VHS to VCDs (Screen Capture)

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I've a Pixel View PV-BT878P+ (Tv Tuner + Capture card+Radio FM PCI card) ..my problem is I cannot capture a good quality full screen because the frame dropped around 50%.. any suggestion ?..thanks

-- Siangfong (siangfong@hotmail.com), January 01, 2001

Answers

What are the specs of your capture card -- make sure that you not attempting to capture at a resolution that it is not capable of.

By the sounds of it, the Pixel View is not really a capture card but a TV Card with capture capabilities -- which means it doesn't do as well as something that is a few hundred dollars more. :)

A few quick things you can check on how well the capture card does... 1) downgrade the audio for better video performance 2) reduce the capture size until you find a suitable size 3) try different sources (maybe you have a bad one)

If you are really interested in capturing video I'd suggest something from the Pinaccle DC series, or Matrox Marvel series for a money saving starter.

-- Nick (nick@rightstep.org), January 02, 2001.


More than the capture cards' specs, you should pay attention to the HDD specs. If your are serious about capturing full-screen video (starting at 640x480) you should never use any HDD for a capture drive below 7200 rpm. It should ALWAYS be a separate physical drive with NOTHING else on it (no system files, no temp files, etc.). SCSI used to be the top flavor, but nowadays, you can get away with any IDE ultra-DMA66/100 7200rpm drive for 50% the cost of a comparable SCSI HDD. Getting back to your PixelView: most run-of-the-mill such TV cards only allow for 30fps capture at 320x240. Are U sure yours can let you do more than this frame size???

-- MT (turk690@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

I've tried creating VCDs as well and no matter what I try, you will never get as good a picture as VHS. I therefore, recommend waiting for DVD recorders to come down in price, which should be in the next year or two. I have 100s of VHS tapes that I want to convert to DVDs. DVD recorders sound 100 percent better than trying to make Vcds. The picture quality will be better than the original VHS and you can get more video on a DVD-R than a CDR-R. Plus, ALL DVD-R blank discs will be compatible with ALL commerically sold DVD players. Eventually the price of DVD-R discs will be the same as CD-R discs, so why go through the pain of trying to make VCDS. Just store your VHS tapes for now in perfect condition and wait for DVD recorders to become affordabily priced. The future looks bright.

-- Steve (nightcreature2002@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.

To clarify: A VHS - DVD conversion will not make VHS audio sound like DVD audio, ever. Video streams recorded to VHS will never make DVD quality video. I am uncertain of VCD quality however it may be a reduction in quality to convert VHS - VCD, and possibly VHS to SVCD however this may be because of your video capture method (Video and audio smapling, computer hardware, codecs used ...)

-- Anonymous Coward (anonymous@coward.com), December 11, 2004.

Prolink's PixelView cards use the BT878 chip (hence the name) and it's more than capable of capturing at any size, because it's a frame grabber only and relies on software to get and process video.

If you have a slower machine, you are going to lose frames. There is nothing that can be done about that until you upgrade your machine.

There are a number of things you can do. Clean and defrag your hard drive. Update the card's drivers from Prolink's website. Use Task Manager to kill Windows Explorer while you capture (restart it by leaving the task manager window open and using File>Run>explorer) You can also try some different software packages - ChrisTV, Virtual VCR, Super Video Cap 2.0, Mainconcept PVR, iuVCR from iuLabs (which is made for the BT878 chipset) among others. Stay away from things like Intervideo's capture package unless you are a pre-schooler.

If you're using an older capture program, chances are it uses the old VFW (Video for Windows) format. Your card has newer WDM drivers available, so look for those. You should read up on the differences and how to make good captures. www.videohelp.com is a good place to start.

-- Bryan (gryps-innocens@gryphon.zzn.com), December 12, 2004.



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