Good 4:4:4 Video Capture Device?
 

Does anyone know of a good video capture device that will capture 4:4:4 uncompressed, or near-lossless compression? I'm not talking DV. I want to get a real high quality capture from laserdisks. I can use my camera ADC to DV, but I don't think that will result in the highest quality image I can get. Also will it break my budget?

Thanks,

Peter

i don't think laser disc are 4:4:4 ... has to be some compression in there ... you might think more along 4:2:2 ...

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/index.htm

Black Magic Designs only do 4:2:2 hardware with the DeckLink cards. For 4:4:4 this is the cheapest I can think of:

http://www4.discreet.com/lustre/

Interesting about LDs being only 4:2:2. I need to double check that but if that's true, then there you go.

What's DV?

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

laserdiscs are analog,

Peter,

DV NTSC is 4:1:1. DV PAL is 4:2:0

That doesn't mean the chroma is sampled at the same rate as the luma. Analog does not equal 4:4:4.

Does the Pinnacle Targa3000 capture 4:4:4? The product material goes on at some length about its 4:4:4:4 realtime capabilities...

Julian

Wow, these things really are going to break my budget! I guess I'm not going to get anything better than my GL2's ADC to DV.

No the Targa is 4:2:2 hardware. The codec and software handling is 4:4:4. Targa and CineWave are the same thing. CineWave uses a 16-bit 4:4:4:4 codec if you want it to. That does not mean it captures 4:4:4 and outputs 4:4:4. And when it comes to digital video formats there are really only two devices that deliver 4:4:4 and that's HDCAM SR and D5.

If you're digitising from Laserdisc, I'd just dub to DV - it's not going to lower the quality for you because Laserdisc is not as good picture quality as DV.

Graeme

I highly doubt your GL2 analog output to a 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 board
will increase your quality in any way.

No it won't and laserdisc does't warrant 4:4:4 (or even 4:2:2) because it doesn't have that level of colour bandwidth to start with!

Graeme

Yeah the question is whether laserdisc output warrants 4:4:4 and it sounds like the answer is unanimously no. Thanks all for the suggestions!

Re: Good 4:4:4 Video Capture Device?
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Moore : Does anyone know of a good video capture device that will capture 4:4:4 uncompressed, or near-lossless compression? I'm not talking DV. I want to get a real high quality capture from laserdisks. I can use my camera ADC to DV, but I don't think that will result in the highest quality image I can get. Also will it break my budget?

Thanks,

Peter -->>>

You don't need this kind of quality except you want to do some serious vertical layering with lots of graphics.
Secondly,laserdiscs don't give out 4.4.4 uncompressed video.It is like looking for that from a Hi-8 or superVHS signal.
Thirdly such cards are costly,check out www.bluefish444.com