Video capture on a notebook

[rodgreen]

Hi all, I have been away for a while but it's good to see some of the old members still around ..... Like many others, I spat the dummy when Matrox refused to release XP drivers for my Marvel G400TV (cost around AUD700).

I have just purchased a notebook (waiting on delivery) and was wondering what others are using as an ANALOGUE capture device on their notebooks. The Compaq notebook has a firewire port and USB2 port.

I saw a Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge which converts the analogue signal to DV (which I presume plugs into the firewire port). But this was around AUD1000 which is far too expensive for the hobby (and equally impossible to convince the better half to purchase one ).

I welcome your feedback/comments.

[Technoid]

Analogue capture on a laptop?

[Greebe]

This truely belongs in Desktop Video forum to where I'll move it to now.

You may also want to read...

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35400

[Indiana]

Why not? Just use some codec like the PicVideo MJPEG and even the slow Notebook HD should be able to maintain the needed speed.
I've been searching something similar to this since quite some time now but up to now didn't find anything really good.

There is a WinTV USB but only allows 320x240 max resolution and has to compress data quite much to fit through the USB, Then there's the Pinnacle Bungee for USB with it's hardware mpeg-2 which is MUCH better quality-wise, but imo too expensive and I'd like to get the data uncompressed into the notebook and be able to choose a compression codec myself.

I don't have USB2 and I don't think it will be fast enough for desktop video needs. Firewire however should be able to do the task, but there's unfortunately no external capture device that can connect to a Firewire port that I know of.

I'd be very glad to hear if someone does know such a device or an alternative good solution.

[K6-III]

Sony and Dazzle both manufacture analog-firewire bridges/converters...

[Brian Ellis]

The Canopus analogue>DV converters have a much better press than either Sony or Dazzle. I've been using an ADVC-100 since March for inputting from my old VHS-C tapes and I find its performance really impressive: a one hour tape captured without a glitch or drop at the relatively low speed of DV, which even a laptop HDD should be able to match. I believe the ADVC-50 will do the same, but without the possibility to go from DV to analogue. I have also experimentally compared DV tape>analogue>ADVC-100>DV capture with direct DV capture (via DVCAM pro tape deck) from the same tape. The loss of quality is amazingly little but, as my 3-CCD DV camcorder was a model used by Noah, it does not have DV in/out but only superb analogue out, which cannot be matched by modern camcorders.

I hope you have better luck and service from your Compaq notebook than I did. I ditched it in a very short time, as the Compaq service guys could never get it working as it ought. May be better since HP took over.

[rodgreen]

Yes Technoid - living in the dark ages with the old analogue camcorder. I have heaps of recorded footage that I want to tfr to VCD/DVD before I move to digital.

Thanks Greebe - sorry about posting in the wrong forum mate. I will also follow the other post. I have the Marvel working under XP with the W2K drivers, but VT doesn't capture. I purchased AVI-IO and capture with that. Seems to work OK, but my old PIII can't keep up with full screen unless it's MJPEG. Probably time to upgrade that too!

Indiana - as I said in my original post (and K6-III agreed), Dazzle make a solution for Firewire, but it's a too much drain on the $$$$. I hear conflicting stories about USB2 v Firewire, but I do agree that Firewire is probably the fastest. I guess it depends on whether the HDD can keep up with the input.

Brian - I hope I have better luck with Compaq too. I have a mate that works for them here, so I am not anticipating any service issues (should the unthinkable happen). I'll investigate the Canopus down here in Oz - our dollar usually takes a caning on the exchange rates so it will be interesting to see the cost. I don't need DV to analogue, so maybe the ADVC-50 is all I need. Thanks for the advice.

[VJ]

There are (or were ?) some PCMCIA video capture cards, a search on google results in several links...
(don't know how they work though)

Jörg

[rodgreen]

Thanks Jörg - I'll have a look.

I got VT doing captures now - thanks to the patch. Thinking about this, is there a way I can get my Marvel working off the laptop with a second monitor? Is there such a thing that you can plug a PCI card into, that would then connect to a notebook through the firewire port?

[Technoid]

You missunderstood me.....
Capturing analogue on a normal computer can be a nightmare and on a Laptop wich poses certin hardware limitations I woulden't even think of it!

Edit: damn Keyboard and damn my fingers that cant hit right keys

[Brian Ellis]

I agree, Technoid. I haven't tried DV, though, on my laptop: it might just work.

[rodgreen]

Sorry Technoid ... a bit slow aren't I! I love a challenge ....

[miya]

The Sony DVMC and Canopus ADVC both work great with firewire equipped laptops.

[KuroNeko]

Have a look at the Snazzi USB2 MPEG2 capture system. Works like a charm on the Adaptec USB2 PCMCIA controllers.

Find the Snazzi Forum here:

http://www.spawns.dk/snazzi/index.php

Neko

[VJ]

Well, some laptops have an optional dockingstation in which you can seat regular PCI-cards... But I don't know if a PCI video card then becomes the primary video-card (as if I remember correctly, the Marvel needs to be the primary in order to capture video). However, cards such as those made by Miro, Pinnacle, hauppauge, ... ought to work (but as stated by many before me: the laptop does have severe hardwarelimitations, such as hdd-speed, ...).

Jörg