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Video Capture


AussieJohn
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I am planning to get a Video capture card that is capable of transferring VCR Videos to SATA HDD and then onto DVD, during the next 3 weeks.

I have looked online at a couple that might do it but of course their software is all Windows....Ugh.

Since I have been Windows free for over a year now and plan to stay that way, I thought I would get MUB members views of what might be the best cards for this project that are Linux compatable and secondly what Linux programs would be best for the task.

 

I am hoping to hear from members who are perhaps already active in this area but I welcome any contributions to the subject.

 

I have about 15 Australian movies that I have been unable to get DVD replacements for. I have a home taped 5hr tape covering the Australian winning of the Americas Cup deciding race. The Opening and Closing Ceremonys of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the same for the Sydney Special 2000 Olympics as well as video tapes of the now world famous Sydney New Year Fireworks displays for a number of Years. Plus about 50 Video tapes of Music Videos from way way back and a lot of it is possibly duplicated.

 

I am looking at a mid price range e.g. A$150.00

 

Looking forward to your responses. John.

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Happy New Year, John :D

 

I just recently looked into a similar task except for I am using my camcorder as the AV->DV interface between the VCR and the PC. I have recently replaced my Mandriva 2005LE partition with Ubuntu, so my experience is based on Ubuntu 6.06. The version of Kino which comes with Ubuntu 6.06 captures the camcorder DV output pretty well, a lot better than the one I had on the 2005LE PC. You can also do some simple editing and DVD authoring with Kino.

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software

http://loll.sourceforge.net/linux/links/Au...ideo/index.html

but what do you want to achieve? No editing needed?

Good card will convert to mpeg2 already

Encoding, frontends or just use mencoder (see mplayer)

 

cards?

I think choice is very restricted

Is it the pvr 250 I have seen around a lot?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php/cat/120

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Thanks Coverup and Emmanuel.

Thanks to your help I have found and installed LIVE and it looks interesting.

Looking at sites for possible Video capture cards is very confusing especially most of the sites seem to date back to between 2000 and 2003. Not very reassuring at all. That is why I am hoping to hear more from current users as well.

Thanks heaps.

Anyone else can contribute then please do. Remember your info will be helpful to a lot of other users as well.

 

Cheers. John.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd take a good look at the Hauppage PVR 350. It's right around $130 or so here in the states. It has the ability for hardware encoding and decoding and it seems to be pretty well supported in linux. It works well with Mythtv and VDR from what I've read. It got very good reviews when it came out.. mostly written for Windows.

It should do nicely as long as you don't have the need for 2 tuners or the ability to watch and record high def TV.

 

I've been watching the price drop and am going to buy one myself soon ;)

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Hauppage PVR 350

John, that is the one I read/heard about, anyway the right brand.

There was a difference in support between 250 and 350

if I recall well (might have changed by now), and I do not know which of the two model you would need.

 

Other advice based on no experience: avoid usb video device unless

really well supported under linux

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Thanks also now to Dark Foss as well.

Looks like it will be the Hauppage Nova-T Winfast 2000. It seem to be highly praised at 10 out of 10 by Linux users who post that they use it.

Thanks to everyone I have also downloaded extra software and am looking at. Most looks just right for what I want.

 

Will keep you all posted on my progress.

 

Thanks everyone. John.

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Hi John,

 

Yes go for hauppauge it s very compatible LINUX and you can find all the modules to activate in the 2.6 kernel (I recall u are on 2.6.17-8mdv).

 

Software-wise I love kino for the DV files, it will do anything you want. If your files need shrinking a bit I would use tovid with the ffmepg option, this is fairly fast and delivers most of the time.

 

Another one to consider is avidemux, good stuff there, mainly if you have a timeshift between the sound and the video, that happens often to me.

 

Anyway, good luck and let us know how you got on, beside I am French and live in the UK, so well done for the Ashes!

 

Stef

 

:lol2:

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Software-wise I love kino for the DV files, it will do anything you want....

 

Another one to consider is avidemux...

emmanuel_uk, I am looking forward to reading about your experience.

 

I'd like to find some sort of idiot's guide to capturing video to DVD. I just want a simple list of actions/options to select to get a DVD. I don't care (at this stage) about wealth of possibilities and options the program/script xyz offers to a power user - I have no intension to become one :D

 

Using Kino, I managed to capture to a dv file, and then was able to convert it into an ogg audio (mp2 or mp3 did not work, dunno why) and mpeg video with no sound. Even though I selected option 8 - DVD, I ended up with a silent mpeg. How do I get a DVD out of this mess?

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Jumping late into the game, but if I had a camcorder, and it was dv compatible, sometimetimes the video input in the camcorder can capture directly to dv, and then you capture via firewire in you box. This solution is $15 if you don't already have an ie1394 card/port installed. It also gets you into editing your videos easily from your camcorder.

 

Now remember, this would only work in your dv camcorder can convert live... Some can't, some can.. but it is easy enough to check or look up in most cases.

 

You will have to convert your dv into mpeg, but that doesn't take a super long time (worst case, like mine, is two to three times the length of the video... and I am using an AMD 700mhz)

 

I would recommend Kino as your capture and editing software, and I have made lots of home movies with it quickly.

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Hi there,

 

I have recently completed such a project, I`ll detail how I achieved it using Mandriva 2007, it may be helpfull :)

 

I used a Hauppage WinTV TV tuner card.

Connected the VCR to the WinTV card via scart to composite cable, you could also use a RF cable.

 

The WinTV and composite is more than good enough to capture from VHS.

 

To record the composite signal :-

 

mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l:input=1:width=720:height=406:volume=80 -of avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vbitrate=4000 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=ac3:abitrate=96 -o record.avi -endpos 119:00

 

Note the resolution in this example is 720x406 which is for a widescreen movie. Depending on your PC specs, you might not be able to capture at this resolution. 640x480 is good for 4:3 VHS.

 

The 119:00 is just the length of time you wish to record, remove this part if you want to record forever (using ctrl c to stop)

 

I used mpeg2video codec because it uses much less CPU than for example XVID and also it`s closer to the end format of DVD.

 

Convert the recording to DVD using the excellent ManDVD application. It can edit the original video, create menu`s, chapters, backgrounds, aswell as allowing you to burn the final project to DVD directly from within ManDVD, externally via K3b or save as an ISO file.

 

Hope that helps, I have converted 50+ VHS tapes to DVD this way.

Edited by aerogate
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