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WalnutSpice

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Jun 21, 2015
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Canton, Oh
Recently picked up a nice cheap VHS camcorder from Goodwill and it actually records in descent quality. A friend and I want to try and make some videos with it and want to do the editing on my dual 1.8 G5. Besides the Elgato, does anyone know of a cheap Composite to USB adapter that will support a PPC Mac? I could also convert the Composite to S Video and then get an S Video adapter but can't find one of those either. But I can't find anything. Does anyone know a part I could purchase or would it just be easier to buy a Composite to USB adapter for a Windows PC and import it to that, then to the Mac via USB?
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Also, an easier one, Anyone know a good working USB 2.0 PCI card I can through into it as well? Looking for one that also has an internal USB port to add a 32GB SD card to
 
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Check out this thread by @Altemose on the Diamond VC500Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/video-capture-on-powerpc.1763220/

It suggests a Diamond USB adapter that has compatibility with PPC and Intel. Another otion some people have had good luck with is EazyCap USB grabber but it is hit or miss since there are many clones, knock offs, and versions out there.

Here is the driver for easycap just in case . "https://www.bentrask.com/easycap/" . The latest version on that website does not work . You need to grab https://www.bentrask.com/easycap/EasyCapViewer-fushicai.zip I was able to get my SIIG JU-AV0012-S1 (which I already had years ago) partially working using the driver without audio .


Picture 3.png

If it was me, I would go with Diamond VC500Mac. I just happen to have the SIIG JU-AV0012-S1 so it partially working was a plus for me.

Now if anyone could get the Adaptec Gamebridge to work on PPC, that would be awesome. The video lag was nearly non existent on windows 32bit, I could even play shoot'em ups and fighters.
 
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If your Camcorder records analog video you will need an analog-digital-converter, not just an adapter.
As you mentioned elgato yourself, the "eyeTV 250 plus" are converter-boxes including an analog-digital converter-chip for that task.
Any DV-camcorder would be an easier solution, since you could connect it via Firewire and import video into iMovie.
There are also converters from Easycap or Dazzle but AFAIK their software does not support PPC/Leopard.

If your AV2digital-hardware-converter-solution converts analog video to mpeg2 you may encounter the problem of asynchronous audio/video as soon as you start to edit the mpeg2-video stream. It's caused by corrupt video-information with each record-on/off toggle on your camcorder. Converting the analog video to mpeg2 will then cause frame drops at each record on/off location. As long as you do not edit the converted mpeg2-video-stream audio/video stays syncroneus, but as soon as you start to cut the mpeg2-video-stream into smaller parts or cut parts out of the mpeg2 stream audio and video start to get asynchroneous.
For that reason I'd rather try to get an DV-Camcorder in exchange for you current analog one. A lot of people are looking for analog camcorders since they need one to digitalize their old AV-tapes. If you balance the price/value of an analog Camcorder plus additional converter-hardware against the one of a DV-Camcorder, which can be hooked up to any PPC-Mac via FireWire (even the G3 hardware will do the job) it might be a better solution.
 
Oh, I know I'd need an adc, it just comes with most adaptors by default so I figured it was just implied haha. Also, for the audio, would it help if I just ripped the audio to audacity via the line in and then sync in post? And then on the Mini DV, Trust me I've been eyeing those for a minute. But I'd want a high end one, 1080i, and they still go for $300+. So I just found this as a complete 100% working set w/ a new battery at goodwill and figured it was meant to be.
[doublepost=1496675477][/doublepost]Actually I just remembered, I have one of those old beige G3 PowerMacs with the built in capture card for composite video. All I need for it is a PCI video card to connect a VGA display. Could I easily record to that? Or that just not an easily obtainable piece of software anymore?
--I'll make a new thread or change the name of this one if I have to.
 
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[doublepost=1496675477][/doublepost]Actually I just remembered, I have one of those old beige G3 PowerMacs with the built in capture card for composite video. All I need for it is a PCI video card to connect a VGA display. Could I easily record to that? Or that just not an easily obtainable piece of software anymore?
--I'll make a new thread or change the name of this one if I have to.
Do you know, what codec/videosize is the output of that capture-card for composite video? And does it also capture the audio-stream?
 
[doublepost=1496675477][/doublepost]Actually I just remembered, I have one of those old beige G3 PowerMacs with the built in capture card for composite video. All I need for it is a PCI video card to connect a VGA display. Could I easily record to that? Or that just not an easily obtainable piece of software anymore?
--I'll make a new thread or change the name of this one if I have to.
I've done a fair amount of video capture over the years through the composite & SVideo ports on my old 7500 and now my 8600. The biggest problem I faced was dropped frames due to the slow SCSI hard drives. The best solution was a PCI FireWire card and a modern HDD dropped in a FireWire enclosure. It also makes it easier to move the video files quickly onto a more modern system like your G5. My capture software of choice is BTV Pro, but I think Avid Cinema is the best if you can get it.
 
You've mentioned elgato in first place. So here's how "eyeTV250+" looks like in reality.
It came at about 20 bucks and was meant for my Video-Stream-Cheat-Project in first place.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-video-stream-cheat-project.2042289/#post-24551722
Then I started to transfer all our >15yo family DV-tapes via FW/iMovie'06/Powerbook-G4 onto an external harddrive, but a couple of early Hi8 AV-tapes were still left to be transcoded (they were shot with a camcorder of our friends) and I was lucky to find the "eyeTV250+" a very nice solution for that job. (I only need the fitting Hi8 camcorder to be borrowed from our friends again ... )
The foto shows our DV-camcorder connected to the eyeTV250+ and the PB-G4 via camcorder's AV-out, information about video-size etc and export-options...
capturing/editing/exporting-speed should be fine on the G5!

eyeTV2 capturing.JPG
eyeTV2 MPEG.jpg eyeTV2 Export.jpg
 
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Update: got a Hi8 Camcorder today. Horrible video-out. Hope it's not related to bad video-tapes but to a defective camcorder...
Started to think about how to get those (for heavens sake only three!) Hi8-tapes preserved for the future...
Thanks god there are still old SVCD-copies of those Hi8-Tapes left (recorded/burned with Dazzle DVD-Master back in '98 or so) and I managed to record them by playing the mpeg-stream in full-screen on PB-G4-15"-DLSD and using S-video-out and audio-klinke2cinch -out to send AV to my eyeTV250 and from there via usb to my 12" PowerBook, where I could record the SVCD-video with eyeTV2 ...
eyeTV250 really does a good job!
but naaa - that's a horrible workaround and just the last option to rescue our old family-treasures!

That's beeing said ...: I wouldn't recommend to use any AV-Camcorder for new projects at all - I'd rather cut my big toe off, if I think about the hassle of transforming AV to digital.
But if you should get hands on a DV-Cam with FireWire-connectivity, that a completely different story ...
 
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