OT: Need help with video or movie analog conversion to digital

[Waywyn]

hey there,

i have a problem about converting analog videomaterial to digital stuff like avi or mpeg.

i heard that there could be serious problems happen if you don\'t convert analog stuff from vhs to digital format.

heard about delay in the timecode and other errors occuring during the conversion.

i dont mean the quality or the compression rate, the most important i am asking for is the timecode problem. how can i go sure to have an exact conversion 1:1 without delaying or distortion in the timecode.

it easy to do 5-10 min movie-snippets, because the compression would not affect this lenght, but how about 60-90min productions or even longer.

i don\'t like the resolution to put on an vhs over unitor or ltc, because by editing soundeffects the vhs will always rewind and forward and whatever.

to get it straight, i just heard about all this stuff could happen, but i don\'t wanna come to the situation of doin a movie or a longer project and not be able to handle right...

would be cool to get a help here images/icons/smile.gif

thx and greetz
waywyn

[Owel]

What hardware are you using? i.e. conversion card?

I\'m using Pinnacle DV500 and Premiere 6.0 RT and this one is stable. Audio won\'t drift out of sync with the video.... even after many hours.

[Waywyn]

thx man, thats basically all i wanna know images/icons/smile.gif

so you convert from vhs to the pinnacle card with premiere ??

and then you put the vid file to your sequencer ?!?

[Owel]

>so you convert from vhs to the pinnacle card with premiere ??

Yes, from any analog source to an AVI file using Premiere. Premiere comes free with DV500. So it\'s like basically getting the software or the hardware for free, depending on how you look at it.

DV500 can also connect to a digital source, ie DV camera.

> and then you put the vid file to your sequencer

For my work, I make presentations, cut, splice, add music, etc... using Premiere. Then I export my composition back to analog (for recording by a VCR) or to an MPEG file, or Windows Media format, or burn to DVD using the included software and DVD authoring program.

I haven\'t tried importing the finished AVI video into my sequencer...

[Owel]

Okay, I JUST tried it for the first time. I was able to import a 1.45 GIGABYTE AVI file into Sonar (video is 6 minutes long). And Sonar automatically mapped the video\'s audio track, which means, I can add my embelishments to it, another midi track, or audio file or whatever.

Here\'s a screenshot. I just did this on my \"work\" PC, which is just an AMD 650Mhz. As you can see from the CPU meter, it\'s no sweat.

http://www.web10hosting.com/korg/images/sonarvideo.jpg

[Waywyn]

\"I haven\'t tried importing the finished AVI video into my sequencer...\"

thats really easy and also constant, but the only thing i need is a soft and hardware which is doing it fine and doesnt distort the timecode or taking out frames during compression:)

thx man images/icons/smile.gif

edit: whew didnt see the big shot before, damn isdn images/icons/smile.gif thx

[Bela D Media]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to jump in.

If you can not afford Avid...

Go VEGAS. There is no other video program better.

None!

Just wanted to toss that into the mix.

[Bela D Media]

By the way...

Spell AVID backwards.

images/icons/shocked.gif images/icons/shocked.gif images/icons/wink.gif images/icons/wink.gif

FB

[Scott Cairns]

By the way...

Spell AVID backwards.



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[Bela D Media]

LOL. Oh yeah man. It\'s a classic.

Can I just go way off topic and tell you that I am in the research phase of Bela D Bass.

I just cannot wait to get this puppy out.
It\'s like, I don\'t care if it sells one copy ... this is just something \"I\" want to do.

I had enough of singers and classical choirs. hehehehe - It\'s time to jam!!

[Waywyn]

@ bela: k, thx francis...

@ owel: little question here still, you said audio doesnt jump out of synch with video.

so, do you also know if the videos have the same lenght when you converting it digital.
i mean if you would synth the mucis with an vhs recorder, would it be exactly the same with the covertel digital file ??

[Owel]

I\'ve tried a cheapie capture card before, and after 5 or 10 minutes, it\'s like watching a Japanese-dub movie. The sound do not match with the picture. I returned the product to the store and bought DV500 (at the time, costs $1000+)

With my DV500 capture card, you can capture full-screen video and audio uncompressed without any drop frames during the capture process. Basically, my capture settings are

NTSC, 720x480, 29.97fps, 25Mbit/s
Audio 48Khz, 16bit, stereo, uncompressed
Millions of colors, Quality 100%

I\'m using Premiere, and with Premiere, you can lay down additional audio tracks in the timeline. Then you render your final output. So wherever you put your sound files, they\'ll stay there.

I\'m not controlling the \"stop\" and play of an external VHS recorder. That will be impossible to get everything in sync (not unless you have a pro player).

But working this way (i.e. digitized file into your computer), you know your audio and sound effects will line up with the video.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Originally posted by Waywyn:
@ bela: k, thx francis...

@ owel: little question here still, you said audio doesnt jump out of synch with video.

so, do you also know if the videos have the same lenght when you converting it digital.
i mean if you would synth the mucis with an vhs recorder, would it be exactly the same with the covertel digital file ?? <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">If you do not get an indication of \"dropped frames\" when you convert your video, then it MUST be the same length. Analog video is unlike audio, in that it is still clocked to frames per second. Your capture card can only capture \"frames,\" there is no real steady-state continuum of picture in video...it is a series of interlaced frames running at 2 x 30 (actually 29.97) frames per second. Nothing you can do to screw it up, provided you didn\'t get dropped frames.

If you\'re looking for video-handling software, I would concur that you won\'t find better software on any platform than Vegas. This will only get markedly better. I just started scoring a project which was cut in Premeire, and I am appalled at how utterly horrible that software is. Vegas is the future--it\'s a pretty good indication when Apple and Digi start trying to hire developers away from Sony, and when Final Cut\'s new feature list starts becoming a carbon copy of Vegas\'s feature list...from three years ago. Non-modal editing....wooooooooo, like nobody ever thought of that before. Real brainiac stuff there, haha.

[Waywyn]

thx, for the replies,

i started the whole thing because a guy told me that he knew a musicstudio and they didn\'t convert the video right. so when they did the complete mix on the movie the audio and video drifted away...

i have the same project now. it\'s more kind of a hobbypresentation project but really cool stuff and some fx and stuff. so it is worth the work and the practice, and i have to start somewhere images/icons/smile.gif )

and i finally want to do it right and want to prepare to have the right stuff... images/icons/smile.gif

i checked this pinnacle card on ebay, is it realistic that it is not anymore than just around 100$ or way cheaper, or is it another version...its has the same number like your card has ??

[Owel]

Pinnacle just released their own video editing software called Liquid Pro, so they dropped Premiere. DV500 has also been replaced by the more advanced Liquid Pro.

If you\'ll be buying an old copy (sealed or unsealed), make sure that it includes an unregistered copy of Adobe Premiere (right there, that\'s almost $500 worth of free software). The version of Premiere that comes with DV500 is special in that it supports real-time effects WITHOUT rendering. You can hookup a TV monitor to the DV500 breakout box and view the video you\'re editing BOTH on your VGA screen and TV screen.

I also tried Vegas and it looks good, (kinda reminds me of Acid). But I rely on my DV500 to capture analog sources because of the zero dropped frames I get. Once you\'ve captured it into AVI, you can pretty much use whatever editing software you want after that. Vegas or Premiere. But hey, Premiere (worth $500) comes included with your DV500.

If you want to use Vegas, you\'d have to purchase that separately... around $500-$600 I think. Software only, no hardware included.

[Hudson]

Just because they charge $500 doesn\'t mean it\'s worth $500. I wouldn\'t touch Premiere with someone elses fingers.
FWIW, Vegas has a solid capture process, too. Very simple to use, as most Sonic Foundry stuff is, without sacrificing quality or features. If you already use Premiere, hey! Power to ya...but if you\'re going to buy something, at least check out the Vegas demo before you do.
-Hudson


Originally posted by Owel:
But hey, Premiere (worth $500) comes included with your DV500. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">

[mschiff]

I agree completely about using Vegas over Premiere. Especially if you have any experience at all with a multi-track audio editor. It is completely intuitive and easy to use and Premiere is the opposite. I have Premiere because it came with my video capture card (DVSTORM II) and it is one of the worst user interfaces of any piece of software that I\'ve seen (and I\'m a software developer).

-- Martin

[Owel]

Just like what I said, DV500 comes with Premiere. So you buy DV500 for $500 and you can use it out of the box with the included software.

What do you want me to advise this guy? Buy DV500 for $500 and buy Vegas 4.0 for another $600? I don\'t even know how deep he is into video editing.

I\'m not a Premiere fanatic, I just use the tool to get the job done. I don\'t do editing 100% full-time. I also have Vegas 3.0 so I know first-hand Vegas\'s ease of use.

I\'m not a zealot for any software, hardware, manufacturer. I don\'t have stocks in them, I don\'t care about them. I don\'t care what you buy or use, I\'m just stating the fact that the Premiere software comes with the capture card.

It will be good if Vegas was the bundled software, but it\'s not. In that case, maybe he needs to find another capture card.

[Waywyn]

thx for the replies...

but owel you said it images/icons/smile.gif i am really happy about all help and tricks and stuff...

but i only wanna capture stuff from video, because some companies still send tapes and i wanna be more prepared, so basically all i wanna do is just rip the tape and get it as digital format to import in cubase and start composing images/icons/smile.gif nothing else images/icons/smile.gif

[Bela D Media]

\"Once you\'ve captured it into AVI, you can pretty much use whatever editing software you want after that. Vegas or Premiere. But hey, Premiere (worth $500) comes included with your DV500.\"

This is where Vegas shines.
So much of the video work can be seen without the need to prerender. The host of video effects are top notch and simple to use.

And as for the audio side: Nothing better than Vegas for audio for video. 5.1 and so on.

All of your plugins are there.

Video out support is there.

Rendering to all and any format.

etc