importing from an ordinary video camera?

I apologize if this is a duplicate thread. I've looked around here on the fanfilms forum and not found much.

A friend and I are planning to make a LEGO
Star War fanfilm. But we're both complete beginners with video editing.

He has an ordinary (read: analog) video camera, and that's worked so far for his existing stuff.

But now we'd like to be able to import the video into the computer (Windows XP Home; P4 1.7 GHz; 256 MB RAM) to enhance it with all the trappings of your typical fanfilm.

Can you please provide some ideas on the cheapest way to do this? Obviously, it's mean buying some sort of capture card, but I don't where to start with this. (I'd be nice to be able to export to VHS as well, ad VCD pretty bad, and requires a DVD player or a PC to play.)

Thanks.

 

What is your price range?
I bought my Pinnacle Studio Deluxe for $300, but now they go for about 200. You can also try the Canopus ADVC-50, Canopus ADVC-1394, or the Canopus ADVC-100. Also, ADS Tech makes a converter that can convert from component to digital as well.

P.S: One major downside of the Pinnacle is that you cannot import using any other program other than Pinnacle Studio.

 

don't know much about analog stuff, so i'll leave that for the pros.

if your wondering how to get a video onto a vhs tape, here's my old method of doing it: first i made a vcd of the file that i wanted to use. i then hooked up my vcr to the dvd player and recorded it like that. my new way is now burning it onto a dvd just because it has a better quality.

hope this helps.

-bert

 

I use a Canopus ADVC-100 box in conjunction with my PC's firewire port for capturing video. I've had great success using this converter to import my Hi8 and VHS footage. One of the best things about the ADVC is that it has locked audio sync, so it keeps dialog where it's supposed to be and not a second or two behind the video. This is a problem while capturing long clips with some other products.

The ADVC-100 runs around $280, and you also have to have a firewire card if you don't already, but those are relatively cheap these days.

There are cheaper analog video capture products, but the ones I tried prior to the ADVC were USB based and the results were horrible. I'd advise you to stick with firewire or a direct-PCI card solution, whatever you decide to buy.

 

I upload from my analog camera using the Dazzle MovieStudio doohickey.

 

I have the Formac Studio DV converter and for some reason it leaves a little (actually sometimes quite big) blurred line at the bottom of all of my imported footage. I'm not sure if it's just a problem with my unit alone, but, still I wish I had done a little more research and gotten something better.

PS - link to the formac studio dv unit:

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=solutions_converters_studiodv

 

Thanks for your ideas so far.

It'd be nice to find the cheapest sort of thing availale, depending on the features gained/lost, of course.

$200 is a good start.

Will the hardware come with software like Adobe Premiere or After Effects? The tutorials here at TF.N and on this forum seem to be mainly for those programs, so it'd be nice to have that stuff out of the box.

It's also worth mentioning that his PC has USB 2.0 ports, not IEEE 1394, so it'd be good to have a USB device.

 

ive heard good things about this

it should do everything you need itll edit capture etc. Its kinda pricy at $250 but you can get it at $200 if you are a student

 

I use a Dazzle MainActor DV Hollywood Bridge. It was round $300 when my brother got it a year ago but now that he's movin out I have to buy my own and it's down to $170 in Tiger Direct. Get that with a simple $30 Fire Wire and there you go. Capture great looking pictures and export just as good to and from fire wire, analog, VCR's and now for $200 you can get one that uses the memory chips. But for some reason it doesn't work with the actual Dazzle software that comes with it. But MGI comes with it and it's perfect for capturing and exporting and it has awsome titles. Hope this helped

 

I bought an Iomega Buz Multimedia Capture Card for $45 on ebay. It's not produced anymore, but it's not bad. It has composite audio and video, and an s-video jack.

(I still haven't quite figured out how to capture audio though.)

 

Thanks.

Any more ideas?

 

I'll also swear by the Canopus ADVC100. It may be slightly out of your price range (250-300), but it is a good product. Between it's reliability, high quality DV coding (even with poor source material), and locked audio it's simply the best among it's peers (Dazzle, Formac, Sony). Read reviews and you'll see what I mean. While Dazzle works flawlessly for some, it presents many problems for others.

The ADVC-50 would be a cheaper option if you weren't interested in exporting back to analog (for VHS) but that is important for most people.

I would recomend that you stay away from converters that convert to MPEG or MPEG2. These formats are good for end storage and presentation (VCD, DVD, etc) but difficult to edit with. My advice is stick with DV, which generally means Firewire.

dvdrhelp Capture Device Review Forums:

Dazzle's DV Bridge
Dazzle DVC150
Canopus ADVC100
Canopus ADVC50

That macrovision disable feature on the ADVC100 is pretty sweet...

 

The Canopus ADVC-100 looks really good.

But the price!

I've looked at reviews that range anywhere from $150 (USD) to almost $300!

Our budget is about $200 (USD), max.

 

The Canopus ADVC50 looks great!

Except that it can't do video out.

I'll just have to export to VCD, then copy that to VHS.

This may be it?

 

If you can get your hands on a digital camcorder, you can capture the footage through that, my dad found a way to do this.

Use whatever your choice of video editing program, to capture it.

I've not had the chance to try this, but my dad is using it a lot of moment capturing some holiday footage.