Hi guys

I am just about to take delivery of a brand new very fast computer

I have a load of Hi8 analog camcorder tapes that I want to transfer to my pc, then edit all the crap out, burn to dvd & then send to family all over the world.

I have researched a lot regarding external video capture devices ... and am still as confused as I was when I started.

All of the devices I've looked at (pretty much all that are available) have good & bad points ... Basically, ALL I want the capture device for is to get everything from the Hi8 tape to my pc then I'll use Tmpgenc DVD Author (or similar) to get rid of all the bad frames/rubbish etc.

Would a "cheap & cheerful" video capture device capture the same as a more expensive one? I'm not worried about features - I just want to capture everything from the Hi8 tapes & work from there. I also don't want to be "locked" to a particular software for editing ... I just want to capture to either avi or mpeg2 ... which is better/easier?

Any external video capture device recommendations would be appreciated (eg. the Kworld usb 2.0 external capture device).

Finally, I mentioned earlier that I intended to use Tmpgenc DVD Author to edit the captured video ... I'm not too worried about fancy menus/fades etc. - I just need to edit the rubbish out of the captured video & burn it to dvd with a few chapters ... Any help here would be appreciated too.

Thank you.

A PCI or Firewire capture device is best. USB2.0 capture devices work for some, and others report problems. You want a device that locks the audio and video during capture. You want to capture in AVI mode if you want to do much editing. Otherwise, capturing as MPEG2 is good. You can also find devices that capture in DIVX, but then you limit your sharing options, as not everyone has a dvd player that is divx compatible. You can also buy a standalone dvd burner, and capture directly to dvd (mpeg2) format, but then your editing options are limited. Most good capture devices support multiple softwares. Stay away from pinnacle consumer problems, as they are inherently buggy. Check out the capture forum at www.videohelp.com for ideas on which capture card will work best for your particular use. There are forums, reviews, etc., on a variety of capture devices, and many different softwares used for a variety of functions.

I use a Canopus ADVC100 (now called ADVC110). They are highly regarded as one of the best capturing units. Captures in DV format which you'll be able to edit in any video application. You'll just have to encode to MPEG2 at another stage, but that is the best way to do it if you're after quality.

I am new to this video capturing thing. I have a home built PC with a 3.2Ghz Intel, 1Gb RAM, a standard graphics card (Asus 9250) running XP Proffessional. My camera is a Sony DCR TV-22 with firewire output as well as USB. My PC has a firwire input, and I was just going to connect my Handycam using firewire to my PC's firewire port. Im not clear on this "capture card" thingy. Am I missing something? I tried to capture some video footage using Nero Vision Express the other night, and the result is very staggered video. Its not smooth and very difficult to watch as it looks like someone is continuously pressing the pause button on the remote. Nero showed no dropped frames, so I can only assume that speed is not an issue. My camera is NTSC cause I bought it while in Taiwan. Living in Australia naturally PAL is the preffered option, but my DVD player plays both anyway. Admittedly I prefer PAL because I had my TV calibrated to PAL standards, and therfor have chosen some options in NERO which seem to convert the end result to PAL. Not sure if this is the problem though, because I did try changing the setting to NTSC and it really didn't make much difference.

Please help/...

"The best things are for free..."

Try using VirtualDub/mod.

I downloaded it and tried to install it, but I gave a message saying it couldnt find some corona dll file or something like that. Any idea's?

@steffche
VD/MOD does not support capture from firewire AFAIK.
There are free apps such as windv that will work (I use Premiere however). I'm not a huge fan of Nero's video applications. They don't seem to do anything very well, just good enough to do the basics to satisfy the most novice user. Capture from your DV camera as a DV AVI file, then encode to MPEG2 as a 2nd step, then author your DVD. I would suggest keeping the video NTSC, as any framerate conversion will almost always lead to a loss in quality unless done properly.

I found that I had a copy of ulead videostudio 6 se dvd...so I have ben trying to get decent results with that all day....and no luck. The result is much better than nerovsionexpress, but still not as good as I thought I could get. Surely with a digital handycam the results should be quite good...

Whats the deal??