Video Capture

[PimpaSmurf]

what would be the best way to get digital video from a camcorder on my pc. i have a jvc camcorder.

i tried a DV plug (usb) which connected to my camcorder with component wires but it's like the pc couldn't handle it. the video would skip frames. and also the plug thing limited the resolution to 352 x 240 and my camcorder records at 520 lines so it's not using it's full potential.

i was thinking the video might not skip if i got a fire wire plug and card, maybe the usb can't keep up with the data flow since it can only handle about 1 mb per second.

any suggestions

[Jaded4Ten]

If you have a digital vid cam a firewire connection is the way to go. I've used it to create some 480x480 svcds on a P4 1.8 ghz w/266 ram. It was quite taxing on the system and took a few hours, but I think that a lesser system would just take longer without losing quality. I also used a 2pass method. I believe that some PC's are just too slow to use and have heard of people having luck with cheap cards such as ATI's all in wonder. VCDHelp.com addresses the different methods quite well and has forums for the specific cards and methods. Check it out if you haven't already.

http://www.vcdhelp.com/capture

[JayX]

with firewire i cap all my stuff from my camera at 720x576 with no frame skip whatsoever.

just spend the 20$ on a card and make your life so much easier (plus control the camera from the software, which is kinda cool)