| Author | Thread |
|
|
11/07/2004 08:57:23 PM · #1 |
Would someone suggest the hardware required for my PC to allow me to copy my video camcorder home movies to a DVD. I know I'll need a DVD writer but what else is required, where do I buy, and at what cost?
My pc is pent3 700m. Is that ok or will I need to upgrade? Thanks |
|
|
|
11/07/2004 09:09:36 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by David Ey:
Would someone suggest the hardware required for my PC to allow me to copy my video camcorder home movies to a DVD. I know I'll need a DVD writer but what else is required, where do I buy, and at what cost?
My pc is pent3 700m. Is that ok or will I need to upgrade? Thanks |
Your computer doesn't seem fast enough. My 1.6ghz 1gb RAM AMD Athlon 2000+ has a hard time keeping up with the capturing process. I imagine a 700mhz would be worse off.
You may want to consider a DVD Recorder. Prices have come down quite a bit.
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 09:13:12 PM · #3 |
| Hey, yeah. I don't get out enough. Thanks That looks exactly what I want. |
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:06:20 PM · #4 |
Get a new Apple iMac for $1299 and you can transfer your movies right away and burn a DVD with the included software. Nothing else to buy but the iMac.
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:19:47 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by doctornick:
Get a new Apple iMac for $1299 and you can transfer your movies right away and burn a DVD with the included software. Nothing else to buy but the iMac. |
True, although the eMac will do the same thing for $799 0r $999 with SuperDrive.
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:40:06 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by doctornick:
Get a new Apple iMac for $1299 and you can transfer your movies right away and burn a DVD with the included software. Nothing else to buy but the iMac. |
Interesting...I didn't know Macs could pull this off. How exactly do you transfer them? For example, if I have a VCR and a bunch of VHS Tapes, how do I get the actual movies into the Mac?
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:47:23 PM · #7 |
Ok now for a non biased answer. First of all is your movies from a regular or dv camcorder? If it's from a regular camcorder all you need is a good capture card or a card from the ATI all in wonder family. I have captured video with these cards with a 800mhz computer without any problem. These cards have their own processors so the speed of the computer is not as important. If you have a DV camcorder all is not lost you can still hook up the AV outputs to the capture card. Here is a link to some capture cards that will work with your system
Link 1
Link 2
Hope this helps. |
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:50:09 PM · #8 |
Actually he was asking about his camcorder, you just connect your camcorder to the Firewire port and download the movie to the Mac, then use iMovie to edit your final movie then burn it to DVD using iDVD. If you have some old VHS tapes laying around you will need EyeTV to connect your Video player via an S-VHS or Digital out to the Firewire port and then import the movie.
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 10:55:26 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by doctornick:
Actually he was asking about his camcorder, you just connect your camcorder to the Firewire port and download the movie to the Mac, then use iMovie to edit your final movie then burn it to DVD using iDVD. If you have some old VHS tapes laying around you will need EyeTV to connect your Video player via an S-VHS or Digital out to the Firewire port and then import the movie. |
Very cool. Thanks! :D I've been looking at Macs lately and it's nice to know this is possible.
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 11:18:08 PM · #10 |
I routinely transfer camcorder files on my PC via firewire port to hard drive then burn to DVD as either data files, MPEG2, or DVD (also mpeg2 with a formalized file structure.)
Ulead Video 8 works well to edit the files or any number of other video editing utilities. I also convert some files to Mpeg4 (Divx) and burn to CD.
The firewire card additon to your PC (if you don't already have one) costs only about $25. Use Windows ME, 2000, or XP. For a processor, the minimum is a PII, but faster and more powerful P4s are much better.
If you have unlimited funds, don't fool around around with a Mac, just get a dedicated video processing system! |
|
|
|
11/07/2004 11:22:52 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by David Ey:
Would someone suggest the hardware required for my PC to allow me to copy my video camcorder home movies to a DVD. I know I'll need a DVD writer but what else is required, where do I buy, and at what cost?
My pc is pent3 700m. Is that ok or will I need to upgrade? Thanks |
So if you need just copy from yours comcorder
1.do you have firevire port on your comcorder or you have just analog RCA.
2 If you have Fire Vire port on comcorder you need PCI FireVire card for PC.
3 If you have RCA you need analog-DV converter like PYRO, PINNACLE,CANOPUS.........
And if you need just copy home move from tape to DVD P700m just fine.
For editing you need amd64 or MAC
|
|
|
|
11/07/2004 11:45:08 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by ElGordo:
...If you have unlimited funds, don't fool around around with a Mac, just get a dedicated video processing system! |
Lol, plug in and click a button to transfer from iMovie to DVD and burn. Not much fooling around.
|
|
|
|
11/08/2004 01:50:15 AM · #13 |
Edit: My answer pertains to doing video capture from an analog source(i.e. not a DV camera which is much easier to do)
This is a very very long discussion to answer. It depends on how much involvement you want to have personally.
I've been doing video capture for many years. Going to DVD is just the extra step of encoding to mpeg2 and then mastering the DVD from that and burning it.
I've done captures at 640x480@29.970fps(which is what you would want to capture NTSC at and then resize to 720x480 later) on a 550Mhz Celeron with 0 frames dropped back in the day. The key here is what compression are you capturing to and how fast are your drives. If you want to capture directly to mpeg2 so that you can got directly to DVD mastering you'll have to get something like a Happauge PVR-250 card that does hardware mpeg2 compression. Otherwise you can get something like a Hauppauge WinTV 401 and capture with that, and then post process it. Post processing on your machine will be VERY long...very likely multiple days depending on how much you do(i.e. how clean your source and capture is).
Personally from what I've seen the best analog capture card for a variety of reasons is the Compro Videomate TV Ultra. It costs around the same as a WinTV 401, so given the choice the Compro is better. But it's not a no brainer solution either. I can give you links to more extensive discussions on the art of video capture. You may dig around doom9.org as they have some guides on performing video capture and cleanup using a free program called VirtualDub. You'll need to add a few steps on the end of that since you are targetting DVD production.
And then some caveats, DVD burning isn't nearly as universally compatible as CD burning. So be prepared for the possibility of media type/player incompatibility.
Message edited by author 2004-11-08 01:51:06. |
|
|
|
11/08/2004 01:54:30 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by PerezDesignGroup:
Your computer doesn't seem fast enough. My 1.6ghz 1gb RAM AMD Athlon 2000+ has a hard time keeping up with the capturing process. I imagine a 700mhz would be worse off.
|
What is your capture hardware and what are you capturing to? That is PLENTY fast capture full NTSC with stereo PCM audio if you are using the right compression and have fast enough discs with lots of space free. Forgive me for being so blunt, but you are doing something wrong if your PC is not able to cap with those specs.
|
|
|
|
11/08/2004 04:19:30 AM · #15 |
Originally posted by colema19:
Originally posted by PerezDesignGroup:
Your computer doesn't seem fast enough. My 1.6ghz 1gb RAM AMD Athlon 2000+ has a hard time keeping up with the capturing process. I imagine a 700mhz would be worse off.
|
What is your capture hardware and what are you capturing to? That is PLENTY fast capture full NTSC with stereo PCM audio if you are using the right compression and have fast enough discs with lots of space free. Forgive me for being so blunt, but you are doing something wrong if your PC is not able to cap with those specs. |
When pushing to true DVD format which is 720x480 it isn't. Sorry. I can't remember the name of my capture card. I'm pulling from an Analog VCR using PowerVCR II v3. By the time you reach the end of the movie, audio and video are WAY out of sync. Someday I'll invest in a standlone DVD Recorder and ditch the VCR.
Message edited by author 2004-11-08 04:23:37.
|
|
|
|
11/08/2004 10:28:57 AM · #16 |
i've captured straight from a DV Camcorder to a firewire enabled PIII without any hastle @ 768 x 576px
just make sure u have a fast Hard Disk ie. 7200RPM and you shouldn't have any trouble
the compression @ the end is the bitch.. takes a few hours to compress.. |
|
|
|
11/08/2004 10:49:26 AM · #17 |
Originally posted by PerezDesignGroup:
When pushing to true DVD format which is 720x480 it isn't. Sorry. I can't remember the name of my capture card. I'm pulling from an Analog VCR using PowerVCR II v3. By the time you reach the end of the movie, audio and video are WAY out of sync. Someday I'll invest in a standlone DVD Recorder and ditch the VCR. |
actually, yeah it is, it's just that the only source most consumers have access to with true 720x480 output is a DVD. And if you have a DVD you should be ripping it not capturing from it.. But I can capture 720x480 just fine if I wanted to. But there aren't any broadcast sources at NTSC level where you are really getting any extra resolution by capturing 720h instead of 640h. You are better off saving space capping at 640 and resizing in post process. You can't cap at 640, tt's either your hardware is really bad, you've got a really bad input signal, or you aren't using the codecs you should be for capturing. What format do you capture to?
PowerVCR is probably not the best tool for capturing stuff. It's designed primarily as a timeshifting application which I'm sure it does fine fine. But for anything else you should be using VirtualDub(if you have VFW drivers) or VirtualVCR if you have WDM drivers. Both of those programs have settings/tricks to help maintain audio sync that it sounds like VirtualVCR probably doesn't bother with. If you are capturing TV on a schedule then PowerVCR is probably more convient, but then you shouldn't be capturing at 720x480. If you are capturing analog tape source you should do 640x480 and use something like either mjpeg at an 18 or 19 quality setting, or Huffyuv if you have the space for it. You should also always capture audio as PCM not as some comrpessed format which can really add to sync problems. If you do compressed audio in the capture you shouldn't do any variable bitrate, because AVI files are not designed for them and can have problems with vbr audio inherent to the design.
|
|
|
|
11/08/2004 11:06:48 AM · #18 |
| I have a 1.7 with 512 megs of ram, and have a dv cam so and bought a fire wire card at walmart for 25 bucks. my computer can keep up with the camera when tranferring to my pc, but tranferring back edited movies to the camera my, pc can't keep up with the camera. |
|
|
|
11/08/2004 11:19:31 AM · #19 |
I have tried capturing to the pc from 8mm tapes and also by firewire with my new digital camcorder. I had a nightmare and spent the best part of a week trying different software and capture cards. It took my 1100 athlon hours to capture then you got the rendering and compressing and editing and burning if your lucky and it hasn`t crashed.
Anyway i gave up because a friend has a dvd recorder and this just needs pluging in and press record. Simple as long as you don`t want to do fancy editing.
|
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 09/13/2025 11:51:30 AM EDT.
