Video Cap from Hi8

[arciervo]

Originally posted by Kooldino

Well, I do only want to do simple cuts and intros and such.

Simple cuts are do-able. For transition effects and titles, most editors will re-encode the whole file, which is time-consuming and causes quality loss. (The only application I know of that re-encodes only as necessary is Womble MPEG Video Wizard.)

Can it capture in an MPEG format that isn't really lossy that I can easily convert into DivX or something?

Could I use virtualdub to add a key frame where I want to cut it and do so?

If you are only producing DivX files and don't need to be compatible with the DVD standard, I would recommend capturing at the highest bitrate (12 Mbps, if I recall correctly). The resulting file can be loaded into VirtuallDub-MPEG2 (not standard VirtualDub), some simple editing applied, and the result fed to the DivX software encoder.

I'd just be looking into free programs aside from the software that comes with it. If I run ~30fps and I can only cut every 13 frames or so, I could probably deal with it.

If you are planning to create DVDs (i.e. MPEG-2 rather than DivX), there are several freeware programs that perform cuts on I-frame boundaries, without re-encoding. Offhand, I can't recall their names; check the tools list at "www.videohelp.com". (BTW, the MPEG editor that comes with the Hauppauge software is garbage.)

Commercial programs like VideoReDo and Womble MPEG-VCR will allow cuts on any frame boundary and re-encode only as necessary.

As far as free PVR programs go, check out GB-PVR (www.gbpvr.com), Media Portal (mediaportal.sourceforge.net), and Got All Media (www.gottvpvr.com). All of these include an EPG (electronic program guide), which is a very, very nice feature. (The standard Hauppauge software isn't that bad, but doesn't have EPG support for Canada, where I live.)

Exactly what I'm looking to do. Splendid.

As I indicated, if you want to do fancy editing with the best possible quality, hardware MPEG encoding is NOT the way to go. However, for my purposes (turning TV programs or home videos into DVDs) it works just fine.

Tony

[Kooldino]

Great, I picked up the PVR-250 and i'm pretty happy with it.

[wkulecz]

I may be too late with my comment, but IMHO the best way to capture Hi8 or Video8 is to borrow or rent a Sony D8 Camcorder and play back the tape.

At least with the initial models doing so also converts the analog to DV which you can capture with any DV editing application including XP's free Movie Maker.

I don't know if Sony removed this feature from later D8 models.

--wally.

[Kooldino]

Is that a fact?

[Brian Ellis]

Be careful: very few of the D8 cameras are backwards-compatible nowadays, only the top-of-the-range models.

I use a Canopus converter to do the same job (cheaper than a D8!) and there is consensus that this is the best way to convert analogue to DV with high-quality results, but your retailer does not carry these.