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Which Capture card would work??
Hi,
I am new to this thread. I have been in talks with an archive and they want me to give them a quote as to how much it would cost to digitize a large amount of 3/4″ 1 hr tapes. They would like a good quality obviously but hey this is 3/4″ quality and so my question would be. Would any of you guys recommend a box like the Canopus ADVC 100? I feel that getting a KONA card would be overkill or if you guys have any suggestions I would really appreciate it.
Cheers!
Francisco
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1 Reply
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Hi Francisco,
Part of the decision would have to be made based on what the client wants for final file format…I’m assuming this is an organization that wants to store this footage that exists on 3/4″ tapes digitally?
The drawback to a Canopus ADVC100 (and…I have one and I love it for appropriate tasks BTW), is that it only outputs FW DV format. Even though the 3/4″ tape may not be very high quality in your estimation, taking it directly to DV will definitely degrade the footage immediately.
If the client has asked for a finished format of H.264 for instance, starting with a DV clip going into that compression will result in a far lower quality image than if you captured the Umatic footage at a higher quality format like AJA’s 4:2:2 options. Keep in mind that this isn’t like capturing DV or HDV where you’re conducting what is basically a data transfer…you’re taking analog data and converting it to digital…you want to maximize the quality of this quantization.
You could possibly present this in your bid to make the customer realize that you’re not simply slamming the stuff to DV and therefore you might not have to be the lowest bidder…or you could furnish the customer with two options.
…but you will most certainly get a better image with a Xena/Kona card doing the capture than you would with a simple analog>DV conversion.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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