I've decided to keep my old Hi8 camcorder for the time being but want to
digitise and put on to CD all my old tapes for ease of viewing and editing.
I'm about to buy a new hi spec PC (2600+ etc) and want to get a capture
device that will keep as much quality as possible at a reasonable price.

I have seen a USB2 capture device (Belkin) for about £60 and also note
valious budget TV cards have S-video inputs. Are any of these any good for
what I want or do I need to look at more expensive options?

Thanks

Bob

"Bob Foley" wrote in message
...
I've decided to keep my old Hi8 camcorder for the time being but want to
digitise and put on to CD all my old tapes for ease of viewing and
editing.
I'm about to buy a new hi spec PC (2600+ etc) and want to get a capture
device that will keep as much quality as possible at a reasonable price.

I have seen a USB2 capture device (Belkin) for about £60 and also note
valious budget TV cards have S-video inputs. Are any of these any good
for
what I want or do I need to look at more expensive options?

Thanks

Bob

Firewire is slightly slower than USB2 but is more commonly used for video
transfers- it came out before USB2,. I have daisy chained my camera, an
external Pyro hard drive case and a digital video recorder with no problems.
Incidently the new Sony TVR355 Digital 8 camera will play back Hi 8 analogue
tapes as well as analoge pass through.

In message , Stephen Peterson
writes
Incidently the new Sony TVR355 Digital 8 camera will play back Hi 8
analogue tapes as well

You sure about this? I've heard that recent model Digital8 camcorders
won't play back tapes recorded on Hi8 camcorders.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.rhylonline.com

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Stephen
Peterson
writes
Incidently the new Sony TVR355 Digital 8 camera will play back Hi 8
analogue tapes as well

You sure about this? I've heard that recent model Digital8 camcorders
won't play back tapes recorded on Hi8 camcorders.

Sony's site claims that this model, or at least the TRV355 which I
assume is what we are talking about, is 'backwards compatible' without
explaining what that means.
--
Malcolm

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Malcolm
Knight
writes
"Tony Morgan" wrote in message

You sure about this? I've heard that recent model Digital8
camcorders
won't play back tapes recorded on Hi8 camcorders.

Sony's site claims that this model, or at least the TRV355 which I
assume is what we are talking about, is 'backwards compatible'
without
explaining what that means.

I'm only basing this on what I've read here and elsewhere. However, it
wouldn't surprise me if Sony didn't soon pull out of the Digital8
market, since they're now the only manufacturer to support it.

As I have in the past drawn attention to Sony's failure to include the
format's principal attraction in its recent products I would be the last
person to criticise what you said. I was surprised as you are to see
that the facility survives in what I assume is a newish model.

As for Sony ditching the format, who knows? Sony can be a stubborn lot.
Betamax machines were available to order long after they were seen in
the shops. And Digital8 is not the only format which is close to being
unique to Sony but which they support fully.
--
Malcolm

Sorry if it is a daft question but I think you are saying I am better off
capturing through a TV card which are also available at a reasonable cost?

Bob

"Watty" wrote in message
...
"Stephen Peterson" wrote in message
...

"Bob Foley" wrote in message
...
I've decided to keep my old Hi8 camcorder for the time being but
want to
digitise and put on to CD all my old tapes for ease of viewing and
editing.
I'm about to buy a new hi spec PC (2600+ etc) and want to get a
capture
device that will keep as much quality as possible at a reasonable
price.

I have seen a USB2 capture device (Belkin) for about £60 and also
note
valious budget TV cards have S-video inputs. Are any of these any
good
for
what I want or do I need to look at more expensive options?

Thanks

Bob

Firewire is slightly slower than USB2 but is more commonly used for
video
transfers- it came out before USB2,. I have daisy chained my camera,
an
external Pyro hard drive case and a digital video recorder with no
problems.
Incidently the new Sony TVR355 Digital 8 camera will play back Hi 8
analogue
tapes as well as analoge pass through.

Firewire is a better designed system.

USB (in any version) has never delivered the raw paper speed. I suspect
the nature of it is that the quoted speed is a burst speed and does not
include handshaking and protocol overheads..

The only two established methods that guaretee full frame / full
resolution capture are HW DV encoder from anlog to Firewire (A
standalone Pinical box costs near as much as a Camera with this built
in) or proper Analog Video Edit cards with HW MJPEG codecs built in. A
SW codec for analog caputure is increadably CPU intensive. Uncompressed
Analog capture is just about feasible but at 25MByte a second horrific.

Most USB products seem to only reliably do 1/4 frame resolution. I'd
hate to waste the money on a supposed USB2.0 model to discover a WinTV
card does better.

For Laptop the best is Firewire and Analog to DV via a Camcorder.

I have managed (with a lot of time, effort and tweeking) to get 704 x
576 capture on a 933MHz cpu and a WinTV card using either Huffy codec or
MJPEG. The wind has to be behind it to get 768 x 576.

An issue with analog capture is Alaising. The highest audio frequency is
20Khz or so. Thus by theory the minimum sample rate is 40Khz. That is
why audio samples are 44.1KHz or 48Khz (the higher the sampling the
easier an anti alias analog pre filter is to design/ impement).

This means if a analog source has detail equivalent to 400 pixels per
line, sampling has to be at 800 pixels per line as at 400 pixels you
can't ensure the samples "lineup" with the detail.

This is why even for VHS a 768 x 576 resampled later to 480 x576 is much
better picture than 640 x 576 resampled to 480 x576, even though VHS is
only equivalent to about 350 pixels per line.

The lines are of course always 576 for PAL and 480 for NTSC no matter
how poor tyour analog source is (Analog lines of resloution for Cameras
or VHS refer to vertical "lines" across the horizontal assuming a 1:1
screen rather than 4:3, so 300 lines resolution is about 340 x480 for
NTSC and 350 x 576 for PAL!)

--
Watty

IRELAND