Analog video capture

[JD]

On 05/20/11 19:28, Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> On 05/20/2011 09:39 PM, JD wrote:
>> What do you think of this hauppague gizmo?
>>
>> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4146200
> I have no opinion of this device, personally.  I would worry about the
> part which says:
>
>> Any other format conversions needs to be done with the MediaConvert program (supplied).
> and that MediaConvert program is probably Windows only.  But, then
> again, if you can figure out what it is producing for output, ffmpeg
> will usually have a way to convert it into something you can use, though
> usually at the expense of your CPU cycles....
>
> And its more than twice the price I paid for my PVR-350 (when I bought
> it 4-5 years ago) even on sale!
>
>> I have lot's of 8mm video tapes (which I can still play through the camera),
>> and old fashioned VHS tapes which I can play through the VCR tape player.
>> These I have relegated to the bin because we have a digital pvr hooked
>> to the
>> TV set and is built-in to the Uverse service.
> Agreed, I have some 8&16mm films from my parents which were put on VHS
> for them.  Now its my job to digitize them into some MPEG format for
> future archival.  A VCR composite out to the PVR-350 is simple a
> straight forward.  cat /dev/videoN when the VCR starts playing, and a ^C
> when the video ends.  The result is a .mpg file.
>
> Once I have the .mpg files, I can use a MythTV script (MythArchive) to
> create DVDs with the various movies.  (Now this is also CPU intensive,
> more so than the original capture, but that's the price you pay to
> convert what you have to what you want.  And, yes, it uses ffmpeg to do
> the heavy lifting.)
>
That is very good info. I am now very curious about your
MythArchive script.
Would you be able to share it?
Is it restricted to mpeg 1, or mpeg2 as far as input?
What about mp4?

Thanx,

JD