Which video card ???????

[yahoo]

I have a built in video card , and I want to be able to capture video from my VCR (I am trying to back up my tapes so that I could burn them into DVDRs ) So I think the best solution for me is to go for an external USB card that can capture video from VCR , because I think that a PCI ( I don't have an AGP slot by the way ) will give me more headaches with conflicting with my onboard card ...what are your suggestions on the matter ?????

[cobra]

install pci video card, disable onboard video in bios,
should be fine

[Furius92]

Well you can buy a video capture card for a PCI slot. An external video card sounds very slow, since USB is a turtle compared to PCI or AGP. I think a video capture card would be your best bet for this. Or, I wonder if ATI makes All-In-Wonder cards in a PCI version?

[Floppyman]

Do they even make USB video cards? If your onboard video is fine and you don't need more power (for gaming etc.) go ahead and just buy a pci video capturing card. Pinnacle (www.pinnacle.com) makes good video capturing equipment. HTH

[TwoRails]

Hi yahoo,

Ya, the Dazzle unit is maybe what you talking about: external USB device for capturing video.

However (I hate "howevers"), I have to wonder if you system overall is up to the task. I wonder 'cause you said you don't have an AGP port, indicating a very old system.

Also, it depends on the time you have, and the quality you want. Let's say you are OK with "tape" (Mpeg 1) quality, then many older system can do OK. (here's the Howver, again However, it will take Forever to render anything. For example, a friend of mine has an old 500 MHz system and he averages 5 HOURS to render a 5 minute clip.

HTH

TwoRails

[Floppyman]

Especially while rendering mpeg-2 files, since it's basically all cpu that's used there. HTH

[Nuclear Krusader]

How about the Pinnacle capture vid cards? Some of those are packed with Adobe Premiere.

[RJ]

pinnacles "Studio" products come with Studio 7 or even with Studio 8 now that it's out. That's for the home user. The more professional cards come with Premiere.

I wouldn't use USB devices, they're all for USB1.1 and for lower resolutions. Especially in your case, you want to burn it to DVD, you should get a good video capture card for good quality captures, and also a separate fast hard drive for the recordings.

RJ

[Nuclear Krusader]

I also think that USB devices are more a toy than a real video capture solution.

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by Nuclear Krusader I also think that USB devices are more a toy than a real video capture solution.

It depends on the needs.... On a 300 Mhz unit with an ATA 33 drive, it may fit the bill to the proverbial T. Such a machine, I doubt highly, could come close to keeping up witha Studio card...

yahoo?? sharing what your system is would help us help you!!

TwoRails

[RJ]

I am trying to back up my tapes so that I could burn them into DVDRs

Well, with the intention to burn them on DVD, it should be a good capture device and a PC with a second, fast hard drive for video capturing with the NTFS file system and of course an OS that supports it (Win2K/XP).
USB capture devices are good for webvideo, should be ok for VCD, too, but certainly not for DVD.

RJ

[TwoRails]

Ya, it takes a pretty healthy system to capture analog in a good way. I was still dropping frames until I upgraded my ATA100 drives to ATA133 drives. Now I drop only about 1 frame a minute, which is more than acceptable for my home movies

TwoRails