input: footage available on tape
output: AVI files of the footage on harddisk
Note: This page assumes the video is on video-tape or on a video camera (like
VHS). For transferring video from "old" media like 8mm or super 8mm tapes check
out:
For people with
a laptop who want to capture analog video most analog capture cards require
a PCI slot (which is not present in a laptop). There are basically 2
solutions for this:
1) use an external device
to convert the analog video to digital video. This only requires a Firewire
(IEEE-1394) port on your laptop. Most laptops have these interfaces, or can be
added via a PCMCIA slot.
2) buy an external USB device to capture the video. Usually these cards (for
example the Pinnacle Studio
400) covert the analog video to an MPEG1 stream and covert it via USB to a
laptop.
The first option gives by far the best quality, but is more expensive then the
second option.
1. Optimize your system
Working with video means that your computer has to move around a lot of data in real
time. Interupts in operation can disturb these data streams and can give rise to dropped
frames.
Defragmentation of your hard disk is important in order to get the huge amounds of data
fast enough on your hard disk. If all the files are scattered around the harddisk, the
free space is also scattered around. This means that during writing new data, the head of
the hard-disk has to "travel" a lot around, which slows down the performance.
The default defragmentation utility delivered with your computer (like defrag on windows
98) will do. More info
3. Connect camcorder / video-recorder
Connect camcorder / video-recorder to input of video capture card (preferably by
S-video connector) and to the audio card (line in) with the tulip plugs.
4. Set sound settings
Set sound input settings with Volume control:
line in: 50%
5. Verify the sound settings
This step is optional and is to verify the sound settings. The volume level of the tape
is verified by the SoundBlaster 16 Creative Mixer. Play the tape and start the Creative
Mixer to see if the input is within the limits.
You can use the
VUMeter program to see the audio-input level
while capturing
6. Shut down all applications
Shut down all applications. This because all resources should be allocated to the video
capture process so no frames will drop when capturing.
7.Configure Video Capture Program
Start Microsoft VidCap 32 (with patch),
AVI_IO or
Reelcap. I prefer
the AVI_IO program because it handles capturing to multiple files (so the 2 GB limit for
AVI files is no longer a problem) best.
Use the following configuration:
Pinnacle DC10+
Asus V7700 TI
Video Format: 2 field, TV cropping on, compression ratio as low as
possible (2 MB /sec is a minumum requirement for VHS quality editing).
Resolution 720x540.
25 frames/sec
For people with
a laptop who want to capture analog video most analog capture cards require
a PCI slot (which is not present in a laptop). There are basically 2
solutions for this: