Video/audio Converter

[Spyderbyte]

Hey everyone-

I've been wondering about this for a while, and realized this was probably one of the best places to look for help. Has anyone ever heard of/is it possible to have a converter to hook up the three audio/video prongs to a usb port? (and some software to use it )

I've seen a whole vcr you can hook up your computer, and I found what I was looking for on the internet once, but I'm not even sure what term I would use

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? (I know it's weird, but in theory it would let me record with a regular film video camera, and then edit it on my computer. (Maybe even be able to record it back onto the tape?))

It seems like it should be possible.

Thanks!

Spyderbyte

[AlienCC]

Sounds like you are wanting a video capture card that can encode the audio and video via the hardware...The cheapest solution is probably to pick up tv tuner card with input and output jacks.

You should be able to encode directly to Mpeg or Mpeg2 the input (audio/video) you recieve, and with little effort convert it over to another format such as Mpeg4 or divx to save on harddrive space, or burn on a dvd or svcd for viewing in your home dvd theater.

--AlienCC

[Spyderbyte]

Hmm that sounds promising. The only part that scares me is you referring to to "should be able to", and "with very little effort". Does this imply writing my own software? The tv tuner card sounds promising though...

Thanks for the help!

Spyderbyte

[AlienCC]

You won't need to write your own software, but rather find the correct audio (lame?) and video (divx?, xvid?, mpeg4?) codecs, and then select your favorite freeware encoding program, for windows mine is FlaskMPEG.

For tv tuner cards, I recommend something made by these guys http://www.hauppauge.com/. That way you are not locked into a single platform such as windows if you wish, plus they are the better of the ones I've seen to date, and explains why I own one from them.

--AlienCC

[Darth Android]

thx. ive been looking for one. found one i like!

[Spyderbyte]

Yeah thanks! I dont have time to check this stuff out now, but I will later.

Thanks again!

EDIT: Wow this looks exactly like what I was looking for. Just out of curiosity, do you have the "Hauppauge WinTV-GO Model 190", and if so, what is the resolution of the video it can capture? And I would just connect it to my motherboard, install the driver, and hook up my audio/video cables?

Picture:
Or try clicking here

Thanks again!


Spyderbyte

[Spyderbyte]

Well I found the model 190 ^^^ at OfficeMax for $30 after a ten dollar instanst and ten dollar mail in rebate, and couldn't refuse it.

However, I'm a little disappointed with the resolution of video capture. I realize 320x240 will probably be enough for most things, but I was just wondering if it was possible to get slightly slightly larger capture.

The Hauppauge folks believe my hardware isn't able to handle anything more, but I can take stills of up to 1600x1200. I know this has to do with handling that much data 16 (or more) times a second, but is there a way to take rapid screenshots (I'm thinking 640x480) and string them together into a movie? (I can handle audio seperately)

Just a thought.

Thanks!

Spyderbyte

[Spyderbyte]

What if I could figure out how to step-frame on my video camera? If I can get this to work it'll really help out in my latest school project.

Thanks again!

Spyderbyte

[KD5YTX]

If you have a camcorder you can often use firewire or usb to capture video at full res., as we do in video production. We use Adobe Premiere (*cough**getapirateversion**cough*(yes, nested parentheses(is this proper coughing protocol, *cough**wiz.**cough*))). For video output, we have a spiffy little PCI card with standard a/v video output and even a coax output for good measure. I don't know how much it costs, though, and if you don't have a camcorder they can get expensive with the decent models.


*Swipe! Swipe!* *Dodge! Dodge!* *Schplooowang!*