cheap analog to digital video converter

[Bill Thompson]

I’ve used a cheap Avermedia DVD EZMaker PCI card to digitize analog video. If you use the Huffyuv codec you have lossless compression and a fast machine will keep up with the video stream. Be ready to use about 60g of disk space per hour of video. You need a very clean incoming analog video source or you will drop frames and perhaps lose audio sync. See http://www.avermedia.com.

I’ve also just used my Sony VX2000 camera to convert the analog video to DV. You say you don’t want to do that but my experience with this method has been good. On the best VHS tape sources I have, I don’t notice degradation due to the DV compression, I use “only” 13g of disc space per hour, and using some various cleanup filters have been able to remove enough VHS artifacts to make the copy look better than the original. I also have a Datavideo DAC100 box which does the same thing for about $200. I know you said you don’t want to do that but if you have a DV camera or converter and haven’t tried that method you might want to see if the DV compression is really an issue to you

–Bill

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

what about products from this company:

https://www.adstech.com/products/API-555/intro/api555_intro.asp?pid=API-555

Any idea if this stuff is any good?

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Normann]

Hi,

I have made several Tests with converting DigiBeta (analog outpu) Material through my Sony-HDV Camcorder to DV-Footage. It was always the same result: The picture was kind of blury and hard kontrasts suddenly showed some nasty shadows.
DigiBeta Material is extremely clear and brilliant – maybe that is why the difference to the dv-picture-quality is so remarkeble.

Well, if the Avermedia DVD EZMaker PCI card converts directly into huffyuv-codec, this could be a possibility – not knowing how Premiere Pro handles such files. do you know?

Normann

[Bill Thompson]

That looks functionally equivalent to my Datavideo DAC100 box. I imagine it would do the job fine. You did say you didn’t want to degrade your video with DV compression like this box or my DAC100 will do. I imagine that with your digi-beta source you might get a very slightly more crisp picture with a lossless scheme like the Avermedia/Huffyuv I mentioned before. If you don’t already have a camera or AV to DV box that can do the conversion that would be a cheaper solution as well but its fussier and eats disk space.

–Bill

[Bill Thompson]

Well, its hard to argue with that. If I use my Avermedia card and capture using the Huffyuv codec, the resulting avi file imports into Premiere Pro just fine. The previews are sometimes a bit jerky, because of the high data rate I think, but the video renders fine.

–Bill

[Aanarav Sareen]

I have tried a lot of cards and the best cards are IMO the Canopus ADVC convertors. Yes, they do cost a little bit more than the other cards, but they perform much, much better.

[Tim Kolb]

The SD-Connect not only does analog>DV, but also has an uncompressed option for PPro…through FW, in beta, or possibly released by now.

“Cheap” is one thing it’s not…1900 bucks…but then, when you’re working with Digi-Beta as a rule, cheap was never the initial goal anyway right?

This is a very good box…I have Canopus converters as well and they do a very good job, but my ADVC-500 (about 1500.00 USD) does component, S, composite, balanced/unbalanced audio to DV (FW) and back.

The SD-Connect adds RS-422 deck control, SDI (w/embedded audio), digital audio, multiple test patterns…and I’m sure there’s some other stuff I can’t think of right now.

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net