Hardware Suggestions

[Xixax]

I'm looking at a couple of low-end digital with analog capture boards. I wondered if anyone here had any thoughts regarding the comparisons of the Matrox Rx.10 and the Pinnacle AVDV Capture Card (packaged with Pinnacle Studio Deluxe).

It's my understanding that the Pinnacle board will not work with Premiere for capture, but I believe you can edit in Premiere after you capture in another proprietary Pinnacle utility.

The downside to the Matrox board is that it comes bundled with Premiere 6.5 (which I already own) - a waste. And, it's about $300 more than the Pinnacle board. Oh, and it uses a lot of CPU power, and I am afraid that my Athlon 750 won't be enough horsepower for it.

I need one Premiere 6.5 compatible capture board with both firewire and analog inputs that's not a CPU hog. Any suggestions?

I am currently using a Miro DC30 Plus, which Pinnacle crapped out on supporting a few years ago.

[picolas]

hmmm...not sure if this is the answer, but here's the thingy i've been using...it works pretty well...

[Xixax]

Unfortunately, that's an analog only capture board.  

[picolas]

really? weird...mine came with a purple box that had a firewire port...maybe i got a deal of some kind...

[sphinx]

really? weird...mine came with a purple box that had a firewire port...maybe i got a deal of some kind...

you have a separate firewire card in your computer.  the box you mentioned merely runs through the inside of your computer and connects to the ATI card (analog), the firewire card, and whatever else you have.  it's basically so you just don't have to go messing around the back of your computer.  i have yet to find a decent video card that houses both analog and firewire, it just ain't.

[aclockworkjj]

Mr. Admin

I am currently running Premiere 6.5 .....and when it comes to capturing ....I have found it much easier to use the bulit in Device Control 2.0 (I think that is what it's called), usually it will allow you to by-pass any 3rd party plug-ins.  I am not totally familiar with your cards in question....but I have had a lot of luck with the built in device capture versus the Premiere plug-ins that came with my hardware.  I could just be feeding you rubbish, but that is one thing that has worked wonders for me as far actually capturing something right into Premiere.

[sphinx]

Mr. Admin

I am currently running Premiere 6.5 .....and when it comes to capturing ....I have found it much easier to use the bulit in Device Control 2.0 (I think that is what it's called), usually it will allow you to by-pass any 3rd party plug-ins.  I am not totally familiar with your cards in question....but I have had a lot of luck with the built in device capture versus the Premiere plug-ins that came with my hardware.  I could just be feeding you rubbish, but that is one thing that has worked wonders for me as far actually capturing something right into Premiere.

good point, but we're talking about the actual cards that the camera plugs into which enables premiere or whatever program you're using to capture.  (xixax was talking about hardware, not software)

[aclockworkjj]

Yeah ....I realized that...but if he found a card that works for him....but doesn't come with a Premiere Plug-in.....that doesn't always mean you can't use it to directly input into Premiere....that was the only point I was making.  For instance....My Sony Vaio....has a DvGate plug-in to premiere....DvGate is a piece of shit....as soon as I diabled the plug-in and went to the generic Device Control....smooth sailing!  So, if you found a card that works well for your needs don't get discouraged cause it doesn't come with a Premiere plug-in....there are ways around it.

[Xixax]

Well, I just bought some new gear for better video action...

Asus motherboard with 2.4G Pentium4 CPU and 1 gig ram
120 MB hard drive
Matrox G550 dual-head video card
Matrox RT.X10 capture board

I settled on the RT.x10 because it had both analog and firewire ins, and it can capture analog video directly to DV codec which will make it super easy for transferring VHS to Video CD or DVD.

Look for a big load of junk to hit ebay soon from the old system  :D

[sphinx]

120 MB hard drive

er?

[Xixax]

Heh. Yeah. That'll get me, what, about 10 seconds of video?

[Xeditor]

I recomend Pinnacle's DV 500 capture card.  Comes with analog, s-video, and dv inputs and outputs.  Runs perfect w/ Premiere and has Miro Instant Video meaning no rendering needed.

[Xixax]

I looked closely at the Pinnacle series, but again they're all digital. I wanted something with analog ins so I could work from both analog and digital sources.

Another thing that chaps me about Pinnacle products (I've been using them for about 6 years) is that they are HORRIBLE about supporting their products after they go out of production. If you get Pinnacle hardware that's close to the end of it's selling life, you can forget about driver revisions after it leaves production. That's the main reason I'm upgrading my analog board now, because the Pinnacle drivers are going on 2 years old, never to be supported.

I understand planned obsolescence, but Pinnacle is bad about it.

Matrox has a much better history of supporting hardware that's no longer in production.

[aclockworkjj]

It's always about support.....damn them!!!  You should see what a pain in the ass it has been trying to get Mac OSX drivers for some products....finally most companies are coming around.....too bad it's taken them so long!

[Xixax]

Well, the new system is in and built and installed, and it rocks.

I'm very pleased with the Matrox RT-X.10. It has digital and analog capture, and was only about $490, WITH a full copy of Premiere 6.5!

It even recognized my cheapo Panasonic DV camera without any extra drivers. It has machine control and everything.

Running it on Windows XP, on a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4, with an ASUS (Intel chipset) mobo.

I'm even using the cheeseball onboard audio and there have been zero compatibility issues.

Major thumbs up on this one!!!