD Workshop would I be able to drag the captured clips in the MPEG format directly to the application to produce the DVD. Would this be better as the clips are in the same format as that used for DVD's and thus would not need to be converted from what ever format other cards use ??
If I was to use something like Ulead DVD Workshop would I be able to drag the captured clips in the MPEG format directly to the application to produce the DVD
In theory, Yes. The problem can be (depending on the authoring app) that you can get audio/video sync problems on the DVD - even though the original files play OK. This can be prevented by using the right software to process/edit the files first - e.g. http://www.drdsystems.com/VideoReDo/ and http://www.womble.com/products.htm
Would this be better as the clips are in the same format as that used for DVD's and thus would not need to be converted from what ever format other cards use ??
It does avoid re-compression but to make this scheme work properly means using editing software that can edit MPEG natively (which is what I use). Most mainstream editing apps can't do this.
There's more info on the pros and cons of the card at http://www.shspvr.com/ and http://www.shspvr.com/forum/
Tony
Tony, once again thanks for the info and links (all have been booked marked. I'll spend some time browsing the forums mentioned and hopefully come to some conclusion soon. Mind you I can't see the use of having a TV tuner when I'm feet away from the TV
Tony,
I checked out the capture card featured in the bundle and it uses software compression, and they don't sell the card on its own.
I've spent best part of the morning reading the forum for the PVR-250 and there seems to be lots of issues with poor or no sound, IRQ conflicts, chipset issues and S-video capture !!
Looks like a lot more homework is required :(
Bu99er !!
I just ordered an Adaptec AVC 2010 PCI card (called in a favor from on old supplier and got it at trade price !)
Thanks anyway Gary