Computers and Related Hardware/Software

eltinator wrote:I would recommend the Pioneer DVR-107D. Can't go wrong with the leader in DVD burners :P

As for dual and single layer, I'm not too sure myself but isn't dual layer 2 layers of a DVD in 1 so basically it's twice as big? Single should just be your normal standard DVDs. The + or - is just the type of DVD media. Both are usually compatible with any DVD-Rom and I believe pretty much all new burners will write on both + or -.

I'd have to agree with Elt on that one... I just ordered my Pioneer DVR-107D from newegg.com and should be getting it soon... :D

KouSeiya315 wrote:More than likely the burner you'll buy will be single layer. I think dual layer is like....movie DVD's you buy in stores. I think dual layer burners are out or coming out, but they'll probably be damn expensive for a while :sweat:

Right, though I've seen Sony's dual-layer burner at CompUSA for around $200+ (?), but I'll bet you can find it for less somewhere else... Supposedly the NEC 2510(?) can burn dual-layers with a firmware hack, but I'm not sure if it's been confirmed...

Check out dvdrhelp.com... There's a lot of info to read about the subject, but you gotta educate yourself before jumping in or you'll be asking a ton of questions on why things don't work...

bmwracer wrote:
I just ordered my Pioneer DVR-107D from newegg.com and should be getting it soon... :D

w00 h00...!! Join the club of Pioneer fans!! :applaud: :hehe:

Mr.ChoyBoi wrote:w00 h00...!! Join the club of Pioneer fans!! :applaud: :hehe:

Yep. :)

limpaway wrote:Thanks for the recommendation. I looked at the specifications for this model and I think I want one with a faster cdr speed. Cus right now I have a small desktop that only has one slot for my cdr burner. So when I get the internal dvd+/-rw drive, Im gonna depend on only this drive to burn both cdr and dvdr for me.

I'm thinking about getting:
Optorite 12X DVD+/-RW Drive, Model DD1203
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-182-024&depa=1
or Lite-On Black 8X DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-812S
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-936&depa=1
or NEC 8X Black DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model ND-2500A
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-012&depa=1

Just going on personal opinion here, but narrow down to the NEC and Liteon :P Like people said, Pioneer is excellent too. I got a PC w/ a DVD burner a month and a half ago, and it has an NEC 1300A (also a combo drive). In using Verbatim DVD-R, I haven't had one failed burn yet (knock on wood). Of course, my burner is older technically because I grabbed a clearance PC that happened to be way better than the model replacing it. So my DVD-RW speed is only 4x, but I can burn a full capacity DVD-R in 15 minutes (from my drive). For me that's satisfying :mrgreen: I don't plan on replacing it for at least a year...I just got this one! My CD-RW speed is only 16x and can burn a CD-R in 4 minutes. But on my old PC, that was my CD-RW speed too, so it wasn't disappointing. I was told combo drives will be slower for CD-R for the most part, at least for a little while. I can deal with it.

limpaway wrote:

What I don't understand is the difference between the (+) and (-) sign? Why do ppl prefer (-)? I have no clue :crazy:

Also what is considered normal price and good price for dvdr?
Thanks for the replies.

DVD media is still a tiny bit pricey but is improving a lot. Also, when you catch a good sale, it's great. I just caught a good sale on Ridata/Ritek on Amazon.com. $35 for a pack of 50. If you buy them in spools and catch a good sale, I think on average you will pay up to $2 per disk for DVD-R. I'm not sure about the difference between + and - technically myself, but I think more standalones might be compatible with DVD-R? Total guess, but I was told that once...

If you check out dvdrhelp.com you'll find that the NEC 2500A and the Pioneer DVR-107D are the two highest user rated 8X burners... :)

Just got my burner in the mail today!!!! Let the madness begin!!!! :hehe: :hehe: :hehe: :hehe:

I am looking to buy my first capture card. As I am a totally newbie in the area, I know absolutely nothing.

What should I be looking for in the capture card?
Which brand is good?

Please could someone recommend me some good ones?
I am using Windows XP and my main purpose of getting the card is to convert VHS to avi, etc., but may want to directly capture programs directly from digital TV in the future.

I am also interested to learn what people have been experienced with their cards.

Thanks.

chiyoaiki wrote:I am looking to buy my first capture card. As I am a totally newbie in the area, I know absolutely nothing.

What should I be looking for in the capture card?
Which brand is good?

Please could someone recommend me some good ones?
I am using Windows XP and my main purpose of getting the card is to convert VHS to avi, etc., but may want to directly capture programs directly from digital TV in the future.

I am also interested to learn what people have been experienced with their cards.

Thanks.

Groink would be the man....

Paging Groink......... :)

Thanks for the load of confidence, bmwdude! :)

For my capturing, I'm using the ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 (it's an ATI Radeon 9000 with video capturing built-in). It's an AGP card with coax (TV antenna or analog cable TV), S-Video IN/OUT, and left/right audio in using RCA-type connectors. The software used on the card is the ATI Multimedia Center (MMC) -- I'm running version 9.0 which is working great for me.

They no longer make the 9000. The 9600 replaced it, and there's also a 9800 that has more video RAM. If you're a gamer, the 9800 is the one you want to get because it also has better video acceleration for gaming, but doesn't make any impact on video capturing (vs the 9600). If you're not a gamer, the 9600 is just fine.

The reason I recommend the ATI line is that many of the other cards either lack scheduled recordings (like a VCR), or the card is PCI. AGP is a much faster video bus than PCI. There are other great cards out there that I'd recommend that use PCI, including the Hauppauge WinTV-HD (if they still make that -- I haven't looked it up in awhile). For me, my PCI slots are precious, so if you can spare a PCI slot and/or you have a great video card you don't want to loose, check out the Hauppauge line.

There are also other alternatives to video capturing if you're just looking to convert VHS to digital. For the Under the Same Roof series I'm ripping, I use an Adaptec IEEE-1394 (Firewire) card, along with the Canopus ADVC-100. The Canopus unit is a stand-alone box with a gazillion different video/audio input/output interfaces, including S-video in/out, Firewire, etc. For software, I use Pinnacle Studio 9.1 because this software allows me to insert hard subtitles and other hard text, as well as do tricks like fade-in/out and other transitions. If you can't afford the Canopus unit, Pinnacle Systems also sells an AV kit which includes a similar Firewire box that does the same thing, for under $300.

For your PC resources... Expect to capture about 4.5GB per hour of video/audio (MPEG-2 720x480 8000kbps). So you'll need a large hard disk drive. Also, make sure the hard disk is on a EIDE interface as the only device so that you can prevent the loss of frames. Keeping the hard disk optimized and de-fragmented is a good thing, as you'd like for the free disk space to be contiguous (i.e. no gaps). Recommend at least a Pentium III with 700MHz or faster processor. You really don't need a Pentium 4 for this stuff, though a P4 will speed up the processing. A P4, however, won't improve your capturing performance. I'm mentioning this because you can find a used Pentium III in the classified for about $100 to $200. Then with an extra PC, you can devote the video production to that, while using your primary PC for other things.

There are several ways to skin a cat, so what I mentioned above is just a few of the many ways you can get your capturing done.

--- groink

groink wrote:Thanks for the load of confidence, bmwdude! :)

No problem, Groinkster... You came through with flying colors again. :applaud: :D

bmwracer wrote:
Groink would be the man....

Paging Groink......... :)

Thank you bmwracer for paging groink for me :)
-------

Thanks you groink for the in-depth advice. Soryy to bother you future but I have a few questions I would like to ask.

With your experience with ATI, how is the quality of the output? I haerd that ATI software tends to produce flickering, is it true?

Between ATI or Hauppauge and Canopus or Pinnacle, which would you recommend? In terms of quality, reliability and usability, how do they compared?

If I buy either the Canopus or Pinnacle, is this mean I cannot capture tv program to digital directly?

When you capture from KikuTV, do you record the program directly to mpeg, mpeg2, or avi; or do you record the program to VHS first?

Once again thank you for your times.

chiyoaiki wrote:How is the quality of the output? I haerd that ATI software tends to produce flickering, is it true?

What I'd recommend is to download some of the captures I've uploaded on D-Addicts, especially Loved to Love. That series is the latest one I've made. The process in making LtoL is:

1. Capture directly from analog TV to hard disk at 720x480x8000kbps, interlaced.

2. Used InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2.0 to take out the commercials, then re-ripped at the same 720x480x8000kbps configuration.

3. Converted the audio to WAV using VirtualDud MPEG-2. Cleaned the audio using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (hiss and played with the amplifier).

4. Ripped the video and audio together to DivX 5.1/MP3 using DivX Pro 5.1 to 640x464 (I think), with progressive video enabled.

chiyoaiki wrote:Between ATI or Hauppauge and Canopus or Pinnacle, which would you recommend? In terms of quality, reliability and usability, how do they compared?

Unfortuanately, I have no experience with the Hauppauge line. However, JEM uses this card for his captures from Singapore Channel 8. If you view his captures, you'll see what the quality is like. As for ATI, the Multimedia Center 9.0 software is very user-friendly. It's also friendly to the more experienced capturer in terms of creating customized capture configurations, including choosing of 3rd-party video codecs (DivX, XviD, Huffy, etc.) The BEST quality you can get is quite possible with the ATI hardware, using DV Phase I with PCM audio. The problem there is that a typical one hour of content would take around 14GB. Like I mentioned in the previous posting, if you have a very large hard disk drive, you can afford to capture at that level of quality. I only use DV Phase I when capturing laser disc because my overall goal is to go through as little ripping as possible.

As for reliability, the ATI Multimedia Center 9.0 hasn't failed on me yet. I upgraded to 9.0 about two weeks ago (from 8.1) and it has been working great for me so far. The 8.1 version, however, did give me a few problems, but you won't need to worry about 8.1 if you do decide to buy into the ATI line.

chiyoaiki wrote:If I buy either the Canopus or Pinnacle, is this mean I cannot capture tv program to digital directly?

The missing component on both of these is the scheduler. If you just sit there and hit RECORD when the show comes on, the scheduler isn't needed. There is a 3rd-party product, made by InterVideo called WinDVR 3.0, that'll work with these two devices. I actually bought WinDVR a few months ago, but it didn't work well with my ATI hardware. Every few seconds I was losing frames. I'll have to sit down sometime and see if it works with the Canopus unit. As for Pinnacle, you may need to ask around for compatibility with WinDVR.

chiyoaiki wrote:When you capture from KikuTV, do you record the program directly to mpeg, mpeg2, or avi; or do you record the program to VHS first?

MPEG-2 720x480x8000kbps is what I capture at.

--- groink

I'm posting this separate from my other posting because below are things that are on-going and in beta...

1. I'm experimenting with recording directly to de-interlaced video. On DVDRHelp.com, there's heated discussions over interflaced versus de-interlaced. Most people have told me if my target viewing platform is TV or DVD (which it is), then I should keep things interlaced. However, when I started seeding my stuff on BitTorrent, I found that most people prefer to watch the captures on their PC. These people prefer de-interlaced or progressive (ATI doesn't support progressive, but DivX does). Some people say that de-interlaced video on DVD looks fine, while others claim that it looks like crap.

2. I'm also experimenting with a different video editor called WOMBLE. It's much faster than WinDVD Creator or Pinnacle Studio (from 90 minutes to just over 10 minutes). Also, it allows you to take out commercials down to 30/100th of a second, without re-ripping. TMPGEnc Plus only works down to 1 second intervals. So far, WOMBLE is working great for me.

More stuff to think about! Education in the area of video never ends...

--- groink

Thanks for future detail advice.

chiyoaiki wrote:Between ATI or Hauppauge and Canopus or Pinnacle, which would you recommend?

Sorry perhaps I wasn't being clear, what I meant was between capture card (e.g. ATI, Hauppauge) and alternative method (e.g. Canopus, Pinnacle), which would you recommend?

Is DVD recorder another option?

Does the TV set have any effect on the quality?

Sorry for asking so many questions.

Thanks once again.

chiyoaiki wrote:Thanks for future detail advice.



Sorry perhaps I wasn't being clear, what I meant was between capture card (e.g. ATI, Hauppauge) and alternative method (e.g. Canopus, Pinnacle), which would you recommend?

Is DVD recorder another option?

Does the TV set have any effect on the quality?

Sorry for asking so many questions.

Thanks once again.

Um, regarding the TV, I don't think it's part of the equation. It's more about the antenna or cable or satellite... You'd want your audio/video source to be as pristine as possible... Your final DVD will only be as good as the source from whence it came... :)

I HAVE WINDOWS XP AND ATI WONDER 9000PRO USING ATI MULTIMEDIA 9.0b AND PINNACLE STUDIO 9. I HAVE A PROBLEM CAPTURING ANY MOVIES/TV IN PINNACLE STUDIO WINDOW 9 HOWEVER I AM ABLE TO VIEW AND CAPTURE MOVIE/TV IN MULTIMEDIA WINDOW 9.0.

WHEN I CHANGE THE CAPTURE SOURCE TO COMPOSITE IN PINNACLE STUDIO WINDOW, I HAVE AUDIO BUT NO VIDEO IN THE CAPTURE WINDOW. COULD SOMEONE HELP?!!!!!!!!(

balyenge wrote:I HAVE WINDOWS XP AND ATI WONDER 9000PRO USING ATI MULTIMEDIA 9.0b AND PINNACLE STUDIO 9. I HAVE A PROBLEM CAPTURING ANY MOVIES/TV IN PINNACLE STUDIO WINDOW 9 HOWEVER I AM ABLE TO VIEW AND CAPTURE MOVIE/TV IN MULTIMEDIA WINDOW 9.0.

WHEN I CHANGE THE CAPTURE SOURCE TO COMPOSITE IN PINNACLE STUDIO WINDOW, I HAVE AUDIO BUT NO VIDEO IN THE CAPTURE WINDOW. COULD SOMEONE HELP?!!!!!!!!(

FIRST OFF, PLEASE DON'T TYPE IN CAPS ONLY!

With that... I never had any luck with running Pinnacle Studio 9.x on the exact same PC as the ATI hardware/software. I'm figuring it had something to do with a combination of Windows hotfixes, DirectX 9.0, the ATI drivers, and Pinnacle Studio. If you read my Under the Same Roof thread, you'll see my on-going log of hell I went through trying to get all of these to work in cohesion. In summary, things worked fine on a RAW installation of Windows XP Pro. As soon as I start updating the system with the latest hotfixes, things started going downhill.

What I ended up doing is buying another PC to handle just the ATI video. Once the video's captured (using the TV utility with MMC), I move the raw video to another PC that's running Pinnacle Studio. It's more likely NOT the solution you're looking for, but it's the best I can do in my current situation. I just don't have the time to spend troubleshooting this stuff any longer. :(

BTW, I had the same problems when using Windows 2000 Professional. I actually used W2K Pro first, then upgraded to XP Pro thinking that would solve my problems. :(

--- groink

groink wrote:FIRST OFF, PLEASE DON'T TYPE IN CAPS ONLY!

Yes! My ears are still ringing.... *rattles head*

Thanks for the responce. I think you are right the two softwares conflict. I worked on them the whole night but couldnt get them to co-exist on one PC.

I have instead done the following:

1. I have created a "Raw Video Data" folder in drive E
2. I have partitioned the hard drive (60GB) into C; D and E
3. On Partition C, I have linstalled Windows 2000; on D I have installed Windows XP (clean instal) and E is the Data Drive (Note: Boot command: "os installed drive on boot")
4. I have installed Pinnacle Studio 9 on C; and ATI on D.

After capturing the Raw Vidoe Data and saving it in E using ATI, I then reboot th PC and use OS Windows 2000 and extract the data from E. I think its better than two PCs

Balyenge