My Pinnacle 500 PCI just chucked it in, and I'm in the market for a replacement video capture device.
I hate rummaging around in the guts of my PC, so the idea of a USB 2.0 plug-and-play device is attractive. I'm a PAL user (Australia), so I'm looking for 768 x 576 x 25fps at good A/D resolution, with audio capture if possible.
I also have a Dazzle DVC-80 and it certanly does not measure up.
I am discouraged by the dirth of detailed and meaningful technical information on vendors' sites, and also the lack of decent reviews.
Do anyone have a "good news" story on this approach to video capture? Recommendations?
If not, well - let's say I'm not a great Pinnacle fan, so recommendations on alterative PCI capture devices (to an equivalent spec) would also be valued.
If you have a DV camera with DV-in, then it is possible that you can use the camera as an A/D converter and thus capture analogue video via a Firewire port (if you have one on your computer). Sony call this 'passthrough', but other manufacturers use different terminology.
In addition to the A-D passthrough already mentioned (capturing dv .avi instead of mpeg), some folks use standalone DVD Recorder units. They record the video source to DVD discs, and then I Import the mpegs from the recorded DVD disc.
I also use an ADSTech USB Instant DVD unit -- it captures both video and audio via USB2 (or USB1 for lower bitrate captures).
I use all 3 of these methods for capture and/or conversion...
Regards,
George
Hi,
I too was in this situation having a handful of Hi8 tapes and wanting to transfer them to DVD at the highest quality for the lowest price! I could not justify the outlay on a Canopus ADVC110 unit which definitley meet the quality criteria but the cost was prohibitive. I ended up buying a USB2.0 device from ALDI "DVD Creator" (for £25!!) which is very similar in appearance to the Belkin Unit ([url]http://www.digital-fusion.co.uk/Inu_products/INU_ProdDetailsL4.asp?ref=06003989)[/url]. I captured in HQ MPEG2 and edited back to DVD. The quality to my eyes seemed very acceptable when compared to playing direct from the camcorder into a TV. The unit will also capture AVI and other formats as well, but the best results have been the MPEG2 at full PAL resolution and sound.
Maybe I might still end up buying the Canopus unit, but for now the USB2.0 device is ok for the analogue transfer.
Kind Regards
Mike Campbell
My Pinnacle 500 PCI just chucked it in, and I'm in the market for a replacement video capture device.I hate rummaging around in the guts of my PC, so the idea of a USB 2.0 plug-and-play device is attractive. I'm a PAL user (Australia), so I'm looking for 768 x 576 x 25fps at good A/D resolution, with audio capture if possible.
I also have a Dazzle DVC-80 and it certanly does not measure up.
I am discouraged by the dirth of detailed and meaningful technical information on vendors' sites, and also the lack of decent reviews.
Do anyone have a "good news" story on this approach to video capture? Recommendations?
If not, well - let's say I'm not a great Pinnacle fan, so recommendations on alterative PCI capture devices (to an equivalent spec) would also be valued.
The Pinnacle Movibox comes in 2 flavours, USB and DV. I have got the USB version, but I wouldn't recommend it. It captures in MPEG but there are loads of reports of out of sync using Studio software. Had I known I would either have bought the DV version (about £50 dearer) or bought another make!
Dave,
I am aloso in the market for a capture device and have toyed with the idea of the Studio MovieBox Plus from Pinnacle. I have upgraded my computer recently and have the Adobe production suite and would like to learn how to use After Effects for compositing eventually, I also have PP2. I have a number of analogue Hi-8 tapes to edit and recently upgraded my DV500 PCI card as it was not compatible with my Mobo. However, i Bought a DAC200 which didn't capture well as it dropped frames every couple of seconds, so this was returned to DVC, very kindly! I am concerned that this may happen again unless I go for a more expensive card that would incorporate time base correction, such as the Matrox RTX100. I also would like to capture in AVI and not in a form of MPEG, or would the DV capture option be better.
Please let me know your thoughts, especiallt on the Pinnacle MovieBox Plus and would this conflict with the Adobe set up on my PC.
Thanks
Graham
Just for the record, I who am "not a great Pinnacle fan", ended up purchasing a Pinnacle Movie Box Studio USB.
Q: How do I explain this behavior, which is inconsistent with my instincts, especially when I paid for an extra Studio licence which I do not need (duh!)?
A1: I'm Australian, and a Queenslander to boot (but at least I'm not a Kiwi!)
A2: After a comprehensive web search for USB capture devices, I found that the Pinnacle device was (a) one of the few low-cost devices with firewire as well as analog capture; (b) one of the few with any meaningful reviews (which were polarised - 50% "it's ****" and 50% "it's wonderful and works fine"; (c) one of the few manufactured by a firm that specialises in A/V capture; (d) one of the few with bonafides for PAL capture (Turtle Beach advised that I should "not take a risk" with their device, even though they claim PAL, NTSC and SECAM compatibility in their advertising material - at least they were honest!); (e) on the shelf in my local computer shop.
I have not put the device to any serious test yet ... having a new Dell dual 2GHz Athlon with 2Gb of memory and a dedicated SATA drive for video capture, I WILL be very disappointed if I have any problems.
Hi Graham, fellow Kettering person!
I'm nowhere near an expert on this gear, I bought the Movibox USB as I wasn't sure that my PC would handle the DV version. Don't know whether capturing with it would allow you to edit with other editing packages. The problem I had was a common problem with Studio 8 which came with my PC and the Movibox, one of audio and video going out of sync. I had over 30 Hi8 tapes to convert, and it took me about 3 years to do it, had to come up with a long winded MPEG to AVI conversion process. Movibox USB captures in MPEG, the DV version in AVI.
Having said that, both daughters have used their laptops with Studio 8 editing from AVI from a mini DV camcorder, I've done it on my PC no problem. It's just going MPEG to DVD that appears to be the problem. Using the Movibox USB means you have to go MPEG to DVD or in my case MPEG to AVI in 1 minute chunks, then AVI to DVD.