RE: Video ripping question?

["Paul Miller" <pmiller@xxxxxxx>]

Phew big task ahead, as if you didn't know that, for the ultimate in PC
capturing quality I would say the order is something like this:

1st	Mpeg 2 Encoder card
2nd   Mpeg 1 Encoder Card
3rd   ATI all in wonder capture card.

pricing also follows the quality :)



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 20 February 2001 21:36
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Video ripping question?


OK, I admit it, I'm a rampant Trekkie..

My collection of Trek tapes is now getting out of hand, and very soon after
the start of Voyager season 7, I'm going to run out of shelf space in the
living room for all these VHS cassettes...

If it were possible, I would long ago have stopped getting them on VHS, and
switched to DVD instead, but it isn't so that's that. (AFAIK, no trek TV
series are yet available on DVD, and even if they were, I couldn't possibly
afford to re-purchase my entire collection!)

So, I have decided that what I'd really like to do is to digitise my entire
Trek collection onto a PC... What I want to know is, - what exactly will I
need to do it? (I pretty much know the answer to that), but more
specifically, what components should I seek out and/or avoid?

As the source will be analogue VHS, not DVD, I'm obviously not concerned
with things like digital transfers, or copy protection, so I'm looking for
recommendations for things like:

What capture card(s) give the best results,
What capture software?
What capture CODECS?

etc.

Also, what are the likely results quality-wise in digitising analog VHS
material? - will it still be watchable? will I be able to see the quality
difference? what compression algorythms are available, and what are the
relative (dis)advantages of each?

I will say at this point, that I have NO desire to burn the material out to
VCD, - I intend to have a large online video library, just like my MP3
jukebox. Also, the machine that runs this library >will< be running
Windows
2000.

Any insights?

Cheers.

Paul G.

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