Looking for a hardware realtime xvid, divx, mpeg4 or h.264 encoder to encode lots of video tapes.

I'm coming up with a bit of a blank on searches on Amazon, Dabs,
newsgroups etc - just others looking for the same!
I want to encode a load of old video tapes - not really to DVD, just
to the most effective storage method. Like xvid, divx, mpeg4 or h.264
or whatever is best for a "non-pure" source, like from an analog video
tape.

But it really needs to be realtime - my PC is not fast enough to do it
realtime, but I have firewire and USB2 ports and a big external drive.
I was wondering if there was some sort of internal or external
hardware device that could do a whole two-pass decent encode without
taxing the PC too much. Failing that, just ANY reasonably priced
external encoder would do. But I can already get an mpeg2 encoder but
I don't really want to do that.

Thanks

 

This one does it from a reputable company. Having not owned it, however, I
would suggest you get some reviews and opinions.....

Smarty

http://www.plextor.com/english/products/ConvertX2.htm

 

The 'Dazzle' products get good reviews in the magazines, although I have
not tried them myself. Worth a look.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Dazzle/?dz=1

Regards,

Fred

 

Just buy a DVD recorder.
You can transfer it from the DVD to the PC or keep it on the DVD.
It is by far the easiest way and probably the cheapest.

 

Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure I made the original point about NOT
wanting to use DVDs clear enough!
Anyway, in the end I bough the Dazzle Platinum encoder which seems to
do just what I want. Got a bargain from Amazon.
Dazzle wanted £69 plus postage. Amazon wanted £49 with free postage.
Then I got my 5% student discount, and then I had a £7 voucher to use.

So, thanks to Fred Bloggs for pointing me in that direction!

 

There is nothing wrong with using dvd as the capture medium.
You can do what you want with the video afterwards.

The dazzle just encodes in mpeg2 the same as a dvd recorder does.
It was cheap though.

Let us know how long it takes to convert the mpeg2 to divx when you try it.

 

Except DVD is old-tech, low-tech, uses a DVD, and will just add
another stage between capturing and storing. Why not just cut out the
middleman? Over 60 vidoes, this is going to save literally days.

Check out my reply again - I said I bought the PLATINUM model, which,
as it says:
"It allows you to record home videos and TV recordings of the highest
quality, thanks to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX hardware encoding"

So I guess it won't take me any time at all to convert it to divx or
mpeg4, as it'll already be done. Which was the whole point

 

So you aren't going to try it?
I would have thought you would want to see how well a two pass divx encoder
compared to a hardware single pass encoder.

That would depend on if it does what you want.

Anyway Maplin had some Dazzles in the shop today £29.99 but I don't think
they were the platinum ones.

 

No, definintely not the ones! Although, in fact, that's cheaper than
the one on Amazon, but the Platinum one (with hardware divx encoding)
is £20 cheaper on Amazon than in Maplin. I'll post a quick vid when it
arrives!