Recommend analog capture card/box

Adobe Premiere Pro

Recommend analog capture card/box

Posted by Jim Arco on November 7, 2011 at 1:29 pm

We’re building up another workstation that will also be used for capturing video from analog decks.

What are your recommendation for a relatively inexpensive capture card or box that will convert analog video? S-video and even HDMI capture would be a plus.

Jim

Jeff Pulera replied 14 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Jeff Pulera
November 7, 2011 at 2:16 pm

Hi Jim,

On the low end, you could go with a Grass Valley ADVC-110 or similar, which offers composite and S-video conversion to 1394 to capture as DV.

Moving up, there are the Black Magic Design Intensity units which will offer analog and HDMI capture/playback. Next in price and features is Matrox MXO2 Mini, again with analog and HDMI i/o. Also offers hardware up-down-cross conversions on capture and playback, plus RT effects plugins for Premiere.

At home, been using Matrox for years, currently on MXO2 Mini with MAX.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Chris Tompkins
November 7, 2011 at 2:57 pm

BMD – Decklink

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC
Julian Roberts
November 8, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Jeff

Am I right in saying that the Matrox Mini doesn’t allow accelerated effects when used on a Mac – even with the Max version? I remember how things used to work so well with the RT.X2 on the PC, and have been trying to replicate the experience on the Mac…

Thanks

Julian
Jeff Pulera
November 8, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Hi Julian,

Matrox offers a few RT effects for Premiere on the PC side, but not for Mac. These are Matrox Color Correction, Luma and Chroma Keying, and Matrox custom wipes. Matrox also accelerates some Adobe effects as well.

I would agree with you that when using Premiere, a user will get more benefit from Matrox on the PC side than on Mac.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Julian Roberts
November 8, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Thanks Jeff. I think I will have to investigate the Quadro 4000 card, which would enable the Mercury h/w support. I wonder whether this would play well with my Mini…?
Jeff Pulera
November 8, 2011 at 3:29 pm

The MXO2 doesn’t care which video card you have. If you get the Quadro 4000 for Mac or PC, you will then get the benefits of the GPU acceleration part of the Mercury Playback Engine, in addition to whatever performance benefits the MXO2 offers. They both do their own thing and are totally compatible. Most of the MXO2 systems we build include the Quadro 4000 from PNY.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Julian Roberts
November 8, 2011 at 5:27 pm

Thanks Jeff. Is the Quadro 4000 card limited to two monitor outputs?

Julian
Jeff Pulera
November 8, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Hi Julian,

The Quadro 4000 has 3 outputs (1 DVI and 2 DisplayPort), but only 2 outputs are active at a time.

This is where a Matrox or BlackMagic device comes in handy, driving the third video output preview monitor.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up

Creative Communities of the World Forums