Need some info, video capture....

[TheRapture]

OK, my mother has gotten me to help her do VHS-->DVD conversion, as well as recording tv programs and making DVD's from them. I hooked her up with the proper cards, dvd burner, etc. But quite frankly her system is an older I845 based 400fsb board using a gig of SDRAM. It is running a 1.6 P4, and is dropping frames badly enough to be irritating, as the cpu is maxed out at 100% when trying to capture at 30fps. Only by setting the fps down to about 20 will it remain smoothduring capture.

She needs more power, but I have some questions. Would one of the Celeron's at 2.4ghz help? Or would it require one of the full on P4's...? Remember, this board she has will ONLY do a 400fsb, the newer 533fsb P4's won't work...at least not as full speed which defeats the purpose.

P.S.- I was thinking of getting her this cpu from newegg, a Celeron 400fsb @2.8ghz

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-112-181&depa=1

 

[Jailer]

Why not get her an external capture box that will do the encoding on the fly? Or and All In Wonder vid card? I have a 9700 Pro AIW and do a little VCR to DVD capture and it comes out pretty good. But, if I had to do it over again I would get an external capture box with hardware encoding that can encode on the fly. Saves on CPU power and fewer dropped frames not to mention it can follow you along the upgrade path. I'd start here if I were you and do some searching for the best model.

videohelp.com

and

doom9 forums

 

[TheRapture]

I have already gotten her a nice Leadtek tv/fm/capture card with s-video, component video, etc., all set up. Same setup I have on my own rig...works great and very cost effective. We are both using Lite-On's newest dual layer dvd-r model and have an external vhs/dvd player to use for vhs capture. I also use my own rig as a bedroom TV/music setup with my LCD.

She wants the cheapest solution...and a cpu is it (if I can get one fast enough to fit her mobo).

 

[Jailer]

I still think you can find an external solution for around the same price and like I said it would save CPU cycles, encode real time, and follow her to another box if she ever decides to upgrade.
Trust me, I've spent hours upon hours researching (after my purchase of course) and if I had it to do over again, I would get an external capture device. It just allows more flexability and saves on CPU time. That means fewer to no dropped frames. When it comes to capturing VHS this is very important. Just try to capture some old home movies or a VHS tape of marginal quality and you'll see what I mean.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Same setup I have on my own rig...works great and very cost effective.

She wants the cheapest solution...and a cpu is it (if I can get one fast enough to fit her mobo).

Well, it's _not_ working great, according to you... dropped frames are yucky. Thinkgeek has a convertX external capture card which does mpeg1,2, and 4 compression with no dropped frames, $160. That's my suggestion, it won't be much more than a new cpu, and good quality from the reviews I've seen. When I have the $ for it, this is what I'm getting.

 

[TheRapture]

mage, my system works GREAT, hers is a bit slow. My own runs 30fps in capture without even batting an eye

 

[0ldman]

What software are you using? How about some more specific system specs on yours vs hers? Vid recording is 50% hardware, 50% setup. I can bog the best of them, and I can make it run on some of the worst...

Powerdirector Pro 2.1 encoding MPEG bitrate 4000, quality slider on the 3rd or 4th from the left, deinterlace checked. audio set at 384, records at 29.968fps on a Duron 700 @ 640x480 all day, or 38 hours when my disk fills up.
I personally think if your program has enough tweaking options, you can make it run correctly. I had much trial and error with mine to get adequate quality vs bitrate.

As for the Cely 2.4, it works fine for video work, I had fooled around with the idea of getting a Celery and overclocking to 3+GHz for my TVbox, but I went with parts I already had...

Celeron isn't quite as fast as the P4 HT in vid encoding, but it is no slouch...