[SWLUG] advice requested re: video capture

[Julian Hall]

bascule wrote:
> On Sunday 09 December 2007 11:39:02 David Butt wrote:
>   
>> kino for Linux will capture to avi or dv format. But it sounds like your
>> daughters system is windows. If it is windows system why not use moviemaker
>> it will do a pretty good job of it for her.
>>     
> well another issue is that while googling i read that not all software 
> (windows) will work with all capture hardware, but it was a throwaway 
> reference and i can't find any definitive info about that, leading me towards 
> an 'all in one' solution, there was an implication that it is the usb capture 
> devices that exhibit this software invisibility but nothing specific
>
> bascule
>
>
>   
When I bought my Pinnacle DC10 PCI card it shipped with Pinnacle Studio 
8 (current at the time).  IIRC it cost £120 ish but that wasn't bad I 
thought for the card, cables, manuals *and* the 100% compatible software 
:)  Pinnacle *probably* ship Studio with all their hardware, but check 
the box contents before purchase :)

Incidentally I would also check what connectivity your daughter's video 
camera has.  AV/USB/Firewire?  If her camera and PC have the same 
connectivity you don't actually *need* a capture card at all, just the 
software.  I successfully captured direct through Firewire from my Dad's 
Sony camcorder.  (Firewire PCI cards are only a couple of quid and quite 
versatile e.g. external HD).

One final point.  If you're capturing uncompressed AVI for best quality 
you'll need a) a big hard disk b) NTFS as FAT32 won't allow files above 
4Gb.  If it's capturing to MPEG you'll still a fairly heft hard disk 
although *possibly* not NTFS.

Kind regards,

Julian