I already goggled and there's like a bunch of options. I just wanted to get yalls opinion on the easiest and fastest way to do this.

I have some old Hi8 tapes and the video recorder and i want to digitize them to mpeg4 i guess. I have an ATI 650 theater pro TV tuner with an RCA in hook up. Would the best way to do this is just rca input to the tuner and encode them using Windows Media Encoder? To mpeg4?

[Edited on February 26, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Reason : h]

2/26/2010 6:28:54 PM

1. take off the goggles
2. put on some eye glasses

2/26/2010 6:53:11 PM

oh dammit. googled. spell check. FF still doesn't think googled is a word.

2/26/2010 6:56:31 PM

I was about to say "that's because it's not a word" ... but then I remembered that the OED added it back in 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_(verb)

To answer your question, though, yes, just RCA input and record, it's a slow and painful process.


[Edited on February 26, 2010 at 7:11 PM. Reason : .]

2/26/2010 7:09:39 PM

So anyway I have windows media encoder installed and I'm about to install the tv tuner with the RCA input. I'm hoping Windows 7 picks up the driver. I've used Windows Encoder before but as far as editing/clipping out portions what's the easiest program to use? Windows movie maker? I've used Adobe Premier but i'm not trying to mess with installing that now.

2/26/2010 7:11:31 PM

Yeah, if you're using Windows 7, then just use the provided Movie Maker, it works pretty damn well to make DVDs too if you are so inclined.

2/26/2010 7:13:11 PM

I don't think Movie Maker is installed with ultimate. Weird.

2/26/2010 7:17:40 PM

it might not be installed by default but it's available via a free download

2/26/2010 9:20:35 PM

Yeah downloaded it. Going to try this out tomorrow.

2/26/2010 11:53:06 PM

The audio is coming into windows media encoder but no matter what i do i can't get the composite video to show up using the ATI AVStream analog capture driver. This may have to do with ATI not officially supporting windows 7 (using vista 64 driver) but it's odd because i can get static from the tuner and audio from the rca so. It's just something with the video input.

-ok weird now i can get the video working with virtualdub but no audio. dammit.

[Edited on February 27, 2010 at 3:10 AM. Reason : s]

2/27/2010 2:57:33 AM

For Win 7 using Virtualdub, I have to tell it to listen to the microphone by going to Control Panel > Sound > Recording > Double-click "Microphone" > Listen > Check the "Listen to this device box".

BTW, I'm using http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100112this K-World device to do so.

2/27/2010 5:59:35 PM

Yeah i need to pick up a newer device. I can't figure out what's wrong with virtualdub or windows media encoder. I've gotten them both to work with the composite in on my ATI 650 pro but only like 1/10 times i try. Usually i get a green or black screen. I have to continuously figit with the settings to get the video to pop up. I have no idea what's up.

2/27/2010 6:31:43 PM

bump

6/29/2010 8:31:55 AM

I think I used VirtualDub the last time I did this. IIRC I had to offset the audio stream or I jumpered my wintv card using line out on SBLive! I can't remember. Anyway I have an old USB TVTuner around here somewhere that might have SVideo input if you're so inclined.

6/29/2010 8:38:10 AM

I picked up a dazzle USB rca dongle thing and hooked it up. Found the drivers and installed them. Seems to give Windows Media Encoder 64 bit some issues so i opened up virtual dub. Other then pretty bad interlacing the video came in fine. (Not really my field but i could somehow run a de-interlacing filter to clear up the lines?).

The audio on the other hand seemed to work at times but other times it would be slightly out of sync (i was expecting this i guess), but most of the time it was just too low. Like everyones voices were too low. I don't know if virtual dub is slowing it down/lowering the pitch to keep up with the video. I don't know. I only messed with it a little last night. I'll have longer tonight.

Guess I could always try the Pinnacle Studio that came with the dongle thing. Anyone have any suggestions? I'll be reading up in AVSForums later tonight for problem solving.

-and by low i mean pitch not volume.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 8:47 AM. Reason : s]

6/29/2010 8:45:27 AM

You can either struggle through this several times until you get a satisfactory result, or you could take it to someone.


I used to have to convert videos to a digital format on a regular basis, and that shit was excruciatingly painful and results were never dead-on with consumer grade equipment like you're using.


If I were in your shoes, I'd go see Gary at Flicko's in Cary. He can turn shit around really quickly, and doesn't charge an arm and a leg.

6/29/2010 9:53:40 AM

I'm in Charlotte and it's almost to my liking. I'd rather mess with it and figure it out myself. Just having slight audio problems. The audio is pitched wrong. I'm assuming virtual dub is trying to sync it and messing with the pitch. I wish i knew more about it. Been reading a bunch on encoding. Is Virtualdub my best bet or something like Adobe Premier maybe? Need to find a way to de-interlace it too.

6/29/2010 9:59:00 AM

I've used both, and for me, Premiere is the preferred method. OSS fans will berate me for that, but VirtualDub has always been a complete and utter fucking failure for me.

6/29/2010 5:54:14 PM

K i'll try premier. In terms of encoding should i go with h.264?

-haha ok so i'm still messing with it. can't get the audio in sync. So when i pull it in in realtime and view/listen to it on my computer everything is in sync.

What's to prevent me from running like FRAPS and jjust recording the screen? I just want it for facebook videos etc.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 6:40 PM. Reason : s]

6/29/2010 6:22:43 PM

are you encoding straight from your Hi8 tapes to h.264?


I always do plain vanilla uncompressed AVI and then re-encode to a preferred codec from there. It's longer (of course) but less prone to errors.

6/29/2010 6:52:55 PM

^yeah i figured that out. Uncompressed via virtualdub is like a gigabyte a minute!!!

6/29/2010 10:07:36 PM

K sorry for the double post. Said fuck it and downloaded Pinnacle Studio 14 (software that came with $49.99 usb dongle). I've heard horrible things about it. Didn't think it would work.

Downloaded it and captured the tapes using 6mbit Mpeg-2 (medium quality) and it spit out a perfect mpeg-2 file. No sync issues and it even fixed the interlacing issue. Ready to be burned to a cd.

Now in regard to converting it to mpeg-4 etc i haven't tried yet.

update: seems like it'll convert to mpeg-4 just fine too. Awesome.

[Edited on June 30, 2010 at 12:00 AM. Reason : s]

6/29/2010 11:39:14 PM