Good USB video capture card with software?

[DaveVegas2024]

I bought a ClearClick "Wizard" USB video capture card and software kit to use in transferring my old home movies (on various video formats) to DVD. This product is OK in terms of video, but consistently gives me terrible, sometimes nonexistent, audio. No ambient sound -- none -- comes through. I see that Amazon carries a large # of these devices. Roxio is one of the major brands they have. But can someone recommend a product that delivers clean, usable, reliable sound?

[lordsmurf]

Welcome.

You're not going to find anything new on Amazon that is quality. It's all going to be the cheapest "made in China" garbage in the 2020s. Amazon isn't really any different from Temu for capture cards.

Roxio is just rebadged Easycap, an infamous card that earned the nickname "Easycrap".

ClearClick is also infamous, lousy video quality, just a PITA card to attempt to use.

Video should not be this hard, nor does it have to be.

Audio quality is a reason why I have specific Pinnacles in the marketplace. The software used with it is the most reliable version of VirtualDub (freeware).

[DaveVegas2024]

Thank you. I recall the Pinnacle name from my TV news days (eons ago). I'm just looking for what I need to digitize old home movies (on videotape) and get decent video -- and audio -- quality. Once I've finished the transfers, I won't need the card any more. What specific USB video capture card (and software) do you recommend?

[BarryTheCrab]

At the risk of being pummeled, three choices seem plausible...
1) The iodata that has caught some positive attention.
2) Diamond VC500
3) Vidbox NW03 or 07 (07 being much more recent).

sidenote: the Vidbox NW03 driver runs the Tevion stick many crave (I have 3 Tevions).

As for capture software, VirtualBud (been drinking, Pats lost), v1.9.11 or AmarecTV, you will have to search for the correct version.

[DaveVegas2024]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab

At the risk of being pummeled, three choices seem plausible...
1) The iodata that has caught some positive attention.
2) Diamond VC500
3) Vidbox NW03 or 07 (07 being much more recent).

sidenote: the Vidbox NW03 driver runs the Tevion stick many crave (I have 3 Tevions).

As for capture software, VirtualBud (been drinking, Pats lost), v1.9.11 or AmarecTV, you will have to search for the correct version.

Just curious, why isn't capture software included with the Diamond or Vidbox products? Also, I saw that Vidbox costs quite a bit more than Diamond. Can you tell me the difference between the two, in terms of audio quality?

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab

At the risk of being pummeled, three choices seem plausible...
1) The iodata that has caught some positive attention.

It's an overly vocal minory, there are issues with this card.

Quote:

2) Diamond VC500

No, nasty AGC issues.

[aramkolt]

As far as modern devices go, the IOData GV-USB2 gets pretty good reviews and works on Windows 10/11, though admins here aren't too big of fans of it, though I haven't seen good side-by side comparisons as to why they don't like it compared to recommended older devices that usually require Windows XP. You'll need to use that with something like virtualdub or OBS. The classic YouTube tutorial on how to use it with OBS is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk-n7IlrXI4.

Admins also don't like OBS software either because it wasn't specifically designed for analog video capture, but many would agree that it works well enough when used in the above manner and will probably give better results than any prepackaged model capture device/software combo package you'll find on Amazon that works in a single step. It takes up much less hard drive space than a lossless capture if you just want something that looks good to watch and distribute to family. It's not for archival quality lossless captures, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're going for.

If you're happy with the quality of clearclick products and you're wanting to go to DVD (which is still interlaced), my guess is you're looking for something simple that's more user friendly, so odds are DV capture devices like ADVC-110 will outdo that sort of quality and you won't run into audio sync issues. Main issue with DV is that you need a firewire input card or an older computer that has a firewire port. Fair warning, Admins here also don't like DV either because it can cause some blockiness in some situations and has less color resolution than recommended capture pathways which may or may not be noticeable depending on your final destination format and screen size. DV is likely superior in video quality to what you are using now since clearclick is fairly low end gear. DV captures take up something like 12GB per hour I think. Software used for this would just be WinDV on Windows or iMovie or QuickTime on Macs. Old Macs with firewire ports can often be found for very little on Facebook marketplace if you want to go that route and they'll often contain DVD burners as well. ADVC-110 or ADVC-100 (very similar devices) often cost around $75-$100 used on ebay last I checked.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aramkolt

...

<sigh>

Do not use OBS for analog videotape capture. That is digital streaming/"broadcast" software. It's like eating dog food when you really want a hamburger. It's "the same" (food), but not at all the same.

Don't do the "many agree" argument here. Lots of people do lots of stupid stuff, but that's not the quality of information they should get from a site dedicated to video. Lots of people also just buy a random VCR at a thrift shop, and have no interest in converting the tapes to digital format.

Also don't do the "if you're happy" thing either. When you don't get quality advice on using quality products, then "happy" may only last until the person learns what better is. If you've only eaten hamburger, you'll be shocked when you get a good steak. You don't know what you don't know.

DV boxes are literally 1990s technology. It harms color, and adds blocks to video. That ancient method was replaced in the 2000s (20+ years ago) with better lossless methods. Those ADVC boxes had a minimum requirement of a Pentium II computer, Pentium III recommended. It's like driving a 1995 Ford Taurus in 2024. It's not a classic card, it's just a really old POS. DV boxes need Firewire anyway, and it's not found in modern computers.

It's very possible to make a high quality tape conversion, without excess effort. But it takes reading, not knee-jerk buying. Vetting the person giving advice also helps. The main aspect to quality is to not buy junk hardware, which is what this thread was all about.

[DaveVegas2024]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

<sigh>

Do not use OBS for analog videotape capture. That is digital streaming/"broadcast" software. It's like eating dog food when you really want a hamburger. It's "the same" (food), but not at all the same.

Don't do the "many agree" argument here. Lots of people do lots of stupid stuff, but that's not the quality of information they should get from a site dedicated to video. Lots of people also just buy a random VCR at a thrift shop, and have no interest in converting the tapes to digital format.

Also don't do the "if you're happy" thing either. When you don't get quality advice on using quality products, then "happy" may only last until the person learns what better is. If you've only eaten hamburger, you'll be shocked when you get a good steak. You don't know what you don't know.

DV boxes are literally 1990s technology. It harms color, and adds blocks to video. That ancient method was replaced in the 2000s (20+ years ago) with better lossless methods. Those ADVC boxes had a minimum requirement of a Pentium II computer, Pentium III recommended. It's like driving a 1995 Ford Taurus in 2024. It's not a classic card, it's just a really old POS. DV boxes need Firewire anyway, and it's not found in modern computers.

It's very possible to make a high quality tape conversion, without excess effort. But it takes reading, not knee-jerk buying. Vetting the person giving advice also helps. The main aspect to quality is to not buy junk hardware, which is what this thread was all about.

I understand what you're saying. With specific regard to audio quality, what specific traits of a capture device and/or software results in better sound after the digitizing has been completed? The audio track from my ClearClick, after digitizing, has virtually no ambient sound. The only sound is from people who happened to be speaking right next to the camera mic.

[Aya_Rei]

Once you use great gear, you realize your previous captures done with crap gear look.. well crap in comparison, and you notice the errors they cause to the final digitized video. The difference is night and day. I was like that myself, started out using an Elgato and consumer VCR before doing a complete 180 and bought a workflow from LS. Now I can't look back at the Elgato captures since I go "Man, I could've done a much better job at this".

And when you wanna do this stuff for yourself and potential clients in order to make back the money you've spent on the devices, well you want to give them an end result that was worth the cash they spent, such as what I'm trying to do here with the equipment I bought from Lordsmurf.

Sure the end result isn't 'high quality' in comparison to modern HD video, but for these analog sources (if the tape is in good physical shape) then the end result can look really good for what is, such as video8 tapes from 1989 that look even better than lower quality VHS-C tapes from the mid 90s (I understand tape format + recording speed and recording camera plays a big role here). I suppose my mindset is that these tapes are low quality in comparison to video today, which makes me want to use high quality equipment to squeeze as much quality as possible out of these old tapes.

Anyway, now when it comes to audio perhaps you could do some adjustments in GoldWave or Audacity. But my suggestion is to get a better capture device. Lordsmurf has some Pinnacle USB cards on the marketplace that should work well enough on Windows 10 (Though 7 and XP are preferred for capture) using VirtualDub 1.9 as the capture software, or AmarecTV as a last resort. I believe the VirtualDub preview window doesn't work on Windows 10.

[Gary34]

Quote:

I believe the VirtualDub preview window doesn't work on Windows 10.

The preview works in windows 10.

I would say get a Pinnacle 710. Get it from the marketplace on this site. The Pinnacle 710s have different chipsets and if you get one off of eBay you might get the wrong one. It’s also just an old card. Where you buy it from matters.

The Clearclicks are awful. They are usually paired with a composite thrift store VCR too so that doesn’t help. I’ve seen examples of them really screwing up the deinterlacing. That’s about the worst capture card you can get.

With a better workflow you can avoid like clipping, dropped frames, geometric distortions etc…

You can’t really do anything with those DVDs you have either. It you ever wanted to rip those and put them on YouTube as unlisted for sharing with family you would have to deinterlace and you’d have multiple rounds of compression so it would get pretty bad. Where as with this method your going to a losslessly compressed video that you can keep and encode to w/e you want. The lossless codec reduces loss during deinterlacing, noise reduction or w/e you want to do in software.

Here’s a bit about compression.
https://youtu.be/6bLcllmmnuU?si=nZUif6P1sPiWBlVC
https://youtu.be/XZUmVwd1Amk?si=x4sb46itc5lkca2G
https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...-lossless.html
https://www.archivalworks.com/blog/l...eo-compression

[traal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveVegas2024

With specific regard to audio quality, what specific traits of a capture device and/or software results in better sound after the digitizing has been completed? The audio track from my ClearClick, after digitizing, has virtually no ambient sound. The only sound is from people who happened to be speaking right next to the camera mic.

First, make sure you're capturing the raw PCM audio, not mp3 or aac or ac3.

After capture, I like to load the audio into Audacity and use the "Normalize" filter to set the overall volume at the right level. This works well as long as there aren't any loud pops/clicks in the audio.

In your case, you may need to use the "Compressor" filter to make voices easier to understand. If that amplifies too much noise, you might consider using AI-based noise reducing software.

[BarryTheCrab]

I actually have a Hauppauge I bought from Lord Smurf still here on the marketplace. I don’t think I used it 5 times since I got it. It’s a 950, not 950Q.

[Gary34]

Some of the advice in this thread is advice that people follow then wind up here because they are having to redo there project.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveVegas2024

I understand what you're saying. With specific regard to audio quality, what specific traits of a capture device and/or software results in better sound after the digitizing has been completed? The audio track from my ClearClick, after digitizing, has virtually no ambient sound. The only sound is from people who happened to be speaking right next to the camera mic.

Better audio is about multiple aspects. The chips, the drivers, the OS interaction (hooks into OS).

ClearClick devices are infamous, and known to be crap devices -- and worse yet, overpriced. You got screwed on that deal. Some people take this the wrong way, but ClearClicks are made for lazy ignorant suckers. The devices think you're a fool, and so does what it thinks is needed to appease stupid consumer demands (outputting compressed .mp4 files, forced deinterlaced, etc). But realize you're posting here -- you're not the ignorant/sucker/fool that it/they thought you were! So toss that junk out the window, don't waste another minute (hours, days) on it, and let's get you the sort of quality you expect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aya_Rei

Lordsmurf has some Pinnacle USB cards on the marketplace that should work well enough on Windows 10 (Though 7 and XP are preferred for capture) using VirtualDub 1.9 as the capture software, or AmarecTV as a last resort. I believe the VirtualDub preview window doesn't work on Windows 10.

Excellent post, excellent points, and thank you. But correct is needed here: these specific Pinnacle cards work fine in VirtualDub, in Preview mode (not Overlay), using Win10.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary34

Here’s a bit about compression.
https://youtu.be/6bLcllmmnuU?si=nZUif6P1sPiWBlVC
https://youtu.be/XZUmVwd1Amk?si=x4sb46itc5lkca2G
https://www.archivalworks.com/blog/l...eo-compression

I always hate linking out to other sites that also contain BS. People follow "rabbit holes", and before you know it, they'll be using something off Temu, because some know-nothing kid claims his half-cocked stupid idea is "the best" method. It's a nasty circle. They come here for better info, and then somebody sends them back to the Youtube/Reddit/etc misinformation cesspools. We need to start forming a list of concepts that need better explaining on-site. This constant linking to Youtube is a recent thing, maybe a year old at most.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary34

Some of the advice in this thread is advice that people follow then wind up here because they are having to redo there project.

Yep.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab

I actually have a Hauppauge I bought from Lord Smurf still here on the marketplace. I don’t think I used it 5 times since I got it. It’s a 950, not 950Q.

In this specific case, I would not suggest that specific version Hauppauge 950, ATI 600 USB, etc. It really does need to be a very specific Pinnacle card for this person, to achieve best results, what he wants to accomplish here.