[SWLUG] advice requested re: video capture

[Julian Hall]

bascule wrote:
> full disclosure: this isn't a linux question
> i'm considering buying some hardware for my daughter so that she can get her 
> videos off her camcorder.
> i've been looking at around the £50 mark, namely a usb box from pinnacle and a 
> pci card from the same, they are both just for capture, unlike some cheaper 
> products that also do tv and stuff, the problem is that while the usb box has 
> audio inputs it doesn't seem to capture to anything other than its built in 
> hardware compression formats, mpeg1/2/4; whereas the pci card will capture to 
> avi which i believe will make for much better editing but it doesn't have 
> audio inputs leaving the audio to be captured by the sound card, and i read 
> via google that that can lead to sync problems. so i wonder what suggestions 
> or observations/experience people might have.
> my daughter has a low end dual core with at least 1gb ram (i can't remember 
> how much i put in it), i just want her to be able to take her camcorder and 
> put her vids onto disk, do some editing/playing and then put them onto dvd
>
> bascule
>   
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>   
Beware of Pinnacle.  If you *should* want to use the PCI card in Linux 
you will *not* be able to.  I had a Pinnacle DC10 which allegedly works 
in Linux.  No longer - Pinnacle now use a proprietary 'Bendino' chip and 
refuse to give anyone the technical specs for it.

If you get a PCI card make sure it uses a standard chipset then you will 
have no problem with *any* OS.

The only thing I will say for the Pinnacle is that the quality is 
superb.  If you're convinced it will never need Linux then go for it :)

I use a Winfast VC100, and although I don't have it working *yet* in 
Linux it has a standard chipset, and I just haven't gone into how to do 
it yet.

Kind regards,

Julian