I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade my DVD editing software (Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus), to find a capture card that works withi it, or to bypass it and but a new software package like Adobe Premiere 1.5. My main interests are to capture video off our Satellite Dish signal and make dvds (primarily old movies from the 30's, 40's and 50's that aren't available on DVD) and to take video from our camcorder and burn it onto DVDS. In both cases I want to make decent menus and be able to edit the video (remove commercials etc). On my old computer, which recently died, I'd been using an ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 card and editing with Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus. This was a challenge, as the Pinnacle software is quite quirky and finicky, especially about audio sync and image breakup problems. Additionally their tech support is laughable. They do have a decent users forum although it seems all too often to be used to register complaints about Pinnacle rather than solutions. I did, however, get to the point, (right before my system died), where it worked pretty well for what I wanted to do. I recently bought a Windows XP Media Center edition PC, with an Athlon 64 x2 4200+ dual core proc, With 1G memory. It came with a Conexant Falcon II NTSC Video Capture Card in addition to an ATI Radeon x300se PCI Express card. The system works fine, except the Media Center program doesn't support AVI video capture and seems to be quite limited as to what I want to do. I installed my Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus software and it refuses to accept audio and video in the capture window. I looked around on their forums and found that, apparently, Pinnacle products can't use some video capture cards (including Hauppauge). So now I'm thinking maybe I should move up to a better DVD authoring program and possibly buy a better capture card for it. Can anyone recommend a solution for the interests I've mentioned above? This is something I've really started to get into the last couple of years, and would be willing to spend a fair amount on in order to do it right (and hopefully more efficiently). The time I've wasted trying to get Pinnacle Studio to work propery has been very annoying and somewhat costly. I'm self employed and the hours spent on that program are hours I've not been able to spend on work or with my family. I'm looking at possibly trying Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. Does this program do what I want? Is it overkill? Is it fairly easy to learn? If it would work with the card already in my system, that's about a $100 savings right there that could go toward the software cost. I'd appreciate any help. If you think I should post this as a new thred please let me know. PG
Well First Off Adobe Premier Doesn"t author DVD"s secondly Adobe Premier Doesn"t Capture from Analogue Capture cards only from a Firewire Port....Also adobe Premier is extremely difficult to learn.. Actually Most High End editing Software doesn"t have any DVD authoring Functions or analogue Capture functions so "Studio 9" is a Little Bit Unique that way but still a Very Buggy Piece of Software..... You could get an editing DVD authoring Package like "Sony Vegas Video 6+DVD Architect 3" which will edit, encode and author to DVD but it still will not Capture from analogue Capture devices so you would have to use seperate Capture Software unless you Got a High end Capture device Like the "Canopus ADVC-110" which you could use with Adobe Premier or Vegas Video ..... You could also use seperate editing,Encodeing ,Capture and DVD authoring Software like I do which for me works very well...I do it this way because there are no Programs on the Market that will do everything I need to do and do it Better than any other Program so i use a seperate Piece of Software for each step In the Process because I want to use the Best Software for each Particular Job and don"t want to settle for the Half Assed job that Most "All In One" software does..... Good Luck
minion, i'm also a newbie. have a dell inspiron 9200 laptop. what alternative's are there, for analog capture, to using a canopus and adobe premier or premier elements? what software/ technique do you use for capture of analog. would it apply to a laptop?? thanks.
Generally speaking you will need an external Capture Device for your LapTop, either USB or Firewire preferably with Hardware Compression.... You could use a device Like the Canopus ADVC-110 on a Laptop , It actually is one of the Only options for a Laptop besides USB and you can Run any PC software on a Laptop...... Cheers
thanks minion. is the answer different if i buy a good digital video recorder? that is, would the dvr be an alternative? i see pioneer has one with an array of audio and video input options. true that one could run old analog into the dvr to convert to digital? can it then be edited? moved from the dvr to the computer in an editable format? or edited right on the dvr? do you think i should start a thread on this elsewhere on the forum? or that it has already been discussed? floydo
a DVR Might be an option But I have been hearing Many Problems from poeple who are haveing Problems getting the Files transfered off the DVR to there PC"s HD... Useing a DVD Recorder is also an Option, You could record from VHS directly to a DVD-RW and then Put the DVD-RW into your PC and Transfer the Files off of the DVD-RW to your PC and then do your editing and re-author the Files back to a DVD-R..... CHeers
thanks minion. if recorded directly to dvd-rw ( for later import to PC), is it a lesser quality file format (type) than if imported through a canopus ?? more difficult to edit??
If you Record directly to DVD then the Format on the DVD"s will Be VOB (The same as Mpeg-2 but with Dolby AC3 audio) so you can use any good Native Mpeg-2 editor like "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" to edit the Files...... The Canopus Device Captures to DV AVI format which is one of the best Formats to edit and the Captures are Potentially of Better quality but the Captures also have to be encoded to DVD Format which does make you Loose a Little Bit of Quality ...... I couldn"t tell you for certain if one will Ultimately create better quality than the other as a lot of this would depend on the DVD recorder you were useing and the software you would be useing with the Canopus Device... I would Say that a DVD recorder would be easier to use and the files would be Quicker to edit and probably be cheaper but the Canopus Device would be More Versitile...... Cheers
Hi Minion, Thanks for the reply. So what programs do you use for the various steps from capturing to burning a DVD? At this time, probably because of all the time spent with Pinnacle, I'm kind of partial to AVI captures. The quality is excellent as is the compatibility. pg
Well for Video Capture I usually use "Scenalyzer Live" but it will only work for Captureing from DV Camcorders or Analogue/Digital video Converters Like the Canopus ADVC-110 or what i have been useing is a Pinnacle DV500 editing Card which has simulr Features to the Canopus ADVC accept it also has Hardware Editing Effects but it is also a very Old Piece of Hardware which has Mostly lived out it"s Usefullness..... For editing it depends, If i just need to do cutting and Pasteing without any effects or Transitions then I usually use Virtual-Dub because it is very fast at editing AVI files but if i do want effects and transitions I will then use "Sony Vegas Video 6"... For encodeing to Mpeg-2/DVD Format i usually Frameserve my AVI files to CCE SP 2.70 useing AVISynth and encode them to a DVD Compliant M2V Video and Wav audio file, I then Encode the Wav file to Dolby AC3 in Vegas Video 6 and then I autor the M2V and the AC3 files to DVD with menu"s and Chapters useing "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" and then I am Done..... Cheers
