Recommend video capture card

[tuando]

Hi all,

I wish to edit my Digital video image from my Sony Digital 8mm and add some special effect such as title, fade in fade out, *.jpeg, insert audio, move frame etc. Can anyone please either recommend a good video capture card (less than $300) or pointing me to the right direction for buying one? Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.

[Wiruz]

I've worked quite a bit with video capturing myself - but not digital. i dont think u will be able to find a good vidcap card at that price.

But if you can live with analog, i can highly recommend the Matrox rainbow runner - i'm using a Matrox Marvel G400, where the rainbow runner is integrated. I've also worked with a miro DC30, which i was told was a rather professional editing card, but when i compared the cards features to each other, they can roughly do the same.

They both use hardware MJPEG compression, which means u don't need to have a massive raid setup for recording.

But if u really need a kickass card, u should look at the Matrox RT2000 - digital in and out, hardware Mpeg2 encoding...

Bottomline is, that i'm not sure that u can find anything with digital in/out for 300$

~Wiruz

EDIT: The marvel g400 was also bundled with some ok programs, both for photo-editing, and video - which can do basic transitions.
for more advanced video editing, Adobe Premiere is highly recommended!

[This message has been edited by Wiruz (edited 10-01-2000).]

[canit]

Wiruz sure you can. tuando look at Digital Origin's Intro DV($200US or less), ADS PYRO digital video($90-110US), Dazzle's DV-Editor($65US), and there are a lot more.

[bhess]

Is the camera IEEE 1394 compatable? If so check out this
http://www.compgeeks.com/cgi-bin/details.asp?cat=Drives&sku=205-1396
Or search the site for capture card, there is a few there.

[tuando]

Thank you all for your input.

Bhess:

Yes the camcorder is IEEE 1394 compatible. I am wondering what is the major difference between an IEEE 1394 ($37) solo and other card above $100 barriers such as Digital Origin's Intro DV, ADS PYRO digital video, Dazzle's DV-Editor, STUDIO DV, or PYRO PRODV. Which card will be able to do the job as describe below.

Any additional comments or advice is greatly appreciated.

My application will be limited to:

- Transfering 1 hour max (usually there are as much as 4 mini section of 15 min each in one hour recording) of recording image from a Digital 8 camcorder tape to computer hard drive for editing.
- Put title, background music, insert logo, picture, and chinese character and if possible narration.
- Easy to use & learn
- Add some basic special effects such as Fade-in, Fade-out, SLOW MOTION is a must without any major degradation in picture quality (same picture quality as a rental tape would be fine), Rotating/swirling title and logo from far-away and zooming progressively in to a stop.
- Transfering back to Digital 8 camcorder and copy to a VHS tape format.
- Eventually add copy protrection if the cost is reasonable.
- Be able to output to a VR file for the Web-site publishing.

My system (to be build, I have to wait for the Elsa Synergy III):

- Abit KT7 raid
- 2x 30GB IBM GXP75 ATA100
- ATHLON TBIRDS 800 MHz
- 52X KENWOOD TRUE X CDROM
- 256 PC133 SDRAM
- 32 MB ELSA SYNERGY III W/ DUAL MONITOR SUPPORT OR MATROX G400 MAX
- 21" MONITOR SONY TRINITRON CRT
- 21" VIEWSONIC P815
- SOUNDBLASTER LIVE VALUE
- Celestion Ditton Speaker (2 satellite + one passive sub)

[jad1097]

Look for a card with all the software that will do what you want.

As Wiruz said Adobe® Premiere® 5.1 (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html) is a great program but it is expensive @ $549.