Which capture programs and compression methods do you guys use?
Do you have some favorites to keep the quality as high as possible without huge file sizes?
Which capture cards do you think are the best?
Thanks for your help,
Glenn
Hello My fellow canadian!! how’s it goin eh!! 
What comp do you have, mac or PC. I use a mac (far better comp than a PC in my opinion for quality at least) and I use Stuffit by Aladin systems and I use Quicktime for short mpegs net clips, since QT is thee industry program used to view quality short net clips, more so than Windows Media Player.
Sorry Vito but I have to tell you MACS SUCK!
Glenn,
I could write a whole thesis on this topic.
email or IM me off-line and we can go into details.
dcw23 and Number2 have been helpful.
Oh God, I hate this…
Xaero, tell me why? 
as a big Linux/Unix/FreeBSD person, I have to admit with OS X, Macs are great!
Hi FJ,Vito…
The biggest issue with Linux is that it doens’t do ASP (at least thats my problem with the OS).
But Mac’s are cool, I recently heard rumblings that Charlie was looking at getting himself a nice shiny new G5. Ahh…to be on top 
My 2 cents…
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
I recently bought a 17" PowerBook G4 and I love it. If you’re main interest is video and multimedia, Macs are the way to go. Apple has really rebuilt itself as THE tool for film makers. Basically, it’s well suited as an entertainment machine.
For most other applications and programming, PCs are still probably the best option. Personally, I like OSX more than Windows (which I use at work). However, I have a program that uses the classic OS9 interface, which I find annoying. It’s OSX or bust.
The new G5 Power Mac looks exciting, but since I just bought the PowerBook, I’ll have to wait a couple years before I lay down the money for that big boy (which will be even bigger by then).
Hey Flash, Rupert,
I (well my bro is) am hopefully getting the new most powerful computer in the world (G5) sometime in August as soon as apple starts shipping and they hit the stores. I wanna feel my fingers tremble as I hold the mouse using the 2 GHz Dual Processor at work performing its magic
To answer lumberjacks question on Video Capture cards,
It really depends on your configuration. If you are on PC you can go with dozens of setups. Mac, on the other hand…unless you got big money…you’re not getting much in the middle of the road category.
Check out these companies
Dazzle
Miro
DpsVelocity
Hope this helps,
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
I use this USB gizmo to do the captures.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Product_Id=88962
It comes with a product called MGI Videowave that lets you edit and convert to MPEG. It is $99.95 and does a great job. They make one for PC and one for MAC (if you’re that way inclined).
FWIW I currently have an IBM T30 notebook computer which I think is pretty good. It has a Pentium 4 that gets so hot it irons creases into your trousers though :eek:
After MANY HOURS of experimentation I found that (for me) capturing from VCR or from the TV the best format is WMV files at 2MB/sec. The quality is great and the compression is excellent, I can record for hours without any loss. I recently recorded 4 hours straight directly onto the PC with no loss.
I just have a standard cheap pinnacle capture card but I don’t use the software that came with the card, I bought a program called showshifter from the internet.
I then use windows movie maker2 to edit and join the files together then use TMPGEnc to convert the file to MPEG1 or MPEG2 format then I use Nero to create a SVCD (I don’t have a DVD burner, but you could also create a DVD).
I just finished creating a 35 minute SVCD with every 100m (Olympic, World Champs, World Record and a few others) from 1984-2002. The quality is the pretty much the same as the original source, it plays in any DVD player and can be copied in minutes as it uses normal CDR’s.
Just playing Vito. I personally don’t like macs that much but if you do then it’s cool.
it’s just the overall design that turns me down for some reason. That bitten apple, weird shape, macs microsoft utilities (probably because I don’t really know how to use them), one button mouse etc.
After MANY YEARS of experimentation, I found there are basically 3 options:
There are 2 types of video capture cards (to go from analog VHS tapes to digital), either with or without compression. ATI TV Wonder has no compression, so the files are huge and sometimes with dropped frames.
Without compression, at full frame capture (raw AVI at 720x480 or 640x480) is at 3-6MB/sec (180-360 Mb/min!) You will need a good fast hard drive to sustain this.
I have the Dazzle MPEG card, and it does compression, at a rate of 30-60 MB/min. The problem is that unless you have the DVD codec installed, you can’t play them back. (most people have DVD drives to watch movies) One way around this is to convert them to Quicktime, Real Player, or Streaming Media (*.asf or *.wmv). Of course, this takes 2 passes (twice as long… capture & compress)
The 3rd option is if you have a DV camera, you can “play” your VHS tapes “recording” the DV camera (hence no dropped frames), and from there, you can capture it in raw DV or AVI format using Premier (or Apple iMovie), or even use the free XP Movie Maker and capture it in WMV. Raw AVI or DV is 3.5Mb/sec or 216Mb/min! WMV at the very best quality is 14Mb/min. Again, this takes 2 passes or 3 passes (record, capture, compress)
Xaero,
You can have mulitple button mouse on a mac, the old macs you couldn’t. However, even with the old mac (1 button) you could still get/give the same commands as a 2 button. For example, usually the right click mouse button on a PC brings up a dialog box, that gives you a bunch of commands like cut,copy,paste etc, well with the older macs (1 button) if you keep the button pressed you “can” (if you set it up that way) get the same dialog box or you can press option + mouse button and get samething.
As far as the newer macs, you can have mulitple buttons, for instance right now on this mac I am using a 2 button with scroll Logitech WIRELESS mouse and my bro has the older powerbooks and he has a gamers mouse (3 button Wingman) from Logitech as well.
But, you like PC, that’s cool, most ppl do, I dont but that’s not to say that either is bad. It just depends on how you look at it.
This is the ultimate VidCap card at $400 USD
http://www.cdrecordingsoftware.com/snazziAV.html
But if you are going to pay that kind of money, you’re better off buying a DV camera and use it for the track (analyze technique and timing to 0.03 sec!) and use my option #3 above.
If anyone is thinking of spending alot of money, then why doesn’t everyone just save their money and buy themselves a “new” DV camera which has a Firewire Out port so you dont have to buy a DV card or DV Bridge.
I mean, most new DV cameras are all coming out with Firewire Out Ports, and besides you want Firwire over things like USB, since Firewire is sooooo much faster to UL than USB, including the new USB II.
Contrary to advertisement (the companies that make USB II’s claim that they are faster than firewire) USB II is NOT faster than Firewire, this is Hogwash.
Just my 2 ¢
ps. I have just reached my 100th post YAY Charlie, I’m right behind-ya look out I’m comin for ya!!
Hey Vito,
We use this Canon GL1 on a dual g4 desktop (firewire) for various projects at my day job.
This dv cam works great. A good camera by all measurements. Software, we use final cut pro.
Rupert,
Have you heard if Canon is planning to add 24p capability to the GL-1 or XL-1? If they do, that will make it THE camera, which it pretty much already is.