Could you please recommend a capture card?

[deltat]

Hi all,

I need to caputre some video clips from an analog camera to PC.

Here are some features needed:
1. Input: Composite Video (RCA)
2. Output: USB or IEEE-1394
3. Support TV Standards: NTSC and PAL
4. The captured video should not be cropped and/or scaled.
And the output resolution need support both 480i and 576i.
5. High-quality encoder is preferred.
6. 4 channels video input and record is an optional but is preferred

Could you please recommend a capture card?
Thanks.

[Ghitulescu]

1. any
2. all 1394 ok, USB vary
4. nobody did the tests for you, see however the stickies, how to find it for yourself
5. that costs, so see the price
6. profi or surveillance - both expensive (the last also bad quality).

[Emulgator]

What I am using to capture SD NTSC and PAL right now
is Canopus ADVC-300 capturing to DV25.
The Canopus DV Codec performs ok. (Uses Sony, not Microsoft)
Can be recommended, has good hardware-based restoration,
but since the newer avisynth's external filters do perform even better,
I will not use ADVC's filter anymore.
An earlier Pinnacle MovieBox was also just ok.
Quality is just ok, but DV25 soon will not be enough anymore.
Grainy footage brings DV-DCT at 25Mbit/s to its limits,
DV50 would be fine, looks good in my tests, but I do not know of a capture box having this available.
Besides of that, some NLE's do not like DV50 from ffdshow.
My future approach should be a PCI card capturing to
something less compressed. (Blackmagic, Pegasus)
6: If you want to capture 4 channels video and want use a 1394 link:
This is not desirable, I guess, it won't fit into the sustained bitrate.
Under Windows, there are many cases reported where 1394
is intentionally forced to slower modes (S100,S200) by the OS, just for kicks.
Some professional audio ADC makers (RME) can tell stories about that.

[deltat]

Hi Ghitulescu and Emulgator, Thanks for your advices. I am going to check the detail of the ADVC-300.
For the 6, because there are two projects that one uses 1 camera and another one uses 4 cameras, I am wondering whether it's possible to just use one card in the development stage.
And we need to capture some video clips outside the office, so a 1394 or USB will be convenient for a laptop.

[GrofLuigi]

You already have the cameras and would prefer not to replace them?

If that's true, I'd start from there (tell us what system are they and what connectors they have).

Otherwise, buying DV cameras might be enough? (many computers already have firewire, or cheap firewire cards can be bought).

GL

[deltat]

Originally Posted by GrofLuigi

You already have the cameras and would prefer not to replace them?

If that's true, I'd start from there (tell us what system are they and what connectors they have).

Otherwise, buying DV cameras might be enough? (many computers already have firewire, or cheap firewire cards can be bought).

GL

Hi GL, thanks for your advice
Yes, the camera has been defined and will be attached to an embedded system via CVBS. What we need is buying a capture card that is able to capture some video clips with the same camera. So that we can use a laptop for video collecting outside the office.

[Ghitulescu]

Originally Posted by deltat

Hi Ghitulescu and Emulgator, Thanks for your advices. I am going to check the detail of the ADVC-300.
For the 6, because there are two projects that one uses 1 camera and another one uses 4 cameras, I am wondering whether it's possible to just use one card in the development stage.
And we need to capture some video clips outside the office, so a 1394 or USB will be convenient for a laptop.

On the German forum of Doom9, someone that is involved in VHS restoration claims that ADVC-300 has a bad TBC that mostly aggravate than heal.

You can use 4 cameras at the time, but tape them, then you have to synch this in a [semi]profi editor like Premiere, edius etc. You'll have anyway not only to synch them in terms of video/audio but also in terms of colour (even if they were calibrated before).

[lordsmurf]

As mentioned here -- http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/show...8710-1853.html (3rd post down) --there's really no industry standard for what "TBC" means, so you end up with it almost randomly being used like a buzz word on products. Any dinky little filter is suddenly a "TBC" to be advertised. Canopus boxes have long been the subject of negative reviews, regarding the so-called "TBC" functionality in their boxes. Whatever is in there, doesn't really do anything. What it DOES have however, is a rather abusive noise reduction system that tends to overdo the filtering, leaving you with video that isn't necessarily better than what you started with. It is often noted for smeary/blurry video, with banding.

It's overpriced, and many DVD recorders will do a better job.

To give suggestions, I need budget and location.

[deltat]

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

To give suggestions, I need budget and location.

Hi lordsmurf, thanks for your attention.
If the price is less than US$ 300 on amazon, it will be OK. Thanks.

[Emulgator]

Canopus ADVC-300: I agree, TBC it does not too good,
connect a TBC-activated deck as source and you can screw it up badly,
so I only use one TBC at a time.
The built-in NR I switched off since 2008 in favour of Avisynth solutions,
(but who has nothing in mind with Avisynth will probably enjoy these filters as I did before 2008)
In the end if you strip these things off anyway you can have it cheaper for DV25.

At the moment I am considering something that can feed a NotebookPC uncompressed via ExpressCard
like Blackmagic Multibridge (19" 2HE/1HE, many connections, a bit too expensive)
(up to 2K, 4-lane direct hardwired PCI-X Connectionboard for Tower-PCs available, Expresscard not available)
MotU HDX-SDI (19"/1HE, many useful connections, ExpressCard available, but drivers only for MacOS at the moment, Windows drivers not ready yet)
Matrox MXO2 LE (strange like 9.5" 3-side connection box, ExpressCard available, MacOS and Windows drivers available,
but looks and feels a bit flimsy and lacks some connectors for the money)

Still undecided, maybe someone has used some of these and can tell what he thinks...

[lordsmurf]

I don't know what you'd do with a 2K capture.

[Ghitulescu]

HD is the way to go ...