Hardware MPEG-2 capture card

[Quu]

I archive alot of short music videos... and I am trying to figure out a faster way to do it... I basically capture the video... tirm off excess leader and footer black, then encode it as an MPEG-2

my current setup is
AG-ds840 -> Targa 2000 Pro (component video, highest bit rate)
Captured File (in quicktime) -> CCE 2.66

which, gives me a very high quality video file... but at an incredibly slow time to process for each video....

a freind of mine tipped me off onto direct hardware encoders. such as:
Adpatec's VideOh! DVD/PCI
Sigma Design's Realmagic DVR
Dazzle's DVC 150, DVC-II, or DCS-200
Pinnacle Systems DC1/2000
Canopus DVStorm2
DVD Cut Machine
Others?

and told em to check those out. I borrowed another freinds DC1000, and it worked perfectly, allowing me to catpure in MPEG-2 IBBP and edit and trim... but the card is very expensive... and I am told the DVStorm2 will do the same thing... but they are really expensive....

I am mainly curious about the VideOh! and the Dazzle line ups.... are any of those really good?

for instance... what is the bitrate controll on both of them (I tend to use single pass constant quality 100% 12 megabit max)... can they do IBBP... or just I frame?

I am hoping that i can just capture, trim, then mux...

[henry_nettles]

I recently purchased a Dazzle DVC-II, used, for slightly less than $100. I am very well pleased with this purchase. I use the Bugsy software, and capture directly to Mpeg2, VBR, 8 mbps. This software features a timer for recording at a later time. I can edit in Tmpgenc (to cut off any excess in the front or back of the capture), and then record directly in MovieFactory 2.0. Or, I can use Tmpgenc to do a simple demultiplex (.mpg to separate .mp2 and .m2v files), and import straight into DVDMaestro.

I have done about 20 movies so far, recording from DirecTV, with no problems. Most of these are older movies on Turner Classic Movies or one of the Encore channels, and my recorded quality is every bit as good as the original broadcast (playing back on a Toshiba 52 inch rear projection TV).

Many people have reported problems with the Dazzle DVC-II card, but I am very happy with mine. I attribute my success to two factors:

1. Not using a VIA chipset motherboard. I am using an Intel P4 cpu, with a motherboard based on the SIS 645 chipset.

2. Clean install of Windows 2000, Service Pack 3, without a lot of extraneous junk loaded on this computer.

[vivaatloni]

How is the quality in comparision to software baded encoding (such as cce).

[henry_nettles]

Originally posted by vivaatloni
How is the quality in comparision to software baded encoding (such as cce).

The movies I am capturing are not exactly the highest quality to start with. I am into old movies, from the 30's and 40's and 50's. Generally, the quality on these movies is not exactly great. Add to that DirecTV is over-compressing their signal these days (too many channels for the bandwidth), and the quality I start with is not very high. Given all of that, to my eyes the DVDs I create look every bit as good as what I started with.

From what I have read, it is possible to get a better picture using CCE or Tmpgenc (given a high quality signal to start with). But I don't think the difference is that great, and the cost (in time) is very high.

If I see something on the TV schedule that I want to record, it takes about 60 seconds to setup Bugsy to do the capture. The next day, it takes less than 5 minutes to run MovieFactory 2.0 (automatic chapter generation, no menu), wait 10 minutes for MovieFactory to create the VOBs, then around 1 minute to run Gear Pro recording software and wait 30 minutes for the burn (Ritek 2x DVD-R in a Sony DRU500A). It doesn't get much easier than that, and being easy I wind up with many more movies captured than I would otherwise have.

[dvd_maniac]

Henry
I can use Tmpgenc to do a simple demultiplex (.mpg to separate .mp2 and .m2v files), and import straight into DVDMaestro
I use my ATI AIW 8500 128MB for capturing off my DirecTV and then use Tempgenc to do a simple demux, just like you. I also use Maestro as well, but I have to convert mp2 into ac3 file before Maestro will except it. What are you doing different or did you just forget to mention that step? I would love to be able to skip this step.

[henry_nettles]

Originally posted by dvd_maniac
Henry

I use my ATI AIW 8500 128MB for capturing off my DirecTV and then use Tempgenc to do a simple demux, just like you. I also use Maestro as well, but I have to convert mp2 into ac3 file before Maestro will except it. What are you doing different or did you just forget to mention that step? I would love to be able to skip this step.

No, I didn't forget to mention that step. DVDMaestro is very happy with the .mp2 files captured by my Dazzle DVC-II. I used to use an ATI AIW Radeon for captures, and I had some problems with the .mp2 files captured by the ATI. Not so with the Dazzle DVC-II.

As a matter of fact, if I know I am going to use DVDMaestro, I can set the capture software to record directly to .mpv and .mp2 and import these two files directly into DVDMaestro. In this case, the simple demux is not even necessary.