video capture using Marvel G400 or Firewire (1394) card?

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From what I have read from this board, it seems Matrox Marvel G400 TV plus Panasonic MPEG1 Encoder is a very good combination for making good quality VCDs. I did some research on G400, and found out that it only takes in analog signals (composite video or s video). I have a Sony Digital 8 camcorder which has a DV (iLink, Firewire, 1394) port and can transfer digital signals. So it seems natural to use 1394 card to transfer the digital signals from my camcorder to my PC ( save as avi format), and then use Panasonic Encoder to convert it to MPEG1 to be burned on VCD. I have tried two firewire cards (SIIG and Studio DV) and the results isn't that good. The pictures are choppy and the color is blurring when I play the VCD on my VCD player. I really want to get decent quality VCDs out of my digital 8 tapes. Any of you out there has tried to use the firewire card and how does it compares with the Marvel G400 card? My concern is that digital-analog-digital through G400 will loss some data and hence the video quality? I would like to hear your commnets on which way to go - Marvel G400 or a Firewire card. Also I would appreciate it if you can recommend some decent 1394 cards and video capture/edit softwares.

-- Bobby (blchai@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001

Answers

I have a Sony Digital 8 camera (DCR-TRV320)and get great downloads from the camera to my computer, but I haven't created any VCDs yet. I bought ULEAD VIDEO STUDIO 4.0 SE that came with a TI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller and FireWire cable. At first I had a problem with choppy video and sound, but then I upgraded to a 40GB Western Digital hard drive with Ultra ATA 66. After enabling the DMA Transfers on the hard drive through the control panel, systems setting, I got great downloads. My next purchase will be a CD burner then hopefully I will be able to produce great quality VCDs. I hope this helps.

-- Steve (strefry@prodigy.net), January 03, 2001.

I have a G400 and DV cam GL1. I got better resaults going thru the G400 than 1394 card, lot less HD space needed. You can push the bit rate and get even better resaults.

-- teeball (ttlbake@earthlink.net), January 04, 2001.

Steve and teeball, thanks very much for the information. I have a decent pentium III PC with 128 RAM, 30G HD and DMA enabled. I found out that a good MPEG encoder software does help a lot. I tried the Panasonic MPEG1 Encoder and the results are much better although the pictures are a little blurring when played on TV using VCD player. I will try to use some of the settings/filters and see if I can get better pictures. As teeball suggested that G400 gets better results, I guess I can plan to get a G400 TV card :-)

-- Bobby (blchai@yahoo.com), January 04, 2001.

One more piont, VCD has limited quality 352X240 res will not be as good as digital 8. When played on large TV you will not have a sharp picture

-- teeball (tlbake@earthlink.net), January 05, 2001.

From all the answers above, seems there is no way I can archive my own shot from my Sharp VL-PD6 Camcorder onto CD-rom. I like to store away my video taken from the camcorder on CD-rom. What is the best option retaining the highest quality? Although my 1394 preview my video very clean and nice on my PC, when captured (so called 25 frames/sec), playback seems to be of much lower frames/sec. What could be wrong? I use Ulead Studio 4.

Thanks Leon

-- Leon Woo (leon@pacific.net.sg), January 24, 2001.



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