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How can I connect my DVR510 to my computer?
I would like to connect my DVR510 to my computer so I could burn
movies onto DVD's. I have an open expansion slot and a phone line connection. Any suggestions or better ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! |
On Sat, 04 Oct 2003 19:18:17 -0500, Rollo Tomasi
wrote: On 2 Oct 2003 17:07:21 -0700, (Cobra) wrote: I would like to connect my DVR510 to my computer so I could burn movies onto DVD's. I have an open expansion slot and a phone line connection. Get a VIVO [video-in-video-out] card. You will also need software to record [possibly Windows Movie Maker or other 3rd party software]. I've not done this myself but have been looking into it as well. Take a gander over at rec.video.desktop for a lot of useful information. Basically, you have the following options: 1) Connect an external device to either a firewire (1394) port or USB (preferrably 2.0) port. Such a device would have analog video inputs (RCA plugs, and possibly S-Video). You could connect your DVR to this and "capture" the video. 2) Get a video capture card that would reside in your PC. It would probably have video-in ports; most lower-end ones require you to use your audio card for the audio input. 3) If you already have a digital camcorder and a fireware port, your camcorder may have analog "pass-thru" ports that you can use. Then, of course, you need software. There are tons of options here. Windows Movie Maker isn't bad for simple stuff, although it won't work with all the devices out there. I've had trouble with it. Depending on your OS and card, there is a very cheap ($25) program called AVI_IO that does a wonderful job of capturing. It only works with cards that are supported as "Video for Windows" cards and not DirectShow cards. Again, that's OS-dependent and a bit of a complicated topic. Some cards or devices come with their own software. These packages vary greatly in quality. Finally, you can use a high-end package like Adobe Premiere, which may well be overkill in your situation. Personal Recommendations ------------------------ Keep in mind, these are largely based on personal experience. You should research in greater detail any piece of hardware you are considering. Most people on r.v.d love the Canopus ADVC100. It connects to a firewire port and does, I am told, a beautiful job. I plan on investing in one at some point, but it's $300, so I'm in no rush. I have two capture cards: an ATI All-in-Wonder 128 Pro and a Pinnacle Systems Studio DC10+, and here's my take on both of them: ATI --- This card is a combination video card/capture/tuner card. It's older -- you won't find it new anymore, but ATI has newer RADEON-based versions. I'm not crazy about it. It's software-based, so all compression happens in software. Your PC should be fast enough and have enough memory, or you'll drop frames like crazy. The bundled software is decent for simple capture but doesn't allow you to really go nuts with tweaking, and the version that my card uses doesn't communicate useful information. (For example, it tells me that it has dropped less than 1% frames. Great. Is that 2? 30? 100?) On the plus side, though, you can capture directly into MPEG or MPEG2 format. If all you want to do is capture the videos and burn them back out to DVD or VCD/SVCD, that saves you the annoying step of rendering, and it saves disk space too. The ATI features a breakout box with S-Video, RCA video, and audio inputs, although the audio is just pass-thru: you have to connect an output cable from the ATI card to the line-in of your sound card. Pinnacle -------- I like this card better. It is just a video capture card -- no tuner, and it's not a video card. It has a hardware MJPEG (motion JPEG) codec, and I think it captures a cleaner, better image. I find it is much better about not dropping frames. The bundled software (Pinnacle Studio) is much nicer than ATI's, and you can do some nice editing stuff with it. It's very easy to use. Unlike ATI's, it tells you exactly how many frames you drop. On the minus side, though, it will ONLY capture in the MJPEG format, which consumes a lot of space. MJPEG videos are only going to be viewable on a PC that has this card (or that has installed a software MJPEG codec). This is fine for editing, because if you want to edit you need to capture either in MJPEG or a lossless codec like the freeware HuffyUV. Once you finish edits, you have to render it into MPEG2 (for SVCD or DVD) or MPEG1 (for VCD). If all you want to do is capture and burn, it's a bit of a waste. The Bottom Line --------------- You need to decide what all you plan to do. My original goal was not what you're doing but to capture, edit and save home videos and the like. For that, the DC10+ works great. If you could post/email your PC's specs, I could give you a lot more information. Also, feel free to email me (chris dash heer at comcast dot net) with any questions; I have been spending a LOT of time with this stuff over the past few months. --chris |
In article , Christopher D Heer wrote:
wrote: On 2 Oct 2003 17:07:21 -0700, (Cobra) wrote: I would like to connect my DVR510 to my computer so I could burn movies onto DVD's. I have an open expansion slot and a phone line connection. Get a VIVO [video-in-video-out] card. You will also need software to record [possibly Windows Movie Maker or other 3rd party software]. I've not done this myself but have been looking into it as well. 1) Connect an external device to either a firewire (1394) port or USB (preferrably 2.0) port. Such a device would have analog video inputs (RCA plugs, and possibly S-Video). You could connect your DVR to this and "capture" the video. I chose this route because I have an iBook with a firewire port on it. I picked up a ADS VideoLink box from Buy.com for $161. It has done an excellent job so far. Turns the A/V inputs into DV over the firewire. The Mac sees it as a camera and pulls the video straight into iMovie for editing. I can then edit out commercials, etc. on the timeline and export it as a finished DV stream. I can then drag and drop the DV stream(s) into Toast and it will convert them and burn DVD, SVCD or VCD. It does a beautiful job. The only complaint I have is that the conversion process from DV to DVD takes FOREVER on my 800Mhz G3 iBook. Presumably, it would be much faster on a G4 or G5. Fortunately, I can leave my iBook chewing on data for a day and a half without worry of it crashing and having to start over. My experience with video conversion of large files on Windows boxes is that they seem to get about 90% done and then bomb out, making the whole file useless. The laptop also makes it handy to just bring into the living room, plug into the ADS box/Dish 501, dump the show, unplug, take into other room, plug into FW hard drive & DVD burner, edit, convert, and burn. Since I may periodically want to use my burner on my PC, I came across a really good deal on a FireWire card: $13.20. (Package2you.com: http://66.216.68.88. I think someone else snagged their domain when it expired as the text URL doesn't work anymore. Good company though. Hope they don't go under because of it.) The ADS box doesn't come with any Mac software, as iMovie does it for you. It does come with PC software, though. The software is Ulead Video Studio 6, and IMO, is the best of the "included with card" video software that I've used. MGI is all user interface and not much function. Pinnacle was rather non- intuitive, at least the version I saw. Ulead 5 took some getting used to as well, but was okay after a while. The main thing I liked about Ulead was the import/export flexibility with regard to formats. The ADS box also has component inputs (1st digitizer I've seen with those) and works the other way around to output DV to analog. I've yet to try either of these functions. Rambled too long... ....Sean. |
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