capture/encoding card suggestions

[pale]

I'm looking for a video capture/encoding card. It's main purpose would be capturing video from analogue sources (s-video input a must, component input, and s-video-output a plus). Ideally, it should be possible to capture at full dvd resolution directly to high quality dvd-compliant mpeg2 (I have a Athlon 1,4ghz). Besides, the card would also be used to encode (and edit) digital video to mpeg2 (sometimes also mpeg1) fast, for appliccations where absolute quality is in order, CCE is an option. Also, the card should allow occasional viewing of video from tv without capturing (full screen preferrabbly). Also a possiblity of inputting dv material is a plus, as is quality software (such as Premiere). The card should be compatible with PAL sorces and must run on win2k (preferrably also on win xp). All this should cost max. EUR/USD 1.000. I'm considering cards like Pinnacle DV500DVD, Canopus Amber and MVR1000 and Maxtor RT.X10. Suggestions about cards fulfilling the said requirements highly appreciated.

[Malow]

rtx10 i belive is the best, i have a rtx100 and rt2000. it capture in realtime mpeg2, or dv to use another app to convert. in a good machine no problems.

my friend have pinnacle dvd500, it have so problems with it, and change to a rt2500... .:)

Malow.

[Malow]

its dv500dvd not dvd500..

and canopus advc 100 are a good way, but only capture dv, not mpeg2
but u can use a app to capture mpeg2 direct by software

[pale]

I checked specs of Matrox card and RT2500 seems more interesting than RT.X10 as I get the impression that RT.X10 cannot capture directly to dvd compliant mpeg2, but uses dv-format, which has to re-encoded.

I am also very interested to hear comments about the quality of the encoder cards vs. software based single-pass encodings. If I choose to go software-based, I still need analogue inputs. What's peoples take on input-quality between vivo graphics cards (i.e. Ati Radeon 9000 series or Leadtek Geforce 4 cards, other suggestions welcome) compared to specialised cards (such as Canopus ADVC1394). What kind of hardware is required to be able to encode to mpeg2 at full resolution with no dropped frames in real time with software codec?

[Malow]

u are right, i forgot. im forgot this difference in x10 to x100
it canot capure in mpeg2... oly x100...

capturing with my x100 give good results, but, the image are NOT so sharpness compared with dv captured and encoded with cbr in CCE.

more "flat" image, but less the famous "moskito noise"

[pale]

I did some more searching and Canopus advc-100 & firewire card start to seem interesting as I've gathered from other peoples comments, that direct-to-mpeg2 capture produces unsatisfactory results (quality-wise) within my budget restrain. Thus capture to DV and later conversion to dvd compliant mpeg2 with CCE (multipass) seems to be acceptable compromise.

However, I was reading that it should be possible to convert inbound DV to mpeg2 on-the-fly with WinProducer 3, if need be (provided the computer is fast enough, of course).

I read from Canopus forums that some people have succesfully got advc-100 & firewire card combination to work as scheduled video recorder with Showshifter. Can anyone verify this?

[Swan]

Pale, first of all, I'd look on the web for user comments on the pricey RT2500. From what I've heard from a friend of mine that had one on loan for a while, it was a complete mess to install and what was worse, it was so intimately linked with Adobe Premiere to the point where it was impossible to use it with other software. I have not tested it, but this is what I heard and I trust this friend.

Anyway, I have an ADVC-100. It works with all capturing software that can control a Firewire device. I have tested it with:
Ulead VideoStudio 6.02
Ulead MediaStudio 6.5
Ulead DVD Workshop 1.3
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2.0
Vegas Video 3
Adobe Premiere 6.5
Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro 2.5
Scenalyzer Live (latest version).

It works flawlessly with all these, except PowerDirector which crashed on exit. Could have been a temporary flaw, though.

Yes, you can capture and compress to Mpeg directly (on-the-fly) if you use a capturing software that can do it. From the list above, these can capture in either DV (avi) or Mpeg (1 and 2):
Ulead VideoStudio 6.02
Ulead MediaStudio 6.5
Ulead DVD Workshop 1.3
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2.0
Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro 2.5

I think WinProducer is a bundled with the ADVC-50 or ADVC-1394 (not with the ADVC-100), but Winproducer is an outdated and no longer sold, product from Intervideo, isn't it? I shy away from Intervideo as Winproducer, like all Intervideo's software, deinterlaces the video while capturing.

The quality from Direct-Mpeg-2 capturing in Ulead's software is very good, much better than any consumer-analog system I've ever seen.
The way I use it is, if I record something I intend to view and throw away, I use Mpeg-2 on the fly capturing. if I want to save the material in the highest possible quality, I capture in DV Avi and encode to DVD-ready Mpeg-2 with TMPGEnc. With the ADVC, you can do what you like: direct Mpeg-capturing or DV-compressed avi.

Cannot verify the Showshifter thing. I am not interested in it either, as I saw on its web site that it uses "Realtime software encoding using any Windows VCM compliant codec*, for example: MPEG4 and DivX, Indeo, Motion JPEG"
No mention of Mpeg-2 there, and I doubt the codecs it supports, which has to be installed on the system and presumably does not come with Showshifter itself, can beat the quality from the DVD-recording preset Mpeg-2 from any of Ulead's software.
Most people claim direct high-resolution, high bitrate Mpeg-2 capturing is an inferior method to capture video, but few have seen it before forming their opinion. :)

/Maria