My objective:-

- Transfer of Hi-8 (analogue) camcorder footage to DVD, via PC, with
- No loss at all of video or audio quality,
- No reduction in frame rates.
... such that the final result is COMPLETELY INDISTINGUISHABLE from viewing
the original tape.

Before you skip over this saying "this question has been asked many times before" - please hold on.

I am aware that there are PLENTY of TV capture cards/USB devices out there, with reports such as "good quality for the money" - but that's just the point - I'm not really sure what is meant most of the time by "good quality" - dfoes it really mean a perfect copy with no resolution/frame rate drop as above?

So question 1/ is
- What capture device to use. (one final thing - I'm not bothered about left and right channel audio, mono is OK)? (will the £20 cards really do the job?)
- What file format to capture to? (does it matter?)

Added background - I've seen lots of discussion such as "USB can't cope with data transfer rates (ie reduction in frame rates?) and that firewire is best - or is this just for DV capture?

Thanks!

If the tapes are analog, I don't think it's possible to capture them with absolutely no loss in video quality.

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AMD Sempron 2600+ (Socket 754; 1.6GHz)
Chaintech VNF3-250
768MB Crucial PC2100 (I know, I really need PC3200 :()
ATI Radeon 9200

I think any A2D comvertor box/card will give an exact replica of what is read from the tape. I emphasise 'what is read' rather than 'what is on' the tape.

From my experience I would be surprised if you see any degradation in quality after transfer as long as you capture to a lossless format (DV-AVI or similar) and to DVD resolutions.

My experiecne of transferring old VHS tapes is that it's the quality of what's onthe tape that drives the quality of the final DVD.

Just my 2p

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

Alternatively, but easier said than done, beg borrow or steal a Digital 8 camcorder and capture your Hi-8 footage via firewire.

Just a thought

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IBM A51p with 160Gb Boot Disk, 160Gb external Firewire Disk, 2Gb Memory and a super duper sound card, 17\" TFT Monitor etc etc etc
Sony TRV33e : Sony TRV310e : Canon XM2
ULead products mostly including Mediastudio Pro (V8.0), Video Studio 8, Movie Factory 2.0, Premiere Elements

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