Hardware - Luke's Video Guide

Hardware

To effectively work with digital video, you will need a reasonably fast computer. To be able to use this guide, you will need a PC running Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT 4.0, or (preferably) Windows 2000/XP. Here are my suggestions for computer hardware:

CPU Speed

For capturing video at 320x240, I recommend you use a computer with at least a 300 MHz CPU. If you want to capture video at 640x480 with an uncompressed capture card, you should use a computer with at least a 500 MHz CPU. However, depending on the type of compression you use, you might be able to use a slower CPU than the ones I suggest. Of course, more MHz will always be better. Personally, I have a 1.33 GHz Athlon running Windows 2000/XP Professional. In addition to increasing your ability to capture video, a faster CPU will also reduce the amount of time you spend processing a video.

RAM

I suggest at least 64 MB if you are running Windows 9x/ME or at least 128 MB if you are running Windows NT/2000/XP. Having less memory will hurt performance, but adding more memory will not help it that much. This is because video processing is mostly limited by CPU speed and not by the amount of memory in your PC.

Hard Drive Speed

For capturing video at 320x240, you'll want a hard drive capable of sustaining at least 3-4 MB/sec. This is a very low transfer rate, so just about every hard drive will support this. If you want to capture in 640x480, you'll need a faster hard drive. Depending on the amount of compression you use, capturing video in 640x480 will require a hard drive capable of sustaining between 6 MB/sec and 18 MB/sec.

Hard Disk Space

I am devoting an entire section to this because it is extremely important. Digital video takes up massive amounts of space, so you will need a reasonably large hard drive. For example, 10 minutes of uncompressed video at 320 x 240 @ 30 fps takes up about 4 GB. After you process the video, it requires 8 GB. Fortunately, you can compress the video to save on disk space while still retaining full quality. Therefore, it is my recommendation that you have about 4-5 GB of free space for each 10 minutes of 320x240 video that you wish to capture and process. You can get by with less, but the less space you use, the more quality you lose. I talk more about disk space and video compression in other sections of the guide. For example, see the Data Rates and File Sizes page to learn how to calculate the amout of disk space you'll need.

If you meet the above requirements, the next thing you will need is a device to transfer to video from an external source (usually a VCR) to your computer. There are numerous video capture devices on the market today, ranging from $50 (US) to thousands of dollars. Here are my recommendations on hardware used during video capture:

Capture Device

This is what you will use to get the video from your TV/VCR/etc. to your computer. There are two categories for these types of devices:

1) Those with built-in hardware compression. These will capture video from an external source, compress it using the device's hardware, and then send it to your computer. They cost anywhere from about a hundred dollars to several thousand dollars (US).

2) TV tuner/capture cards (PCI) that capture uncompressed video. These typically cost anywhere from $50 to $150.

So, what do I recommend? If quality is your main concern, I suggest you get the cheaper TV tuner/capture card (PCI). Because these devices capture uncompressed, the quality will often be higher than that of the more expensive hardware compression devices. (Note: Some hardware compression devices can produce better quality than a cheap TV tuner/capture card, but the price will be much higher.) The tradeoff is that you will need a more powerful computer. This is because the burden of transferring/compressing the video is shifted from the capture device to your computer. If you are capturing video at 320x240, virtually every computer today can easily handle using a TV tuner/capture card. If you want to capture at 640x480 with a TV tuner/capture card, you'll need a relatively new computer. I wouldn't try capturing video at 640x480 with anything too much slower than a 500 MHz computer with a decent hard drive.

If you have a slower computer and you don't mind possibly having a slight decrease in quality, then you can purchase a capture card with built-in hardware compression. (However, the video quality may also be higher than some cheap TV tuner/capture cards if you put enough money into purchasing an expensive hardware compression card.) This will allow you to capture video at any resolution without having to worry too much about your CPU and hard drive speed. To ensure that editing your videos is easy, I recommend that you purchase a card that uses MJPEG compression. If possible, try to find a card that also allows you to capture uncompressed video. I have heard that the Pinnacle/Miro DC series of capture cards produce good quality.

Personally, I use a WinTV-GO, made by Hauppauge. It has great driver support and works perfectly for me. Plus, I got it on discount for only $41! By using a card similar to this one and following my guide, you can create videos that look better than 95% of anything else you see on the internet. (Well, at least I think so. ;-) )

One thing to remember is that if your source video device (such as a VCR) has an S-Video connector, make sure you get a capture card that also supports S-Video.

Source Video Device

In other words, this is where your video is coming from. This might be a TV, VCR, video camera, etc. Throughout this guide, I will be assuming that you are getting your video from a VCR. For the best quality, I recommend a S-VHS VCR with S-Video output. If you are recording the material yourself, set your VCR to record on its highest quality setting. This is usually the "SP" mode, which allows you to record 2 hours per standard video cassette.

To obtain the highest quality video from a TV source, you can capture your video while it is being broadcast live on TV (without using a VCR). Provided your capture card has a well-made RF input, this will give you a slightly higher quality than transferring it from a VCR. However, it is possible that you will mess up the capture. In addition, it will be difficult to properly tune your contrast/brightness/etc. settings without having a prerecorded copy of the program. Therefore, I do not recommend capturing from a live TV source. But if you do choose to capture from a live broadcast, I suggest you have a VCR recording the program in case your live capture doesn't turn out as expected.

Cables

These are the little guys that connect your external video source (e.g. VCR) to the back of your capture device. There are four main varieties of cables that are used to carry the signal:

1) Devices that support Component cables are rare, so although they provide the best quality, you probably won't be using them.
2) A higher quality capture card and VCR will allow you to use an S-Video cable, which carries the brightness and color information of the video separately. This should noticeably increase the image quality. Additionally, you need to use two composite audio cables, one for each side of the stereo image.
3) The next best type of cable is the Composite (RCA) video cable. This is what I use. It uses a single cable for the video and requires two composite audio cables for stereo audio. Most recent VCRs and capture cards will support this type of cable.
4) If you are capturing from a prerecorded source, an RF video (coaxial) cable will give you the lowest quality. A coaxial cable sends both the video and audio down the same cable, and the audio is usually in mono.

If you are capturing during a live TV broadcast, using the coaxial cable from your TV source will give you the highest quality. (Note: this is true only if your capture card has a well-made TV tuner). Also, if your capture card supports it, you will want to use internal audio cables (from your capture card to your sound card).

Whichever type of cable that you use, I recommend that you buy high quality, shielded, (optionally) gold-plated cables. This will give you better picture and sound.