Software for capture card and backups

[mechtech]

Good day,

I plan to start archiving things since basically I have no back-ups, well except photos on the NAS.

1st question
I got a capture card, and it did not come with any software, but the instructions mentioned Fraps and Xsplit. I don't need anything fancy, just wondering if that's good enough or if there are better options - preferably free/cheap - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

2nd question
Quite a few dvds (family events, etc.) getting scratched and broken with kids, I think I recall ripping these with handbrake, but I can't remember, it's been about 20 years. I guess for this I am looking for something that will make about a 1GB file out of a 4.7BG dvd to a widely compatible format with decent quality. Again - - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

3rd
For the VHS I bought an elgato contraption, however seen some YouTube videos where the guy converts from interlaced to progressive among other things - just wondering if there is software that can up the quality after it's on the PC? Again - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

If there is software that can do all that for in the $120 range that's worth it, that's acceptable as well.

Thanks

 

[droopyRO]

3. I have a software that i use for download, convert and it added AI stuff in it's latest update. The upsample app is good for images, but on video side it is not worth it, barely any difference.
2. You can still use Handbrake, it's free, the free edition of DaVinci might help you with shrinking stuff. There are paid apps like Wondershare, VideoProc that will do what you want but they are over 40$ when not on sale.

 

[unwind-protect]

ffmpeg

 

[droopyRO]

It's not something for the casual user, and that includes myself.

 

[mechtech]

Missed the fraps not free, cost $52CAD oh well, wish it would show if it's recording, no notice or anything for me?!?!

Records, but no sound.................

 

[droopyRO]

Both AMD and Nvidia have recording software build in, called Shadowplay and RePlay, that work really well, why would you use FRAPS ?

 

[Ferrum Master]

Last time I simply used VLC...

 

[unwind-protect]

It's not something for the casual user, and that includes myself.

Well, the thing about ffmpeg is that it might be hard to learn, but once you learn it you have a truly universal media conversion tool, and by definition you can always batch/script everything you do in there. And no more relearning new UIs when a vendor gets a new product manager.

 

[droopyRO]

True, but not something i bother with. UI with this kind of programs is all drag and drop, so it is really simple. But they cost about 50$ (when not on sale), and ffmpeg is free. Also AVidemux is good for quickly cutting videos and repacking them.

 

[silentbogo]

Basically anything that can record camera can be used with most capture cards(at least with most USB UVC dongles). I personally lean towards ShadowPlay, since it's already installed with GFE and works fine in both desktop and games. Haven't tried RePlay on AMD cards, but I assume it's at least as functional as shadowplay. OBS is also a good option, though it's on the heavy side. Plus there are so many free and FOSS options, that for regular "household" use you don't need to spend a penny to just record stuff. Heck, in a pinch you could probably get by with a built-in Windows Camera app.
But if you have one of those very cheap analog multi-channel Easycap dongles - you can throw it away. It's total garbage that only (barely) works on 32-bit Windows 7.

 

[evernessince]

Good day,

I plan to start archiving things since basically I have no back-ups, well except photos on the NAS.

1st question
I got a capture card, and it did not come with any software, but the instructions mentioned Fraps and Xsplit. I don't need anything fancy, just wondering if that's good enough or if there are better options - preferably free/cheap - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

OBS is free and one of the best tools out there for this.

2nd question
Quite a few dvds (family events, etc.) getting scratched and broken with kids, I think I recall ripping these with handbrake, but I can't remember, it's been about 20 years. I guess for this I am looking for something that will make about a 1GB file out of a 4.7BG dvd to a widely compatible format with decent quality. Again - - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

Handbrake is still one of the best options. For a widely compatible format I'd do H265. AV1 will get you better quality at the same file size but not all devices support it yet. For encoding settings I'd recommend doing H265 10 bit as it reduces banding artifacts that are the result of compression. Constant quality, constant framerate is best. You could enable variable frame-rate to save extra space but that comes at the cost of potential choppiness. Most other settings like audio should be passthrough or same as source. In handbrake deinterlacing should be set to auto by default. Encoder preset should be set to slow or slower. Unless you can tolerate long encode times there is little space / visual benefits to going higher. RF value is going to vary a lot based on the content, resolution, ect. What I usually do is split a video into 5 minute segments and then run it through a video quality anlysis tool as well as do a visual inspection. In your case you could simply use the preview tool built into handbrake and adjust RF value as needed. A good RF value range to start between is 38 - 23. Going lower than 23 yields increasingly dimminishing returns. You could try messing with additional filters if your home videos has other artifacts like blocking for example.

3rd
For the VHS I bought an elgato contraption, however seen some YouTube videos where the guy converts from interlaced to progressive among other things - just wondering if there is software that can up the quality after it's on the PC? Again - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

If there is software that can do all that for in the $120 range that's worth it, that's acceptable as well.

Thanks

Handbrake will do this automatically if you have the deiterlace filter on. It automatically applies it only when needed so really you can run it through handbrake to remove any interlacing.

If you want to upscale the video there are multiple free options like Video2x or one of the stable diffusion front ends (you can either extract frames or get an addon that simplifies things). Topaz Video AI is generally recognized as the best easy to use solution but it's $300.

There are more options popping up using RealEsrgan (which is pretty good IMO) but I have yet to try any of them out (like this one: https://free.upscaler.video/). The actual Realesrgan model is what stable diffusion uses for upscaling. There's also MPV player, which can straight up upscale content as you watch it. That's how I prefer to watch content, that way the original content isn't permenently altered by AI thus baking in artifacts.

 

[sam_86314]

Good day,

I plan to start archiving things since basically I have no back-ups, well except photos on the NAS.

1st question
I got a capture card, and it did not come with any software, but the instructions mentioned Fraps and Xsplit. I don't need anything fancy, just wondering if that's good enough or if there are better options - preferably free/cheap - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

2nd question
Quite a few dvds (family events, etc.) getting scratched and broken with kids, I think I recall ripping these with handbrake, but I can't remember, it's been about 20 years. I guess for this I am looking for something that will make about a 1GB file out of a 4.7BG dvd to a widely compatible format with decent quality. Again - - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

3rd
For the VHS I bought an elgato contraption, however seen some YouTube videos where the guy converts from interlaced to progressive among other things - just wondering if there is software that can up the quality after it's on the PC? Again - willing to spend up to $40 if it's worth it.

If there is software that can do all that for in the $120 range that's worth it, that's acceptable as well.

Thanks

1. Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). For some cards, you may need to use Linux. I have an old AverMedia capture card that didn't work with Windows 10 but did work in Linux.

2. MakeMKV + Handbrake. MakeMKV will give you the raw MPEG2 video from DVDs, and then you can compress it with Handbrake.

MakeMKV is technically $60 (and well worth it IMO), but it has a perpetual free trial that just needs to be renewed every few months.

 

[mechtech]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ya found OBS after wasting $50 on fraps which didn’t do what I wanted. OBS did partly. It got the video but no sound. After watching videos and reading and trying different things for 2 hours I gave up. Maybe pc too old but it does have usb 3 and when changing tv to other input sound is going through capture card to tv so either it’s not getting into the pc cause capture card is a dud or some settings somewhere I’m missing.

As for 2,3 still haven’t made it that far yet as a few things came up in RL as always.
Soon though I hope
Thanks

 

[sam_86314]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ya found OBS after wasting $50 on fraps which didn’t do what I wanted. OBS did partly. It got the video but no sound. After watching videos and reading and trying different things for 2 hours I gave up. Maybe pc too old but it does have usb 3 and when changing tv to other input sound is going through capture card to tv so either it’s not getting into the pc cause capture card is a dud or some settings somewhere I’m missing.

As for 2,3 still haven’t made it that far yet as a few things came up in RL as always.
Soon though I hope
Thanks

I'll note that when I digitized a VHS tape a while ago, I used OBS and that AverMedia card to do the video and (if I remember) recorded the audio simultaneously with Audacity and the PC's line input.

 

[mechtech]

I'll note that when I digitized a VHS tape a while ago, I used OBS and that AverMedia card to do the video and (if I remember) recorded the audio simultaneously with Audacity and the PC's line input.

thanks

this was through the hdmi, but something to test/try