What is best for video editing?

[iamaboringperson]

I'm wish to transfer analogue home movies to DVD (and other digital formats) for preservation. I was going to buy a video capture card for my x86/Win machine.

Then I thought that I've owned a computer (A4000T) that was basically marketed as a video production workstation for the past 8 years. It would be nice to use that for video capture instead.

It would be good, assuming that the input quality/resolution was reasonable enough.

What I was thinking was that I would capture the video on my Amiga, then transfer it to my x86 machine where I would write a video-DVD.

I'm wondering if anyone can reccommend a good (preferably zorro II/III) video capture card.

Would I be able to capture as MPEG2? And then use that same MPEG2 stream on my x86 for writing the DVD.

If not I might as well just go for the x86/Win option.

However, it would be great to start doing something creative on my (currently unused) A4000T.

[Matt_H]

I think the Toaster Flyer and VLab Motion are the only high-end video capture cards for the Amiga (and you'll need a Tocatta to go with the VLab), but I don't know if their formats can be handled by any modern PC software.

[InTheSand]

Hi,

If you go the PC route, don't buy anything from Hauppauge or Pinnacle... Just my opinion, but all too often, I've bought hardware from both these companies only to find that the software is incomplete and/or buggy, with updates nowhere to be found despite hundreds of complaints in the respective forums...

If you want a relatively cheap way to get analogue stuff to MPEG2, have you considered a basic DVD recorder? Once it's on disc, you can import it directly into most Windows-based video applications and carry out editing, tidying up, creation of nice menus, etc, from there...

 - Ali

[Unit21]

There is only one real solution for you, VLAB Motion with a Toccata soundcard.
It has good quality inputs and the software is a breeze...

The VLAB Motion is a ZorroII card that can handle Composite and Y/C Connectors. It has a chip onboard that handles compression of video to the MJPEG standard in YUV 4:2:2 pixel quality.
This is fairly good quality for home video...
The Toccata card is a good soundcard and you will get CD-quality sound, but it uses the CPU fairly heavily.

Together with the VLAB Motion card you should get a piece of software called MovieShop. Look for version 4 and above.

You will need at least a 68040 and 16Mb RAM to make the software run smoothly. As mentioned before the Toccata tends to use the CPU a lot.
Finally you need a dedicated disk for your video and audio. Make sure the disks are reasonably fast and use SCSI-disks as this is the only interface on the Amiga that will cope.

When you hook up the VLAB and Toccata you will also need an additional video-monitor for viewing video. Video in and out of the Vlab-card will not show up on the Amiga screen because the MJPEG images needs to be unpacked by the hardware on the VLAB card.

When movies have been recorded to the Amiga they can be converted to a more "understandable" format for the PC. The conversion might take hours if you only have a 68040, but you have to sleep sometimes... right?! ;-)

I used this setup to record several different home-movies and quite a few TV-series from my VCR.
After a few months use I moved on to the MacroSystem DraCo which is like the setup described above, but more dedicated to video.

Now I record most TV-stuff on a Linux based media center PC. But if I had a pile of VHS- or similar- movies that I wanted to record onto digital media I would be all over eBay looking for a VLAB Motion to put into my Amiga....

The feel of the Amiga combined with the quality of the VLAB Motion and the MovieShop software makes it a winner, at least for me(!!)
I don't think you will get much better results from recording the video on a PC, and the whole experience is so much better on the Amiga.

But you already know about that - you own an Amiga!!  :-)

[Wayne]

an Amiga for video capture today?

jejeje

is this a joke?

get a common TV card with  bt878 chip or a philips SAAAx chipset
they are cheap and easy to use it
you don't need other hardware and you will do your job in 1 step
I have a pixelview play TV pro (old tv card bt878 chip) and I can capture from composite video,or SVHS input, or from the tuner itself to any format or quality in one step..( avi or mpeg1-2 or asf )

also this kind of TV cards can capture from any source of video like ntsc,pal b or pal n or pal x and secam
they're multinorm

if you wanna headdaches and bad quality >  capture video on the amiga


bye, Laser

[amigagr]

that is what you need. you can capture/edit even with movie maker of windows.

[leirbag28]

@iamaboringperson

The EASIEST way!

Get a Cyberhome DVD recorder!  only $99 and it records great.

But if you want to preserve at the utmost highest quality............get a Digital8 or MiniDV video Camera with S-Video input......it can record into the Digital Tapes and captures the best quality!  then if need be you can transfer through FireWire to a MAc or PC and Burn DVD..............this method will get you much hiogher quality, than if you just recorded straight onto a DVD recorder like the one I mentioned.

NEVER EVER EVER use a PC capture card for PC MAc or AMiga, if you want the highest quality possible.  NEVER!

THat said.....after your done.you can always transfer the Video to your Amiga and play around with it to see the quality.  BUt TRUST me.......the method I mentioned is the best possible for consumers.

DV cameras are Real cheap.  I sold my SONY TRV 330 for $150!

if you think of the little work required to record onto DV tape, then you will realise the value of a DV camera with S-Video inputs.

[Tigger]

leirbag28 wrote:

this method will get you much hiogher quality, than if you just recorded straight onto a DVD recorder like the one I mentioned.

No it wont you are taking an analog source, compressing it to DV and then recompressing it to MPEG2, thats not going to make it higher quality.

NEVER EVER EVER use a PC capture card for PC MAc or AMiga, if you want the highest quality possible.  NEVER!

Either the mac or the PC can capture full D1 uncompressed or even High Definition video, surely you realize thats better quality then the 5:1 compression you are getting on the DV tape input with no adjustments going into a freaking camera.  DV is not the end all source of video, its 4:2:0 color space itself is an issue, the compression is an issue, plus the audio issues inherent with the format.  I shoot it all the time, and usually put finalized products on it for proofing, but better to capture Analog sources on then capture cards with less or even no compression?  No way.
     -Tig

[pierre]

If you want to go Amiga, what's wrong with the toaster/flyer?  It's works for me.   I is $$$.  There are lots of solution on the PC and MAC....... I think the flyer is higher quality thean the vlab, but I have not used vlab much...
Pierre

[mschulz]

I use a digital camcorder with video-in connector attached via IEEE1394 to my PC. It provides much much much better image quality than any bt8x8 based PC card. I postprocess (master&cut) the grabbed video using cinelerra on linux.

The only disadvantage: the grabbed material is huge -  13GB/hour.

[mschulz]

Either the mac or the PC can capture full D1 uncompressed or even High Definition video, surely you realize thats better quality then the 5:1 compression you are getting on the DV tape

Depending on hardware you're using. With help of decent PC card (bt8x8 chips produce awfull interlaced output with occasionaly broken chroma information) it will be surely better to grab uncompressed raw data :-)

plus the audio issues inherent with the format.

What audio issues are you talking about? For my own use a 48kHz uncompressed 16-bit PCM provided by my camcorder is sufficient

PS. I do not copy the material onto DV tapes. Instead, I let my camcorder to digitalise the analog input and output it directly through ieee1394.

[Tigger]

mschulz wrote:

plus the audio issues inherent with the format.

What audio issues are you talking about? For my own use a 48kHz uncompressed 16-bit PCM provided by my camcorder is sufficient

Two channels at 16 bit or 4 channels at 12 bit is what the spec provides.  Trying to pull a 5.1 or 7.1 out of that soup is a little bit of a mess.   I carry mine everywhere and love the video compared to my Hi-8 and other analog format cameras.  I just dont think telling someone (as the post I was answering did) that taking firewire into a computer is the best way to get analog into a computer especially if you are going to DVD eventually. Its not a bad way, its just not the best way.  In addition, instead of a camera (unless he wants a camera), a firewire bridge is at least as good a solution, and most likely cheaper and is really built for what he (and you) are doing with DV video.
    -Tig

[Jose]

@pierre
The toaster is only available in NTSC format.

@mschulz
"PS. I do not copy the material onto DV tapes. Instead, I let my camcorder to digitalise the analog input and output it directly through ieee1394."

Then you're getting a DV stream anyway:)


@Thread

Take a look at the DigitalBroadcaster 32 and Elite versions
HERE
 8-)
Rare and expensive cards though. I think Framiga has one :-)

[tonyvdb]

To get a video editing softwhere package on the PC that will do what the Video Toaster/Flyer can do would cost you well over $1000 if your just trasfuring VHS videos directly to DVD then almost any $150 PC editing program will work but you really need a good PC and a very good capture card to get it right this all costs money and by the time you are done you still cant do as good an editing job or have near as much fun as using the Toaster.
You can find both the Video Toaster and Flyer cards on ebay all the time and should cost no more than $300US to get (You would need to also get one Time base corrector "TBC" as well usualy around $100). SCSI hard drives are a dime a dozen now a days on ebay as long as you stay below the 18 gig sizes 18 gig will give you 1.5 hrs at D2 quality (high quality mode recording) more than suffisent for making DVDs.
The Amiga 4000T was made for the toaster and it works very well. I have had my system for almost 12 years now and it still works like new.

[mschulz]

Two channels at 16 bit or 4 channels at 12 bit is what the spec provides.

Yes, and that's enough for me. It would be also, most likely, enough for the one who has started the thread

In addition, instead of a camera (unless he wants a camera), a firewire bridge is at least as good a solution, and most likely cheaper and is really built for what he (and you) are doing with DV video.

True, but I do have the camera already