The second type is digital to digital video capture devices. They have analog video and audio inputs like Composite/RCA or S-Video.Īs mentioned earlier, they’re usually used to convert analog video stored in the form of tapes to digital files which can later be edited and converted to disc, like DVD. The first type is analog to digital video capture devices. There are two types of video capture devices. However, in these days of HD video, they’ve fallen out of popularity. Years back, some laptops were shipped with Firewire ports. But then your computer must have a Firewire card on your computer. In that case, you can use the Firewire connector on your device to connect to your computer. You also won’t need a video capture card if you have a camcorder with a DV port, for example, a Digital8 or mini-DV camcorder. Many computers (laptops, especially), come with memory card readers and you can easily access your video files without the need for a video capture device.Įven if your computer doesn’t come with a built-in memory card reader, you can always buy an external one for cheap. Video data stored in memory cards are in digital formats. If your camera or camcorder stores video in memory cards, as they do these days, then you would not need a video capture device. If your DVD player has an HDMI out port, you can use an HDMI to USB video capture device. You can do it with a DVD ripper.īut then if your computer doesn’t have a DVD drive, you can still use a DVD player and connect it to an analog video capture device. Being digital in nature, a computer can read these discs through a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.Įven if you want to extract the video file from the disc, you won’t need a video capture device. If your video is disc-based and it’s in the VCD, SVCD, or DVD formats, you’ll not need a video capture device. When You Don’t Need a Video Capture Device
#Pinnacle video capture device software
That’s why a video capture device with a video capture software program is needed as a bridge or adapter to transport video from an analog source and convert it to digital before it reaches the computer. It can come in the form of VHS, 8mm camcorder video, or mini-DV video.Ĭomputers don’t support the direct playback of analog video. You’ll certainly need a video capture device if you have an analog video that you wish to convert to digital.Īnalog video is a tape-based video. It also doubles as a video editing program that enables you to trim the clips you’ve captured, add music, titles and even help you burn the edited video into DVD or other disc formats. Usually, the video capture software program is bundled with the video capture device. Once the footage is captured in a compatible digital format, it can then be manipulated with a video editing program. In the computer, a video capture software program is used to start the capture process and store the captured footage in a particular folder in the computer. The output ports are then connected to a compatible input port(s) on a computer. Generally, the output ports of the video source are connected to similar input ports of the video capture device, These devices can be plugged into the USB ports of your computer. There are also external capture devices that are of the USB type. Video capture devices may be of the internal type – where a card has to be installed into a computer, very much like a graphics card in a desktop computer.
#Pinnacle video capture device tv
It converts the video signal from a video source like a camcorder, VCR, gaming device, or a live video stream from a TV set into a format readable by a computer.