Video Capture Software

[fluke]

Hello. Just bought Adaptec PCI video capture card. Comes with Sonic My DVD, which I think is crap it's slow and a resource hog. Anyone got any suggestions for a good replacement ?????? PS: Sorry about the lack of posts only just found this place again in an old back up I was looking thru

[rubicat]

I have one of these too. Since this is a hardware capture device it doesn't work with most of the capture software on the market today. The only other program that I know of that works with Adaptec capture cards is Frey Technologies' SageTV Recorder, but it only works with the AC-2400 (Media Center Edition). I'm assuming that, like me, you have the AC-2010 and not the AC-2400. All video capture programs that I've ever used is are "resource hogs." On the up-side, since these Adaptec cards are hardware capture devices, while capturing they actually use much less system resources than software based capture devices. This is why they work well on more modest computers, even a 600Mhz machine, because the card does most of the work. Some software-based capture device manufacturers claim that their card will work on a 600Mhz machine but in reality they require a much faster machine to be able to keep up. I agree that Sonic MyDVD leaves a lot to be desired. The only thing that I use it for is capturing to a file, and not any of the excuse for DVD authoring that it provides. Actually I guess if someone where a complete newbie, its dumbed-down user interface wouldn't be too bad. I have two other software-based capture cards in addition to the AC-2010, but I currently use the 2010 because its capture quality is excellent and superior to the others. I have captured hundreds of hours of video with it and I am very pleased with the results. Are you using version 5.x of MyDVD? The card ships with this version 5 and an older version (at least when I bought mine). They include the older version because version 5 only works with XP/2000. Version 5 is at least a little better.

[fluke]

Thanks for the reply mate. Yes thats the card I have and am very pleased with it. I'm using My DVD Deluxe Suite V5 which is better than the crude the card ships with. Have you or anyone else any suggestions to replace My DVD to edit, title etc, the captured files ??????

[rubicat]

When it comes to editing, I am spoiled. A friend of mine is a videographer and he lets me come to his studio and use his professional editing software (which is quite awesome). I'm not sure what it is, but he said it cost $7000(US), which is waaaay out of my price range. As far as affordable editing software goes, I think it depends on what you want to do. For cutting, splicing, chaptering and DVD authoring I use DVD-lab Pro by MediaChance. I think it's a excellent authoring program that is easy to use but is not a cheesy template-based program like MyDVD. I have done some pretty cool things with DVD-lab Pro like motion menus or two audio tracks that are selectable from a menu. I used the second audio track to narrate some of my home movies. I have also used TMPGEnc DVD Author which isn't as powerful for authoring but has excellent cutting and chaptering capabilities. Before I started using the professional software, for other editing like special effects, such as fades and transitions, or adding text, I have used ArcSoft ShowBiz. It is kind of cheesy, but does a fairly good job for an inexpensive program. I'm not sure, but I think ShowBiz came with the Adaptec card. I'm sure there are other editing programs out there that are better than these, but I quit researching them because I started using the professional software at my friend's studio.

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