My parents have found a video camcorder with 1996-2000’s holiday videos they would like to digitise all the videos. It has a yellow composite video output, red and white audio output. All the cheap computer connectors I’ve found seems to require use of their capture software and save to MPEG format. I’d like to save in x264/265 MP4 format for maximum compatibility and current best quality. So I guess this means direct capture into edit software and encode no more than once is preferred? Have people done similar? What connector and software combo would you recommend? Thanks!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hauppaug...063258?hash=item23e747461a:g:IucAAOSwzPlft67N that *may* do it. I would make sure it does by having a read of the manual. IIRC all Win TV include pass through and capture, and that has a the correct connector (yellow vid, audio in via a 3.5mm jack so you need a Y cable)
I've not mucked about with this for years, but it was always the case that you wanted something with an onboard MPEG encoder. Probably less of a thing these days though. I've used a Hauppage HVR to capture in the past, and I remember it being pretty good. I think the last card I used was an Asus thing with a 3x RCA breakout and you used a software encoder with it, IIRC worked fine with Windows Media Centre and a satellite receiver. This would probably do the trick. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hauppaug...eo-Capture-PCI-Card-Used-Working/193761542308 As for software, no idea now. VirtualDub still a thing?
With these, does it mean I'll need to use their software to save the file encoded as MPEG. Then use editing software to edit and re-encode into format I want. Doesn't that degrade the already bad picture? That second one is PCI....... which I cannot use Would something like this do the same thing? https://smile.amazon.co.uk/External...425796&sprefix=s-video+capture+,aps,-1&sr=8-3 But concern is I'm locked to its dodgy software and capture bitrate is locked to something stupidly low.
Strictly speaking yes transcoding will degrade the video quality. However, I suspect that it won't make much difference in quality. I have not messed around with video capture since the days of analogue cable broadcast so some of my thought my be a bit dated. Back in the day one would get a video capture card because they would perform MPEG encoding on the card and remove a signification processing load from the CPU. If you couldn't get a capture card but had a powerful computer you could consider a video grabber at the risk of doped frames when your CPU got over loaded. I suspect that it really doesn't matter which hardware you buy, its all rebrand models anyways, and it will mostly likely work for your application. The difference will be what software it comes with and how much video editing you wish to do. With the capture cards I've used, while they worked best with the provided software, they did show up in window's device list and other software was able to use them. True there is not guarantee that the unit you linked to will work that way but think of it as a £10 gamble. Or put down £20 and get one with H.264, https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIGITNOW-Capture-Transfers-Digital-Windows/dp/B078H54QDR/ If it was me I'd have probably foolishly just looked up Hauppauge and bought the first compatible device I found... foolish as theirs is £53 and I have no less than three PCI cards and USB stick I could use.
Those are total crap. I tried one years back, then realised I should just get a WinTV. They didn't work in Windows 7, only Vista. Once again as with everything you can have all of the hardware you want, but drivers will ruin your day (and software).
These days I'd probably go for a cheap HDMI capture device and a separate RCA to HDMI converter. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capture-Streaming-Camcorder-Teaching-Conference/dp/B08BZQBVN3/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/GTY-Adapter-Converter-Composite-Support-2/dp/B08KDJ66L2 I think it would probably give you a smoother more modern experience than a likely dated direct RCA-USB capture device.
I think I'm going to go with the last method, where it will get digitised to higher resolution so hopefully more detail is preserved. The HDMI adaptor says it works with third party software. Thanks all for your inputs.