video capture advice?

[ozispimp]

i'm going to be getting into capturing/editing video on my computer.. what i plan on doing is connecting my directv to my computer, so i can record episodes of shows that i used to watch a lot and aren't on air too often.

what card would you recommend, around the 100 dollar range that captures good video (doesn't have to be dvd quality or anything) also, how would the audio get recorded?? does the video capture card also record audio?? it would be IDEAL to get 2 episodes (or a 1 hour episode) onto a 700mb cdr..

also, in terms of software, what's good software to download, er... buy ?

also, are my specs going to be ok for video/audio capture?

amd 1.2ghz 512 megs ram, 2 30gb drives, one 7200 and one 5400.. i will be storing it all on dvds after i edit them, so hard drive space isn't an issue.

 

[cdogg]

Your specs are fine. All you need is to purchase the video card. ATI All-in-Wonder cards are decent cards that won't break your bank. I own an ATI Vivo 64MB card that came with Video capturing software. The audio comes in through your existing sound card (line in).

As far as transferring to CD, it just depends on what format you end up recording the video in. MPEG-1 is VCR quality. The capture software will let you control the video bitrate - the higher the setting, the better the quality but the more space it will take up on your hard drive. Generally, you should be able to easily fit up to 74 minutes on a 650MB disc. With more compression (loss of quality) you could easily double or triple that amount.

If you want to make VCDs which are playable on most DVD players, go here to learn more:

http://www.vcdhelp.com

Good luck!!
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[ozispimp]

thanks for the reply cdogg.. i didn't know you still posted here?!!? i remember you from a while back, on "to get best quality from a cd"

as you can tell, i haven't posted in mooooonths.

anyway, thanks again.. i'll give that a try.. now i just gotta figure out how to get my computer all the way to my tv

and i will most likely be converting to VCD.. since i'd rather watch it through the dreamcast then on the computer.. only bad part is you can't fast foward

 

[cdogg]

No problem. Yeah, I'm still here unfortunately!! LOL I never seem to have anything better to do while at work!!

Just one other suggestion for ya...Have you considered investing about $50 for an APEX DVD player? They're extremely cheap and can play almost anything (VCD, SVCD, CDR, CD-RW, MP3 CD's, etc) - not to mention any CD brand. You can find this player at Best Buy, Circuit City, or HHGregg.

If you don't care to spend the money, then does your dreamcast support going from chapter to chapter (not the same as fast forwarding)? If so, you could use VCDEasy to divide your video into chapters before you burn the VCD. VCDEasy is a free utility and you can find it in the Tools section at the site above.
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[ceh4702]

Look for some software that can handle MPEG-4 and you can store more on a single CDROM. I have heard they are working on some blue light laser CD/DVD devices but I havent seen much on it. They claimed it could expand storage capacity. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Guest_imported]

your system should rip video great, i would suggest getting a pinnacle dc10 or radeon all in wonder 7500 or 8500 depending on your budget. i'm running a pinnacle dc10 on a athlon 1600 with 384mb ddr and 2 40gb hard drives, and i can compress in mpeg about and hour and a half of extremely(virtually dvd) quality video on a 700mb cd that is dvd player compatible