[PacHead]

I have a crapload of old vhs tapes which I would like to transfer into my mac, and turn into VCDs, so I can throw away those bulky, primitive vhs cassettes..

I've looked into a few of those usb boxes (asb instant usb mac), but the prices are way more than the pc ones, and I really just need the hardware, not the wierd japanese software that comes with it.

Is there any cheap, ok quality PCI solution for mac ? Surely a PCI card would be cheaper than one of those usb boxes.

I'm looking to go analogue video & audio in from a VCR and into my mac, where I will burn it onto VCD. I have a dvd burner too, but I don't need that quality for these things I'm backing up.

What would be the best/cheapest solution to do this ?

Around $150 would be an acceptable price range.

[jtc]

Do not get a USB video capture device - the quality sucks. Does your mac have firewire? if so you can import with iMovie and go from there.

You can get a FW DV bridge or use a DV cam that has analogue in (I think most do). Know anyone who will let you borrow their DV cam for a while?

[Uncle Skeleton]

borrowing the DV cam will be easier and cheaper. But have a look at Televio. It's a PCI card for about $125. I have one and am very happy with it, but I can tell you some obstacles you'll probably run into: It doesn't work with iMovie (but the bundled software can capture video), and you might have some trouble encoding your VCDs unless you have Toast or are into trial and error (ffmpegX). If you have a DVD burner you probably have some DVD encoding software (iDVD?) that will be easier than hassling with VCDs (but probably not cheaper, media included).

[buddhabelly]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
borrowing the DV cam will be easier and cheaper. But have a look at Televio. It's a PCI card for about $125. I have one and am very happy with it, but I can tell you some obstacles you'll probably run into: It doesn't work with iMovie (but the bundled software can capture video), and you might have some trouble encoding your VCDs unless you have Toast or are into trial and error (ffmpegX). If you have a DVD burner you probably have some DVD encoding software (iDVD?) that will be easier than hassling with VCDs (but probably not cheaper, media included).

from televio:
"Video Output Quality: (square pixels)

max. 640 x 480 at 29.97 fps (NTSC)

resp. max. 736 x 576 at 25 fps (PAL, SECAM)

Software compression with installed QuickTime codecs

framerate depends on codec and Mac hardware"

Does this mean I can pick whatever format I want it to record too? Like mpeg2 or dv? I just bought a powerbook and am thinking of turning my tower into a PVR/entertainment center in my living room. This is the right price for me too.

[nate_02]

Originally posted by jtc:
Do not get a USB video capture device - the quality sucks. Does your mac have firewire? if so you can import with iMovie and go from there.

You can get a FW DV bridge or use a DV cam that has analogue in (I think most do). Know anyone who will let you borrow their DV cam for a while?

I've had a lot of problems with DV bridges and it seems like the quality is better if you can go through a DV cam. I don't think you can get a decent DV bridge for under $150.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by buddhabelly:

Does this mean I can pick whatever format I want it to record too? Like mpeg2 or dv?

it means that instead of entering your mac as DV (like from a hardware bridge or camera), the video enters your mac as Component (lossless, but huge), and the capture software (Televio's or any QT capture app) can compress that to whatever it wants (that you have installed), be that MPEG-4 or DV or whatever. My dual 1ghz G4 is almost fast enough to capture at full frame with 3ivx (which is much faster than Apple's codec), and plenty fast for DV. If your chip can't keep up, the framerate is lowered, but since the video and audio come independently (apparently), the audio is still intact (and in sync), unlike my experience with a DV bridge where the audio and video would both be dropped.

I don't think you can capture straight to export components like Toast 5's mpeg-1, Apple's mpeg-2, Apple's .dv, or DivX's "avi".

So for a DVR, I would say this is perfect except that you won't be able to pause live TV, because you have to save to .mov afaik, and .dv and .mpg are the only formats I know of that allow you to watch a partial file (plus the whole issue of writing the software to take advantage of such a feature)

[buddhabelly]

I guess I need to be more clear on what I want. I don't really want to pause live tv, guides etc. rather I just want a digital video recorder to record shows when I'm either:

a) not home or
b)watching or doing something else.

I'd like to be able to burn a DVD if possible, but I suppose 3ivx would probably do nicely. I'd like to capture directly to a computer instead of a settop box and transfer it to my Powerbook for convience viewing on the go. Also, it looks perferct for some video projects I've been mulling over, capturing news and speech footage, if I can get it to compress to .dv when I need to.

Is the app that comes with it scriptable? Or since you can use any quicktime capture apps, are there any recommendations?

Sidebar: How big is component video?

[PacPerson]

This is a question for the person using the televio (alchemy tv) box.

So basically, as opposed to the usb boxes, if one has a fast mac one can do software encoding in realtime while capturing ? I know the usb boxes are supposed to do hardware encoding.

Do the files end up as regular mpegs right away, without having to do anything additional to it after the capture ?

The DVcam into iMovie solution that a few people mentioned sounds like a good way if one already has a dvcam or can borrow one, but I'm afraid the DV format is way beyond my quality requirements. DV files are huge, and I'd rather have my stuff straight to mpeg or something else which has a decent compression, right away, without doing any additional steps.

So far the alchemy tv pci card looks like my best bet, and I get the tv stuff, which I don't really need, but I guess it's alright.

Cheapest I have found so far is 99 euros for that card.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[Uncle Skeleton]

the app that comes with it is not scriptable (but with gui scripting you can make do). I recommend the shareware BTV (the pro version is not necessary just for capture; it has some editing fuctions I think), which has a decent applescript dictionary. The Televio app also installs a unix tool to change the channel, which is the only thing that BTV can't do, so you don't even have to open the Televio app (except to register it, or else the card will quit after 16 minutes of continuous usage).

Component is freakin huge. I don't know the numbers offhand, but I think it's roughly 5x as big as DV. You can do a little experiment if you have QTPro (if not, get it, it's good to have) by encoding something to 640x480 in component. use a very short sample.



No, the Televio card doesn't give you mpegs. If that's what you want, get the comparably priced EyeTV.

[PacPerson]

Oh, it only captures in component ? ,and that is 5 times bigger than DV ?

And here I was thinking DV was way too big.

I've checked into the EYEtv and it looks ok, maybe a bit pricey.

It only does mpeg-1 though, and for the same price I could get the instant dvd usb for mac which does mpeg1, and mpeg2 incase I want to burn something with higher quality.

What's so bad about that box though (instant mac dvd usb) ? Does the mpeg-2 captures stink on that box ?, or is the quality really that bad ?

Mpeg 2 is DVD quality , and Mpeg 1 is VCD quality, isnt it ?

[buddhabelly]

So the specs say that you can capture to any quicktime format you have installed. Does that include dv? 3ivx I think would be great to archive shows, but if I need to capture for future use, I'd probably use dv, though m-jpeg might suffice.

And this card is in only right? No output back to tv?

to PacPerson:

the eyetv is a full on PVR, with a tv tuner, scheduling, pausing live tv etc. The ads instant dv is for real time captures, ie you plugin and start recording whatever you want as you sit in front of it. No tv tuner.

[anthology123]

Dazzle DV Bridge works with any analog device (RCA or S-Video + sound) and converts it to firewire. It imports into iMovie easily. It depends what costs more, your equipment or your time.
It costs $200, can pick it up at a mail order like J&R and in less than 5 minutes you could start importing VHS tapes without adding any additional software or drivers.

[Uncle Skeleton]

I'm not an expert, but I'll try to convey my understanding. Televio installs a vdig component, which is what allows QuickTime apps to capture from the card (apps including Televio's own app and BTV, but not iMovie, since iMovie doesn't capture, it just downloads DV data from firewire). The capture app receives the video data from the card in the Component codec (as far as I can tell), which is lossless (DV is not lossless). The capture app then stores that data in a mov file. During that transfer (video-in to hard drive), the capture app can recompress the video to any codec you have installed (like DV, MPEG-4, 3ivx, etc). However, I know of no capture apps that also offer the option to export to another format (besides mov). Now, mov is a perfectly fine editing format, and a wonderful delivery format (the best in my opinion), but not a great capture format for the following reason: You can't open a mov file until it's been "closed." So if the capture app crashes or something, the file is lost (and you can't do things like pause live tv). DV* files (and MPEG 1 and 2) can be opened before they're complete, so they are perfect for capture (unless you want to use a more modern compression codec)


yes, the Televio card has only TV-in, Video-in and Radio(RF)-in. I also got a Radeon 7000 with Video-out (about $100 for the mac version)


*DV is a file format and a codec, just like MPEG. You can put DV codec content in a mov, avi, or dv file, just like you can put MPEG-4 content in a mov, avi (almost) or mp4 file. It doesn't go both ways though; you can only put MPEG content in an MPEG file, and only DV content in a DV file.

[surgestrip]

use capture card w/ hardware encoder if your going to dvd then capture it if 4:3 then at 640x480 at 4mb/sec-6mb/sec if 16:9 then 720 480
then burn dvd remember dvd is mpeg2 at 4mb-10mb/s 640 or 720 multiplexed audio around 16bit 44.1khz

[dgbatchelor]

Here's another option -- Formac Studio DV/TV...

http://www.macworld.com/2003/04/revi...macstudiodvtv/

Higher quality video capture -- but takes more disk space... (215MB/minute)

[Volanges]

plus the Formac convertors just had a price reduction, at least directly on the Formac website.

[tr]

Originally posted by PacPerson:
Oh, it only captures in component ? ,and that is 5 times bigger than DV ?

And here I was thinking DV was way too big.

I've checked into the EYEtv and it looks ok, maybe a bit pricey.

It only does mpeg-1 though, and for the same price I could get the instant dvd usb for mac which does mpeg1, and mpeg2 incase I want to burn something with higher quality.

What's so bad about that box though (instant mac dvd usb) ? Does the mpeg-2 captures stink on that box ?, or is the quality really that bad ?

Mpeg 2 is DVD quality , and Mpeg 1 is VCD quality, isnt it ?

there's nothing bad about the InstantDVD for Mac. it does excellent quality captures; i'd have to say quality that's way better than a DV to mpeg-2 done by iDVD i think people are confused about the quality because it's a USB box. you have to remember, that his box does HARDWARE mpeg encoding, and then transfers the data via usb. usb 1.1 specs at 12mbps; the highest quality mpeg-2 you can get is below that, so there is no problem wiht the usb bandwidth and data transfer. when people see usb, they often think that the usb device is trying to pull in full screen video to the computer, which most usb capture devices can't, because of the bandwidth needed.

tr

[vmpaul]

I second tr's recommendation on the ADS Instant USB for Mac. I'm on my second one (don't ask) and I think the captures are excellent. As good as any DV captures I've made including the the DV and conversions I've made from them using Compressor.

I don't think you can go wrong with it. It has the flexibility with capturing and editing. My .02�.