Feeding video into a laptop

[sram]

I'm working on a project and this problem came up(will only mention details related to the problem) :

We have a small portable reciever(with an omni antenna) that recieves video signals from somewhere( say a transmitter with a video camera connected to it). Now, this reciever is only capable of displaying the video live, but what if I want to recieve this video in a laptop, and have full control of the video file?

I understand that you can easily feed video from (say your camcorder) into your desktop pc if you have a video card with VIVO connection and the right software, right?

This portable reciever has this phono(analog video) connector, which we can use with phono plugs, but how am I suppose to connect that to the laptop? is there a pcmcia card that have phono input I can use ? or have a laptop which has a video with such capabilities?

One problem is that the laptop is already chosen (panasonic toughbook cf18), so i'm limited to the options availabe in it.

see here: https://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...6786664194&rd=1

It is possible to change it, but for now it's this one.

What are my chances? I know there are nice folks(experts) here who are willing to help, that is why I put this here, and I thought it would be interesting to discuss.
In the case that I didn't make it clear, please feel free to ask!

any comments, suggestions, ideas, websites are welcomed.

Thanks,

sram

 

[Exo]

You can buy USB video capture devices like this one
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=882297&Sku=P67-1104

just google for 'usb video capture'

hook it up to your laptops usb port, connect your analog video source and you're ready to watch/record

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Two ideas spring to mind:

1) Buy a laptop with a video input, they ARE available.

2) Use a USB video input card, probably more useful for you with the existing laptop?.

I don't know if your laptop will be fast enough?, personally all the laptops I ever see seem to run quite slowly? - even fairly high spec ones.

 

[Exo]

ooh, a toughbook cf18 is fast enough, trust me, Pentium M 4tw :lol:

 

[sram]

Wow, quick reply! You guys are impressive! Thanks a million!

But, lets say I want to take this problem one big step further! What if I want to do the same thing but wirelessly?

is there an already built solution?

 

[sram]

This is stupid/odd, but let's just spell it out :idea:

If I use the suggested video capture device to feed the video into the laptop, can I then transfer the file (I mean live video) to another laptop using wireless networking? That toughbook is WiFi ready.

Possible?

eagerly waiting...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

This is stupid/odd, but let's just spell it out :idea:

If I use the suggested video capture device to feed the video into the laptop, can I then transfer the file (I mean live video) to another laptop using wireless networking? That toughbook is WiFi ready.

Possible?

eagerly waiting...

I suspect you would have to try?, live video capture is VERY resource hungry, I'm dubious you could spool live video to the hard drive and wirelessly network it out at the same time - particularly on a laptop!.

 

[Exo]

You could try running a VNC server on the laptop and a client on another computer in the network...

 

[panic mode]

I agree with exo on laptop performance since i'm using one all the time.
pentium M with 2.2GHz, 1Gb RAM, nVidia card with 128Mb, 7200RPM HDD etc. i did some benchmarks and it can convert whole DL DVD (almost 9Gb) in under 15min - for a 90min movie that's 6x real time.
it really makes you feel running fully loaded desktop.

for few weeks now i've been "proud" owner of this little baby:
**broken link removed**

just wanted to play with video capture and eventually convert some of the good old tapes. unfortunatelly i cannot rate this product any better than ... toy!
yes it CAN work... but results are sobering. high or medium quality capture is possible only if captured video signal does not include fast change on screen (just single transition from one scene to another). well let me rephrase this: it is possible and it doesn't ever drop any frames etc. however there is noticable distortion on video (audio is fine), when screen content changes a lot.

remember this is still just the real time or 1x play speed. mentioned benchmark above included reading, converting and writing at 6x real time speed - while pc was doing some other things as well. during capture there was never any other task, antvirus and everything else ware disabled. all internal benchmarks also passed with flying colors and if there was a problem with pc performance it should at least allow capture with reduced compression settings (or no compression at all) even if it means really huge files (I have plenty spare on 2x250Gb). But this is now
part of the software (in this case Pinnacle). I'm very disapointed with it.

It feels like something for kids: selections are VERY limited, there are always some huge graphics of camcorder and other junk, everything is fixed size, fixed position, no multitasking (if you open one window, you cannot Alt+Tab to previous one, you MUST first close the current one), you cannot open toolbars you need and keep them open all the time, you HAVE to keep on opening one you want to work with regardless of screen size and resolution you use. It is very slugish, the recommended 800-1000MHz PC with 256Mb RAM is joke.

I tried it on really screaming fast pc with 2Gb or RAM and drive array and this thing is still too slow for reasonable work (seams to cache everything in RAM, probably more than once so try to do things with fewer steps, don't preview same clip ten times to find right frame while you are editing).

It is ok for editing small clips. DVD creation is something rather for masohists unless you plan on using only really few clips.
I didn't find out yet if I can force darn thing to create DVD content on the hardisk first. My current experience tells me that it only allows buring of the discs. If this is true, it's too much - I'm sending it back.

I tought they are known for what they do and they would be doing way better job. :cry:

It even crashes every time I tried to open low quality clip (320x240) from older cameras. It does work fine with higher resolution clips and that's ok but...crush!? Message should be enough...

If someone has found product that does better job (allows DVD quality video capture without side effects) please let me know.

 

[Exo]

The plextor thingie i linked above is quite good
I know some1 who has it and it works like it should...

 

[sram]

You could try running a VNC server on the laptop and a client on another computer in the network...

Can you please expand on this?

The idea I posted regarding the wireless solution wasn't practical of course, I just wanted to know if it is doable so that I can use it temporarily.

what I really want is a video Re-transmitter that can take video from the above mentioned portable reciever and then transmit it so that it can then be recieved (Somehow) by the laptop.

Does such a thing exist in the consumer market? If any of you know, pleeeeeeeeeeease let me know.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You could try running a VNC server on the laptop and a client on another computer in the network...

Can you please expand on this?

The idea I posted regarding the wireless solution wasn't practical of course, I just wanted to know if it is doable so that I can use it temporarily.

what I really want is a video Re-transmitter that can take video from the above mentioned portable reciever and then transmit it so that it can then be recieved (Somehow) by the laptop.

Does such a thing exist in the consumer market? If any of you know, pleeeeeeeeeeease let me know.

You can buy video transmitter units, they usually work around 2.4GHz, input a video signal to the transmitter, and get the same video signal out of the receiver - they are fairly easily available, and work quite well.

 

[Exo]

You could try running a VNC server on the laptop and a client on another computer in the network...

Can you please expand on this?

VNC (virtual network computing) Makes it possible to control a computer (the server) from another (the client) over network...

You use the screen, keyboard and mouse of the client computer to watch and control the server asif you were working on it directly...

So if you have a tv tuner or video device in the server, you can watch it on the client (laptop) over network...

You can only WATCH it , not store it on file on the client

 

[sram]

You can buy video transmitter units, they usually work around 2.4GHz, input a video signal to the transmitter, and get the same video signal out of the receiver - they are fairly easily available, and work quite well.

I don't quite get what you said! Can you guide me where to find such transmitters? Are you saying that I can input my video into such transmitters, and then they will transmitt the inputed video via WiFi, which will then be revieved by my toughbook(which has WiFi capability built in) ???

 

[Exo]

No, i think he means those devices where you connect an antenna or scart signal to the transmitter, and then you get an antenna or scart signal back out of the receiver...

You could use these, Connect your video source to the transmitter, and connect the output of the receiver to the USB video converter to feed it into your laptop...

quite a hassle obviously :?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

No, i think he means those devices where you connect an antenna or scart signal to the transmitter, and then you get an antenna or scart signal back out of the receiver...

You could use these, Connect your video source to the transmitter, and connect the output of the receiver to the USB video converter to feed it into your laptop...

quite a hassle obviously :?

Yes, that's what I meant, which was a suitable answer for the question he asked - but still requiring a video input on the laptop!.

what I really want is a video Re-transmitter that can take video from the above mentioned portable reciever and then transmit it so that it can then be recieved (Somehow) by the laptop.

Does such a thing exist in the consumer market? If any of you know, pleeeeeeeeeeease let me know.

 

[DragonMaster0121]

you could use a PCMCIA input card like the one here:
**broken link removed**

and get software to record the streaming video

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

you could use a PCMCIA input card like the one here:
**broken link removed**

and get software to record the streaming video

The specs a bit crap though! - only 5fps at standard VGA resolution!.

 

[sram]

Been in a short vacation! I'm now back.

VNC (virtual network computing) Makes it possible to control a computer (the server) from another (the client) over network...

You use the screen, keyboard and mouse of the client computer to watch and control the server asif you were working on it directly...

So if you have a tv tuner or video device in the server, you can watch it on the client (laptop) over network...

You can only WATCH it , not store it on file on the client

Gotchaa, sort of using pc anywhere installed on a computer (which is part of a network) to control another pc on the same network with the same pc anywhere software.........right! Ok, that should do, but still need two laptops to do the job :?

You can buy video transmitter units, they usually work around 2.4GHz, input a video signal to the transmitter, and get the same video signal out of the receiver - they are fairly easily available, and work quite well.

Links, please!

you could use a PCMCIA input card like the one here:
**broken link removed**

and get software to record the streaming video

Hmmm nice, thanks man

and connect the output of the receiver to the USB video converter to feed it into your laptop...

I understand that I can connect the output of such recievers to the devices mentioned earlier in this thread when I asked about feeding the video into the laptop( Wired solution). Like the plextor thingie mentioned above......possible!!?

 

[Gideonstk]

Hi sram,

For a cheaper solution:
check this link out for a wireless tv transmitter, this may cover your transmitting part.
**broken link removed**
as for the recieving part you just need to find a simple tv tuner device with an antenna, and an output for s-video or whatever you have been able to feed into the comupter from.
i can imagine you can just strip it all out from some old tv set, or even use a working tv to recieve and then feed the computer out of the vcr output.

Quote:
VNC (virtual network computing) Makes it possible to control a computer (the server) from another (the client) over network...

You use the screen, keyboard and mouse of the client computer to watch and control the server asif you were working on it directly...

So if you have a tv tuner or video device in the server, you can watch it on the client (laptop) over network...

You can only WATCH it , not store it on file on the client

Two things:
1) to save your self the hassle of creating the network etc.. just use a remote administrator program.
2) as for saving the file, you will have to save it on the remote computer and then transfer the files to your computer.

hope this helps,
Gideon

btw if you build the tv transmitter, or find another one please let me know since i am planning to build one of my own.