camcorder

[Tron]

Ok I have a question that I hope someone might have an easy, inexpensive anwer to. I have a digital camcorder. I want to take the video off the camcorder and onto my computer. I am running XP by the way. The camcorder has an S-Video output and also the composit video hookup. What is the best way to get the video to the hard drive in mgp format? And what hardware should I use to do it? I want to take the video and make a VCD out of it. I used to have a Dazzle Card and used that, but the quality was worse than bad. I am able to get a wonderful transfer to VHS tape, but would like to start using VCDs instead.

THANKS..........


TRON.....

[ChickenMan]

Your going to need a capture card of some type. Yep, the Dazzle card was "very ordinary".

The newer Dazzle II is good however. Many use ATI video cards of various sorts and many use cheaps capture cards, like the Pinnacle VCD Studio card. Both can produce good quality (not excellent) VCD's.

Use the S-Video input/output rather than the Composite for better results and use a good quality cable.

[Tron]

Love that sig Chickenman! It is you.... Ok so the Dazzle II is good, but will it work on the XP system? Also when I used to use the original Dazzle card, it would produce ok video, but it was small in size. If I tried to expand it to fit the screen of the TV it would look real bad. Is the Dazzle II capable of better sized pics and good quality or do you recomend something else? Someone told me they thought that one of those TV cards would work. What do you think. I just want to be able to take the video/audio off the Camcorder and make a VCD.

[ChickenMan]

Personally I would go for one of those cheap TV Capture cards with the BT8x8 chipset, well suported and works in XP and makes a pretty good VCD, IMHO.

[Tron]

Took your advice and got the TV capture card. It works well! I dumped the video of our last vacation to the computer and made a VCD out of it. Good quality and sound. Thanks for the advice, as always you know your $hit! Thanks again.....