[SOLVED] I need advice on which video and audio PCI-E 3.0 capture cards that will work on my computer?

[jesusissavior]

I am looking for advice on the best way to transfer my old full size analog VHS, and Hi 8 Tapes that I have recorded on my old camcorders a long time ago to my PC. I still have a working VCR and Hi-8 camcorder. I also need advice on the best way to transfer my old audio cassette tapes that I made my own music on to my PC from my old two head cassette deck with that still works. I have a mid tower gaming PC with ASUS Prime Z390-P Motherboard with Intel i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz Processor, Crucial DDR4 2666 MHz 64GB Gaming Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Video Card 1 SSD Drive, Two Hard Drives, Blu Ray Disc Burner, BenQ GW2280 LED Monitor, and Windows 10 Home OS. I have no sound card installed at this time. I need advice on which PCI-E 3.0 composite video capture card with S Video input I need for this? Which PCI-E 3.0 sound card that has composite audio inputs I need for this? Also which software will work best with this? I have one free
1x PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x4 slot and three free PCI-E 3.0 x1 @ x1 slots free on my motherboard. I have a 550 Watt Power supply? Do I need to upgrade my video card and processor to do all this on my computer? Do I need a higher wattage power supply? Will my current motherboard I have be compatible with this?

Thank you for your advice.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I would argue instead of a PCIe based setup, go with a USB based one. There are plenty of composite video + RCA stereo audio capture devices that work over USB made specifically for this purpose. If the capture device doesn't come with software, OBS will do the job.

 

[dwd999]

I also need advice on the best way to transfer my old audio cassette tapes that I made my own music on to my PC from my old two head cassette deck with that still works. I have a mid tower gaming PC with ASUS Prime Z390-P Motherboard with Intel i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz Processor, Crucial DDR4 2666 MHz 64GB Gaming Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Video Card 1 SSD Drive, Two Hard Drives, Blu Ray Disc Burner, BenQ GW2280 LED Monitor, and Windows 10 Home OS. I have no sound card installed at this time.

The audio cassette transfer is the easiest part since all you need is a cable to connect the output from the cassette desk to the light blue line audio input on your computer. Then just open up the Control Panel Sound app and set the Default Recording device to Line In. You can use any audio recording software such as the free Audacity program to record your music; allow plenty of headroom when setting the levels and then use the Normalize function as the last step to raise the levels to the maximum allowed.

 

[jesusissavior]

Hi. Which USB based composite video + RCA stereo audio capture device will work best with my computer? Will higher cost USB analog video capture device have better video quality? I just downloaded OBS on my computer. I have a few questions with OBS Software. Does OBS capture video in 720 x 480 NTSC 4:3 60i resolution. Is there other video codecs than MPEG 2 or DV that will work better with analog video capture at 720 x 480 NTSC 4:3 60i Is there lossless video codecs at this resolution. Is there other USB video capture software that I can buy that will work better with better video quality? My purpose is to transfer analog video tapes to DVD disc on my low hour curved screen Sony Trinitron CRT TV from the late 1990s that still works with great color. I have another question about which USB based audio capture device will be best do I need to transfer my old audio cassette tapes to my PC. Will higher cost USB analog audio capture device work with better sound quality? Are there better audio codecs that will produce better sound quality than WAV files while capturing audio from my old cassette tapes? I will be burning Audio Cds from my PC from these transfers to listen on my older CD player. Also, I will be using other audio codecs also to listen on my PC?

Thanks

 

[dwd999]

I have another question about which USB based audio capture device will be best do I need to transfer my old audio cassette tapes to my PC. Will higher cost USB analog audio capture device work with better sound quality? Are there better audio codecs that will produce better sound quality than WAV files while capturing audio from my old cassette tapes? I will be burning Audio Cds from my PC from these transfers to listen on my older CD player. Also, I will be using other audio codecs also to listen on my PC?

The sound chip built into your computer's motherboard should be fine for your cassette tapes. The cassette tapes are most likely of lower quality than today's computer sound chips since playback head alignment in most cassette players is usually not optimal. The WAV codec and file format are the best there is for your planned transfer to CDs. As long as you set your recording software to 16 bit 44,100 hz stereo you should not have any problems as that is the WAV format the your CD writing software will be expecting. The media player built into Windows will be fine for listening to the WAV files on you PC.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hi. Which USB based composite video + RCA stereo audio capture device will work best with my computer? Will higher cost USB analog video capture device have better video quality? I just downloaded OBS on my computer. I have a few questions with OBS Software. Does OBS capture video in 720 x 480 NTSC 4:3 60i resolution. Is there other video codecs than MPEG 2 or DV that will work better with analog video capture at 720 x 480 NTSC 4:3 60i Is there lossless video codecs at this resolution. Is there other USB video capture software that I can buy that will work better with better video quality? My purpose is to transfer analog video tapes to DVD disc on my low hour curved screen Sony Trinitron CRT TV from the late 1990s that still works with great color. I have another question about which USB based audio capture device will be best do I need to transfer my old audio cassette tapes to my PC. Will higher cost USB analog audio capture device work with better sound quality? Are there better audio codecs that will produce better sound quality than WAV files while capturing audio from my old cassette tapes? I will be burning Audio Cds from my PC from these transfers to listen on my older CD player. Also, I will be using other audio codecs also to listen on my PC?

I can't make any recommendations since I don't use this sort of product, so all I can say is here's an Amazon search, look at some that fit your budget and sift through the reviews of some to get an idea of what you'll get. I don't think higher cost would necessarily translate to better video quality. Especially from sources like VHS or Hi-8 which compared to DVD, is pretty low quality.

And yes, OBS can capture NTSC standard definition video: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/capture-a-old-vhs-video.122419/ , and software has nothing to do with the capture quality. That's all purely on the hardware. Software does have everything to do with the quality of the final video file however.