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Hardware to convert analoge video to divx?

  • 04-08-2008 3:20pm
    #1
    Mr. Flibble
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,364 ✭✭✭


    I want to convert a load of VHS and Hi8 videos to DIVX or MPEG4. Can anyone suggest some hardware that will do this. Ideally something that will do it in one step on the fly, not tape->dv->divx.


Comments

  • #2
    bazwaldo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭bazwaldo


    Your output from VHS will be composite. Hi8 is probably the same (haven't a clue), or if its digital8, you'd hook up the firewire and extract to DV. Video Cards generally convert from composite to Mpeg2 format, so you'd need s/w to post convert that. I'd recommend going to www.videohelp.com. They have loads of guides and links to free or pay for software. Your video card won't need to be hardware mpeg2 encoder so they are cheap enough.


  • #3
    dingdong1234567
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 828 ✭✭✭dingdong1234567


    Mr. Flibble wrote: »
    I want to convert a load of VHS and Hi8 videos to DIVX or MPEG4. Can anyone suggest some hardware that will do this. Ideally something that will do it in one step on the fly, not tape->dv->divx.


    PM sent


  • #4
    mathias
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,174 ✭✭✭mathias


    http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224587&C=Newsletter&U=08P09-1&T=12995355

    Its a bit on the expensive side , but I suppose you could always sell it on when your done.


  • #5
    mloc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,567 ✭✭✭mloc


    gimme a shout if you figure it out, think there is an old family video that was converted from cine to VHS a few years back that would be good to have in DivX to send to people.


  • #6
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    What you need is a "framegrabber" capture card. They are the older type, but the only ones that will genunely allow the computer to get uncompressed frames. Most USB ones are to be avoided IMO as they compess internally, as well as PVR cards such as PVR150 etc etc.

    In (rare) circumstances where I would encode directly in MPEG4 I would just use virtualdub (or Dscaler) to encode on the fly. Anything around 1.8Ghz in old money should be good enough, any core2 will handle it with ease. You will probably also want to run it through a deinterlacer and crop the edges of the video as it will look rough otherwise.

    Personally, I woudn't endode directly to a highly compressed format, unless you plan never editing the footage or don't care about the quality. Granted VHS/Video8 already looks naff, but you dont want to add compression artificts to it too.

    Some guides, they are old but they cover what I would regard as the "proper" way to capture from an analog source:

    http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html
    http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/vidcap.ars

    If you want to have your friends/family see the vids in good quality, id reccomend vimeo.com


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