Just a quick question about capture...

[deathtical]

I had a quick look at the analog guide and it is very informative but I had some questions since the guide is showing it's age. Here's what I have...

OS: Win7Ult64bit
CPU: Core i5 2nd Gen
RAM: 8Gb
Video Card: ATI HD6950
The HDD I will use: WD Black 1Tb

What I'm trying to do. I finally centralized all my storage into a WHS2011 and I have some old laser discs I want to encode and put on the server so I can share them with all the other PCs in the house and also keep them backed up. I was wondering if you could recommend a good capture device (was looking at http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10810&cs_id=1081003&p_id=5616&seq=1&format=4#feedback) and a good app for the capture.

And before anyone asks... this is for private/personal viewing only. The titles I want to encode are not available on any other media (ie: VHS, DVD, BluRay) or I would have picked them up. I have already encoded DVDs and BluRays before but am not sure how to approach the laser discs.

Thanks.

[Asmodian]

I don't think that is really a very good capture device but it is hard to find a reasonably priced high quality analog capture device that has drivers for Windows 7 x64. I have liked my Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/495426-REG/Blackmagic_Design_BINTSPRO_Intensity_Pro_HDMI_and.html) but it also enables HD capture from HDMI and is ~13.5 times the price. :o


I like VirtualDub for capture software.

[deathtical]

I'm not really worried about the price. The one I was really looking at was ADVC-55 (http://www.amazon.com/Canopus-770-10138-105-Hardware-ADVC-55-Converter/dp/B000HGVZG0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_T1?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2I3WTHY6SDTTI&colid=2V44KSG2RA20J). Just seeing that one on mono reminded me that I wanted to get these laser discs done. But the one you posted looks nice too. Just not sure when I would use all it's features as I don't really capture HD content and I rip my DVDs and BluRays. But nice suggestion none the less. I tried using VD in the past but was a little overwhelmed with all the options. Maybe I'll give it another look now that I've had a little more practice with converting files.

:thanks:

[Asmodian]

From what I can find the ADVC-55 (and the others like it) capture to DV which is a lossy video codec. I like being able to capture lossless and convert to H.264 rather than capture lossy and do two lossy compressions.

That said DV is a lot better than mpeg2 as an intermediate capture format and probably won't damage your video too much.

Good Luck. :)

[deathtical]

Thanks. At least I have a better place to start now. Now I have have to decide what to craigslist so I can get the capture card/device ;).