Minimum PC spec for capture with compression?
Hi all,
Am considering buying an older PC that can sit in a quiet corner of the study and churn away doing compression/AVISynth work. Part of this, though, will be bringing in capture via VirtualDub and I'd probably want to do Lagarith or HuffYUV compression on the fly during this. Is there a recommended minimum spec of processor/RAM for this type of work? Regards to all, Discy |
The thread title alluded to something like an MPEG capture box. But after reading the post, that's not actually what you're after, is it?
Am I correct that you'll be capturing elsewhere, and then transferring* the captures to this new "compression box" (not really) for Avisynth processing? *eSATA is fastest, just swap over the drive. You'd load the Huffyuv AVI into Avisynth, run the script in VirtualDub, and then save out Lagarith lossless. (Other software besides VirtualDub can accept AVS, such as Hybrid, if doing any x264 output.) How long per day will you be encoding this way? That would somewhat determine what CPU and cooler (thus case) is needed to keep that corner of the room quiet, as well as cool, and not fail early. Anything from an i3 to i7 is fine, I've built both kinds of systems, and can give you a detailed parts list to shop from or do further research. |
Hi there,
To be honest, I'd like to use this PC for the raw capture - either with Huffyuv or Lagarith compression - and then also for the AVIsynth work. Total active time per day will be between eight and 10 hours, I would estimate. WIth the majority of that being AVISynth retouching. The purpose of this would be to not tie up my main PC, which I want to use for a spot of gaming. So that being the case, would there be an issue with running an older processor in the 'vid capture/retouch deck PC'? |
sofar it is not yet known which capture device is going to be used, this could be important, also for the "age" of the used pc, other then "old"
|
Hello. It's an ATI USB 600. So I'm guessing I need at least USB 2.0?
|
I just googled for the manual for it,
Yes it is a USB device from some years ago, Intel or AMD Min. Intel 2.0 Celeron, Pentium Intel Duo, AMD 3800+ or higher 512MB 480MB available hard disk space USB 2.0 is needed according the quote i took from that, I don't know how "old" your available pc is, you should just try it, most of the time these USB TV sticks did not perform well in those times, but that was also some time ago, just try it, also first with the software that came with it if it will run on the version Microsoft Windows on the "old" pc, a newer version of Windows might not run, because each new version of windows needed better hardware, you might also want to tell the specs of the "old" pc. If this device does work, you could still have audio sync issues, a know issue for these devices. btw. 480MB hard disk space should indicate that compression is taken place allready before it is written to the harddrive, uncompressed takes much more space. |
buy a canopus card seriously (or similar). Little to no audio desync, little to no pc resources used during capture and you could use avisynth while capturing. I don't know what you plan to record though (analog vhs, hi8, digital Tv, games ?)
lossless capture require more time & tweaking, software can crash on you for whatever reason, i've been there so i know. |
What's budget for this? With that, I should have enough info to show you a good build. :)
The ATI 600 USB is obviously USB. And no to DV boxes, downgrade from good lossless capturing. |
Ideally the base machine would be a used Dell or Lenovo desktop affair - they're widely available here in the UK with 4GB RAM and hard disk sizes of around 250Gb, for anything between £35 and £100. Then I'd plan to replace drives etc - probably an SSD for OS and then a nice big HDD.
The CPU on those machines is generally a Core 2 Duo or somesuch. Occasionally an i3. |
Profesional video makers use a lossy video codec they edit with, called ProRes422 ..... i use the LT version of that, on a MacBook Pro.....
VHS isn't that high in resolution... lower than SD With an old pc and a USB capture device you are really making it hard on yourself. DV or a digital camcorder (firewire) aren't that bad options,(find a Firewire PCI/ISA interface card, they are cheap) and files are easy to handle, professional quality you will never get from VHS tapes, just look what makes you happy, that's where it's at. search on Youtube, you will find hands-on examples enough. Or you should invest some money in it, if you got many tapes. Quote:
The transfer speed your capture needs to get rid of it to the storage device, speed is allways needed, to compress before storage, or when uncompressed to the storage. better use a (2ndhand) recent pc. |
Quote:
I was looking along the lines of i3 for budget, or i7 for power. Encoding and moving files on hardware that old is not fun. Too much of your funds go to a new Windows license or to the brand name of the computer (Dell/HP/etc), and the rest is for the computer parts. As an example, I built a nice cool i3 last year, quiet, SSD 250gb for OS, 8gb RAM, good well-vented mid-tower case, quiet PSU, quiet CPU cooler, for about $250 USD. It runs Linux. Now, for video, you will need Windows, but surely you already have a copy? |
Hi there,
So I did a raid on my attic to see what I could find. I turned up an old Intel S1155 board that had been the basis for an HTPC a few years ago, a spare case, a 60Gb SSD. The CPU in the board - which has 4Gb RAM - was an old G620. So I looked on the usual auction sites and I've ordered a used i5 2310 CPU. Throw in a sensible PSU, a fresh CPU cooler, a new DVD writer and a new 2Tb hard disk and my total spend is about £110. I will need Windows but it's widely available on auction sites for not much money at all - people selling off licenses they stockpiled during Microsoft's 'free upgrade' process. All being well, it should be up and running by next week. And then I can carry on the process that has been started and honed thanks to all the advice I've received here. The first DVDs were posted out to the VHS tape donors earlier this week. Thanks again to all, Discy |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I wrote this on another site about 6 months ago, a much longer answer: Quote:
|
Hi all,
As outlined above, I've ended up with an i5-2310 - https://ark.intel.com/products/53445...up-to-3_20-GHz - and 4Gb RAM, with a 60Gb SSD and a 2Tb HDD. The built-in graphics of the CPU are Intel HD 2000. Running W10 64-bit. I've installed the ATI USB 600 drivers as I did on my main machine, which also runs W10 64-bit and worked correctly. However, while VirtualDub can see the ATI USB 600 as usual, when I actually try to put on some video, the preview at best shows a single frame and then freezes, or most times shows nothing at all - just a black screen. This is under 'Preview' but under 'Overlay' it doesn't even show the odd frame and freeze - it's permanently black. I'm scratching my head about it a bit because, well, it seemed so straightforward on the regular PC. So I'm just wondering if there are known issues with Intel HD2000 showing video with DirectShow? Perhaps it could be a case of finding another cheap mobo with room for both my CPU and a passively-cooled graphics card of some sort, if that's a known problem? But I thought I'd check here before committing to that theory (and expense). Regards to all, Discy |
Site design, images and content © 2002-2024 The Digital FAQ, www.digitalFAQ.com
Forum Software by vBulletin · Copyright © 2024 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.