PAL Video capture to disk

[howartp]

Hello.

 

We record our annual Church pantomime, 8 performances, then I produce DVDs of the full show using the best bits from each night.

 

The problem is, we're 2 shows down, 6 to go, as I type this - so kinda urgent! Remaining performances are Mon-Wed, Fri, then 2x Sat.

 

Background reading in quote box - skip to the end if you prefer.

 

 

Until last year we used a Sony Handycam with remote control via LANC - this therefore recorded D1 resolution to its internal disk, which I then copied via USB to my PC at home where I use Cyberlink Power Director to do all the editing.

 

The Handycam died last year and LANC isn't available any more (to consumer level) so after much research we bought two Sony EVI-D70P cameras which are fantastic. As these don't have internal disks, we have to capture the PAL composite signal out of both of them. Again after much research, I bought a XI006AE-PRO capture card which is PCI-E x1 and allows 6 composite feeds to be captured. £350 well spent I thought - not cheap rubbish but not £1,000 either.

 

The (randomly built up) PC I put it in last year packed up last Wednesday having been generally ok all year, so I opened it up and found the HDD cable was dodgy; replaced that and it booted and stayed on 48 hours. Come Friday's Dress Rehearsal, the PC packed up and wouldn't talk to me at all and I still can't get it to. (It turns on, HDD spins up, Mobo lights up - but no video output or network activity so not booting to Windows)

 

Friday night, 10pm, after Dress Rehearsal, I opened up a random spare PC I had lying around - bingo - spare PCI-E x1 slot, 4GB RAM - that'll do nicely. Cleaned up the software that was on it, installed the capture software I've been using all year and all sorted. 11am this morning, 3 hours before curtains up, I put the PC back in the rack with the cameras and connect the cameras to the X1006AE.... poof, monitor goes off, nothing works until you reboot PC - when it does same again if cameras are still connected. Disconnect cams and it boots fine and works normally!

 

 

Now for the actual question - I want a long term fix for this, not just keep-getting-bits-to-get-by-this-week - what's the best way of capturing 2 composite feeds (no audio) to video file for editing in Power Director.

 

I could get another PC from somewhere, but can't guarantee it's gonna work if the card itself is stuffed. I could get another card, but I don't know if it's the hardware in either PC that's stuffed.

 

Should I continue down the line of PC with Capture Card, or should I get a DVR/NVR, or something similar?

 

CCTV DVR's all record at various resolutions up to 4CIF (D1, almost PAL) or even beyond into 720p/1080p HD - but they use their own proprietary format which they make you export out as AVI when you want it; I want something where I can schedule two cameras to start recording at 6:50pm, stop recording at 9:45pm, then copy/save the resultant video file onto USB HDD and take it home without having a 2 hour export/encoding process.

 

I'm not against spending another £300-£400 if I need to - I'd be spending that on a brand new PC for this task anyway if that's the way I went - but if you all say "get this £600 product and you'll be sorted" then I will happily consider it.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

 

Peter

 

 

 

[henny]

First off the Sony d70's are very old and poor quality

 

You would be better off just picking up a couple of cheep HD camcorders with SD cards and be done

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_2_5?k=hd+camcorder&sprefix=hd+ca

[howartp]

I should have said, we have nowhere in the auditorium for an operator to film from.

 

The old Handycam was mounted on a remote PTZ unit and LANC used for zoom; worked well for years on two different models.

 

The D70's are the same SD D1 resolution as I used to film on the Handycams; we have no need for HD content.

[Jivemaster]

There really is no long term solution! In ten years video has gone from 320 to 4K! What will happen in the next ten years.

 

For recording shows I do, I use up to four cheap imi-pros. A Go-Pro will cost about £400 but recently my local Tesco fuel station was selling some no-brand cameras for bikers for £30 (no micro SD)

 

Record everything and edit later.

 

Just a word of caution. Kaiser Baas cameras record a moderate file (20 mins ish according to model) then stop. To record longer you need to set to LOOP this records a series of shorter files but goes to disc full and then returns to the beginning overwriting as it goes

[Dave m]

Imho you've got all the wrong kit but I guess you have what you have.I'd use two cheap camcorders that record to sd card and ideally something that does multicam to edit.As it's only two cameras you could work with premiere express/lite whatever it is that doesn't do multicam but just lay the two layers on the timeline and cut and delete the top track to reveal the other camera.

Composite is crap for this type of use.

[howartp]

There really is no long term solution! In ten years video has gone from 320 to 4K! What will happen in the next ten years.

 

Imho you've got all the wrong kit but I guess you have what you have.I'd use two cheap camcorders that record to sd card and ideally something that does multicam to edit.As it's only two cameras you could work with premiere express/lite whatever it is that doesn't do multicam but just lay the two layers on the timeline and cut and delete the top track to reveal the other camera.

Composite is crap for this type of use.

 

There is a 'long term' solution somewhere - I'm only using SD, but the BlackMagic UltraStudios have SDI-12G connectors which are backwards compatible to SD - but I don't want live-edit with Thunderbolt and a Mac (which I don't have) - so if I upgrade to SDI or HDMI then that unit would continue to be functional for years to come.

 

As mentioned in my reply above, we have nowhere to film from, so what we bought last year had to have remote (joystick or PC) PTZ control as they're mounted on the bulkhead. The D70 cameras do exactly what I want, no problem with features or quality, I just need the ability to record out of them.

 

We do record everything and edit later already - that's the whole point of this thread.

 

Peter

 

 

[timsabre]

Those cheap "dvd capture" usb adapters will get composite vid and audio into the pc for you. I've never tried using 2 together but it should work. They are under 20 quid on Amazon. I wouldn't use cctv kit as they often mess with the frame rate.

[Dave m]

I don't understand ?

Yes the sdi connection is the same/similar to sd but you can't bung a composite signal into an sdi input and expect it to workThe fact that they both rely on a Bnc cable is a minor point

Something like a blackmagic h264 recorder might do it, linked to a computer

[ImagineerTom]

Mevo?

 

 

https://getmevo.com

[howartp]

Those cheap "dvd capture" usb adapters will get composite vid and audio into the pc for you. I've never tried using 2 together but it should work. They are under 20 quid on Amazon. I wouldn't use cctv kit as they often mess with the frame rate.

 

Thanks Tim.

 

I had this thought overnight, and eventually managed to find a shop near enough me that was open on Sundays that I could get one, at least to get me by for two days.

 

Now that I've got the lee-way from having that, I've wiped the HDD in the first PC and put it in the second PC with fresh Windows 7 install - about to put that back in the rack and see if the cameras work!

 

I've discovered the XI006AE is available in USB3 format (supports USB2 as well) as well as Low-Profile PCI-E which is what's been limiting me; If it therefore turns out to be the PCI-E card that's dead or causing problems being precariously balanced in a full-height PCI-E slot with no support, then that will be my next option to consider.

 

Peter