New Build for VHS Capturing and Video Editing

Benzino

Benzino

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 3, 2005
Messages
1,668
Hi all. My dad wants a computer that he can use to capture the old family videos in VHS format to digital. I explained to him he could just pay a company to do it but he insists on doing it himself, plus he is due for a new build anyways.

So I'm thinking multi-core CPU, VHS capture, and lots of storage will be important here. Trying to determine if I should do internal RAID or need to budget a separate NAS for storing raw capture files and render files.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
General office work plus VHS capture and video editing.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1100 including tax

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
St Paul, MN so access to a MicroCenter

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, hard drives, video card, VHS capture device

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Just monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Probably a 19' don't remember exactly

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
No timeline but don't want this to fall through the cracks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
USB 3, M.2 SATA, VHS Capture, RAID for storing video files

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will need to get a Windows 10 key, have been doing Kinguin Windows 7 keys if that still activates Windows 10
 
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If he's just going to be encoding VHS-quality video, and doing office work, there's no point shelling out for six monster cores. Encoding and editing video that low resolution will take almost zero horsepower, and office apps are just as fast (or faster) on an Intel Pentium with four threads. You can also get-by just fine on integrated graphics, something AMD won't bring to the Ryzen table until this fall. Also, that 750w PSU is overkill for a GTX 1080 build, let-alone this hunk. And you don't need to spend $100 on a motherboard that will never see an overclock, or ram running above 2400.

Sofftware video encoding on Handbrake (single-pass with constant rate factor 20) at DVD-quality level will get hundreds of FPS on an i3 6100. VHS has half that quality, at-best, so we're talking ten minutes for a two-hour video. You'lll only cut that to a few minutes if you invest in six cores, so not really worth the price.

I'd go with this instead:

https://pchound.com/K8WRmF/

And yes, capture devices are USB 2, because there's almost no bandwidth required for SD.

You can always upgrade to a video card later, if he gets the desire to go beyond casual games. The HD 630 this has will handle that fine.
 
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Put some of that budget to a good svhs vcr , with a tbc. And an additional tbc. If you don't know what these things are then he is probably biting off more than he can chew. . . . But Googling the process of vhs to DVD should advise the same.
 
Put some of that budget to a good svhs vcr , with a tbc. And an additional tbc. If you don't know what these things are then he is probably biting off more than he can chew. . . . But Googling the process of vhs to DVD should advise the same.
 
Do NOT use a USB device to capture video. It relies on the processor to do the conversion live on the fly and uses software decoding which results in a loss of quality.

Use a real capture card such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CANOPUS-ADVC-100-Analog-to-Digital-Video-Converter-/221870710126

I've converted over 3000 VHS over the past decade. All you need is one of those boxes, a firewire card, and a program to capture the video raw (I've used PCs all the way from old Pentium 4's to a 3570k - does not matter other than making it a little nicer to work with the machine in between captures). Then, run the file through handbrake at whatever settings you like (I use the apple tv 3 preset and change the FPS to "same as source") and viola - best quality MP4 you can get IMO. Obviously the converting is faster on a PC with faster processors, when capturing to an old P4 box, I just captured to an external HDD and then taken that to a much faster PC to convert, but the later processors rendered that null.
 
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Gordo74 said:
Do NOT use a USB device to capture video. It relies on the processor to do the conversion live on the fly and uses software decoding which results in a loss of quality.

Use a real capture card such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CANOPUS-ADVC-100-Analog-to-Digital-Video-Converter-/221870710126

I've converted over 3000 VHS over the past decade. All you need is one of those boxes, a firewire card, and a program to capture the video raw (I've used PCs all the way from old Pentium 4's to a 3570k - does not matter other than making it a little nicer to work with the machine in between captures). Then, run the file through handbrake at whatever settings you like (I use the apple tv 3 preset and change the FPS to "same as source") and viola - best quality MP4 you can get IMO. Obviously the converting is faster on a PC with faster processors, when capturing to an old P4 box, I just captured to an external HDD and then taken that to a much faster PC to convert, but the later processors rendered that null.
Click to expand...
I have no problems capturing via usb with an HD600. It captures uncompressed video through virtualdub. The canopus you linked converts the video to DV. Both are ways to do it, I feel I get more control my way, while your way may be easier.
 
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Well, sorry to bring this one back from the dead, but any updates and successes? I've just been tasked with converting a boatload of VHS-C for the family.
 
joecop120 said:
Well, sorry to bring this one back from the dead, but any updates and successes? I've just been tasked with converting a boatload of VHS-C for the family.
Click to expand...
I'd like to know what you end up using for capturing. I plan on getting something in the future to digitize some old VHS and SVHS tapes of home movies and whatnot.
I still have a few Editing cards from when I used to do video, a Matrox RT.X100 and an RT.X2, both are Windows XP based and the RT.X2 is super finicky with hardware setups, and I got rid of the Asus motherboard I was using with it and couldn't get it working with a Gigabyte board I had lying around.
 
Zepher said:
I'd like to know what you end up using for capturing. I plan on getting something in the future to digitize some old VHS and SVHS tapes of home movies and whatnot.
I still have a few Editing cards from when I used to do video, a Matrox RT.X100 and an RT.X2, both are Windows XP based and the RT.X2 is super finicky with hardware setups, and I got rid of the Asus motherboard I was using with it and couldn't get it working with a Gigabyte board I had lying around.
Click to expand...
The original poster has postponed the project. You responded to a poster who has not yet decided on which to use.
 
I just picked up a Sabrent USB capture device locally, and a Toshiba VCR. Hopefully it is good enough... Will post to update.
 
E4g1e said:
The original poster has postponed the project. You responded to a poster who has not yet decided on which to use.
Click to expand...
I know, I want to know what the second guy decides to get for capture.
 
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