Video Capture Setup

[chelseasian]

Hi!

We have been using an agency for a while to digitize videos for us from betas to MPEG2 and WMV. At the end, we realised that the costs the agency charged us is not cost effective versus buying our own equipment and do it in-house. We are not doing any fancy editing work, just basically pulling stuff that we need to show to our clients. So here's my question: what sort of equipment and configuration would I require. I would really appreciate if you guys can give me feedback and suggestions on this one.

Thanks.

:)

[daveL]

Assuming you have a Mac, look at the products from Elgato and Formac. The Fromac site has some product comparisons which will point you to some other competing products. The Formac product will give you straight DV, then you do whatever you need with in (mpeg2/4 encoding or whatever). The Elgato products give you mpeg2.

HTH

[king_leonidas]

i have Director's Cut 2 from http://www.miglia.com
i convert vhs movies to dv.It works excellent with imovie and final cut pro.After captured i burn dvds or export them in any format who understand Quicktime.The quality is very good!

[evil_santa]

Are you using Betacam. The cheap solution is to use a imac with a dv bridge to convert the video & audio into DV then use iMovie or FCE to capture the video, you will need some encoding software, Cleaner will give you the most options including windows formats. The more expensive option is to use a G5 with a decklink extreme video capture card, (you will need either a YUV or SDI output from your Betacam) & Final Cut Pro. You will be able to capture / edit & mpeg on this system. Final cut comes with compressor, this will make mpeg 2 & 4s but not windows formats. The decklink card is about $1000.

[HiRez]

The more expensive option is to use a G5 with a decklink extreme video capture card, (you will need either a YUV or SDI output from your Betacam) & Final Cut Pro. You will be able to capture / edit & mpeg on this system. Final cut comes with compressor, this will make mpeg 2 & 4s but not windows formats. The decklink card is about $1000.
Hmm, can you really capture directly to MPEG using Decklink? I was under the impression the available capture formats were Uncompressed, Photo JPEG, and DV (on a G5). Decklink Extreme is $900. I haven't used it yet, but it looks like a very cool, solid, and feature-packed card.

[evil_santa]

Hmm, can you really capture directly to MPEG using Decklink? I was under the impression the available capture formats were Uncompressed, Photo JPEG, and DV (on a G5). Decklink Extreme is $900. I haven't used it yet, but it looks like a very cool, solid, and feature-packed card.

I don't think you can capture to mpeg, you would have to export to mpeg via cleaner or compressor. Im getting a Decklink extreme at work soon, sadly on a Dell with Adobe Premier (my employer is anti mac!) The system I am getting will be a "mpeg" work station, capturing from a online edit suit to make mpegs/mov/wmv/DVD/VCD for our clients & Sales teams.

[solvs]

If price is not that much of an issue, I'd get a dual G5 with an internal capture card and lots of drive space. Say, 2 400GB serial ATA drives, with maybe even some externals. You can find some really nice cards here (http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=183&type=Video&TI=%23TimeFormat%28Now%28%29%2C+&shoupgrds=Show+Upgrades) for example. The Aurora's are high end, and therefor more expensive. But the Miglia is supposed to be pretty good for simple capture in various formats. Accelerate You Mac (http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/) has some info on this as well. You'd probably need more software though. QT Pro for sure with the MPEG decoder, but to be honest, I'm not sure what you should use for the encoder. There is stuff out there to do this though. WMV, I'm not sure of (probably M$ only), but MPEG and QT defintely.