Posted: 5/27/2007 9:08:35 PM EDT
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I have a new Dell PC running Vista Media Center Home Premium (or something close). It has an ATI 650 Theater Pro Combo card. The card has the following connections / ports..... Audio In - Appears to be a 1/8" plug. ANT In - I think this is the antenna connection (F connector similar to the cable /CCTV). I am assuming that I will not use. Cable In - This is the CATV connection to the bult-in tuner. Works fine. I ran analog CATV from Time Warner into it. S-Vidio In- What more to say. I currently have two tape-playing sources. Both 4-head. Source one is a RCA camcorder with a video port consisting of one yellow RCA connector and an audio port consisting of one white RCA connector. Source two is a Panasonic VCR with a video port consisting of one yellow RCA connector and audio ports consisting of red and white RCA connectors. I want to transfer my tapes to DVD. I will probably use Roxio Creator DE, Windows DVD Maker or Windows Movie Maker. However, I am having trouble figuring out the best way to connect. I know that I need to capture the video and audio. My questions are: -What is the best quality connection for capture. I only want to do this once...... -Audio - what is the best quality for capture? -Both source devices have a video out RCA connector. How can this be converted to the S-video In on the ATI card. I havent seen a single RCA adapter/cable that goes from a single connector to a S-vid connector (only three connector composite RGB to S-vid). -Audio Question- Based upon the audio output of each source....I am assuming that both are the same (stereo left and right) even though each device has different connections ( I have been able to get cables and adapters to connect) however is it best to connect audio to the ATI 650 card. -Both sources are 4-head and I think both are stereo. Therefor I am assuming that there is no advantage in one over the other, however the VCR also has the standard TV / CATV output. -With thay being said, am I making it more difficult then it needs to be....Should I just plug the VCR into the ATI 650 CATV tuner and set it to channel 3 or 4 (like in the old days of going VCR to VCR)........I hoping that this will not be the end result as I think it will not be the best quality...... Thanks is advance !!!!!!!! |
Video - Best video quality will come from S-Video, however since you only have RCA's on the input devices, a converter will be needed. Converter can be found here. You won't find a converter that goes to all 3 RCA's, because only the yellow is video and the white and red are the audio portion, and S-Video (as the name implies) doesn't do any audio. Audio - Audio is going to be limited here since you only have a 1/8 stereo jack. But... you aren't really going to get better audio from another type of input since the audio was already recorded on a tape. Just go with this, but keep in mind that one your input devices is only mono. (Camcorder with single white RCA) -d |
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there are also services out there that will transfer your tapes to dvd or hard drive for you. if the number of tapes is small, you might want to consider leveraging the expertise they have. if the number of tapes is large, you might want to consider leveraging the hardware they have. in any case, if it isn't digital, it's going to be hard for you to match the quality a dedicated setup will have. |