I need 1) a 2-5 item list of video & audio capture cards (and street
prices) with a built in mpeg hardware/firmware encoder and/or 2) a
list of converter applications that can do very "polite"
in-the-background mpeg encoding.  (#1 is much preferred.)


_____________

I've got a pile of VHS tapes and audio cassette tapes that I want to
gradually convert to computer files.

Here are the factors that prompt me to seek help from GA...

1) I have an Althon 700MHz with 512MB of RAM and gobs and gobs of
harddrive space.

2) I do NOT want to upgrade my computer.  Upgrading is a hassletacular
process that I do not wish to spend time on right now.

3) I use my computer about 14 hours a day, so I need to be able to use
my computer (typical productivity apps: email, web, office apps) while
capturing.  IE, I want to get my work done while the stream is being
captured and encoded in one step.

4) Encoding a bitstream (either audio or video) is a
computationally-intensive task, so I'd prefer to have the "heavy
lifting" handled by firmware DSP on the card.  This (in my ignorance)
seems like it make my whole conversion project go faster because I
capture and encoding happens in one step, without bogging my computer
down with encoding computation.

5) If hardware encoders are either a) too expensive (>$400) or b)
wouldn't meet my objectives, then I'll have to find some encoding
software that is designed to work slowly in the background, IE,
doesn't hog my computer's processor.  (This is the backup plan, IE,
question #2.)

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Clarification of Question by donphiltrodt-ga on 21 Apr 2003 17:46 PDT

Oops.  Tried to add this, but pressed the wrong button...

Additional questions:

A1)  How much smaller are DivX files than mpeg files of the same
quality?

A2) Are there any cards that have hardware DivX encoders?

A3) I'm assuming that any card that has a hardware mpeg encoder can be
use to create both mpeg video files as well as .mp3 files.  Correct?

Regarding capture cards, you probably need to consider which MPEG
format you want to use. (You mention DivX, so I guess you're thinking
of MPEG4?)
The list of capture cards at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/capturecards.php
shows 239 different cards, but you can fine tune this by selecting a
desired MPEG codec (and excluding Firewire/DV connections, etc.) Here
is a list of cards with hardware encoders
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCard=&mpeg1=1&mpeg2=1&Submit2=Search&Search=Search
(only 43!).

Regarding your auxillary questions:
A table at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/vcd compares the various
compression formats. The DivX format is rated at 1-10 Mb per minute
while DVD (MPEG3) comes in at 30-70 Mb per minute. Clearly there are a
lot of variables here that will affect file sizes.
There are no cards listed at the site above which have hardware DivX
encoding. A quick Google search didn't turn up any, either.
The ability to hardware encode MP3 audio using a video capture card is
probably dependent on software: can you turn off the video capture
side?
I'll look into this a little more.

Hope some of this helps.

Very helpful.  Thank you.  

I'm closing this question and will post another software-only question
in a few weeks.