Anyone using Elgato Video Capture with good results?

I don't have video capture, but I have ElGato EyeTV Hybrid, and ElGato EyeTV HD both with good results.

With both of these, there is an export option that sends it directly to iMovie.

There is an alternate way if this does not work for you.
You will need a free third party app called MPEG Streamclip. It is also possible that you will need a $20 component from Apple called the Apple QuickTIme MPEG2 Playback Component.
In theEyeTV software.
Right click in the recording. Select Reveal in Finder. Right click on the file and "Show Package Contents"
Drag the .MPG file into MPEG Streamclip.
Use File/Export to export as Apple Intermediate Codec.
MPEG Streamclip will tell you if you need the Apple component.

My best advice would be to use the pre-set. It will convert to an h.264 file that imovie can handle.

However, if you want more control of the results, MPEG Streamclip is a good way.
MPEG Streamclip will tell you if you need the MPEG2 Component. I have had the component for so long for other purposes, that I do not know for sure if you need it.

There is an MPEG2 component that comes with iMovie for use in doing imports directly from supported cameras, so I do not know if the one you have is the one you need or not.

There was a time when ElGato did not have a preset for iMovie 08, 09, 11. They only had a preset for iMovie 6 to convert it to DV. That is when I used the MPEG Streamclip method. The MPEG Streamclip method seems to work for standard def (like VHS recording), but it does not work for high definition programs recorded in EyeTV. For HD stuff, use the preset.


Double check to see that you can open the package to see the mpg files. I don't have Video Capture, so I don't know for sure.

conran wrote:
I've got some VHS tapes that I want to edit in iMovie '11 (and/or FCE).

Viewed on a TV monitor, the image quality of the tapes varies from acceptable to very good - but I am very disappointed with the quality of the video once imported, using Elgato Video Capture, to my MBP. It is very indistinct and washed out. Only the audio remains as clear as the original.

Anyone had any success with using Video Capture to convert old tapes?

Any advice and/or feedback would be much appreciated!

If the video changes drastically, it could mean that your captured tape footage is interlaced. This is the same as Vidi using my GL-2 Firewire passthrough. This will effect only if you're using iMovie 11, not so with iMovie 6HD or FCE. iMovie 11 expects a progressive video format, which is perhaps not what Elgato Video Capture will save into. If it sees an interlaced footage, it will use only 1 field and convert that into 1 frame. The easiest way to bypass this is to convert whatever Elgato captured by using Quicktime X and then save as movie in 480p. It will be in a progressive H.264 format with a decent bit rate. When you import this into iMovie 11, you will get full resolution and good color.

Try that.

Here is a [short clip that shows what I am seeing.|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF0QJv3RHJM] You will see a brief section that was VHS recorded through the ElGato EyeTV Hybrid. This clip was made through MPEG Streamclip.

Keep in mind that the VHS format uses about 333x480 pixels (sometimes less if you use long play options), compared with DV which uses 720x480 pixels, or HD with 1920x1080 horizontal lines. (different for PAL).

The other main option for capturing VHS would be a DAC (Digital Analog Converter) such as those made by Grass Valley. They convert the analog VHS to standard definition DV.

Both EyeTV and Grass Valley will upscale the analog VHS to a 640x480 size. (in my experience)

I have not found the Grass Valley results to be significantly better, but some people swear by them.

Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

conran wrote:
Thanks Coolmax - I tried that, but no discernible improvement unfortunately.

These are the tech specs from the Elgato site:

Video resolution: 640×480 (4:3) or 640×360 (16:9)
Video format: H.264 at 1.4 MBit/sec or MPEG-4 at 2.4 MBit/sec
Audio: AAC, 48kHZ, 128 kBit/sec

I've tried both H.264 and MPEG-4 without much success. The resulting footage is always extremely grainy and 'muddy'. Any other ideas?

If I understand this correctly, Elgato can save your footage either in H.264 or MPEG-4 and you tried both. If the original file plays with ok quality and the resulting footage after being finalized by iMovie 11 look worse, I think we need to determine what are you finalizing to?

In "Export to Quicktime", you can choose the compressor to "none". Do this with a short clip as the resulting file will be big. Play back this video.
If there is a degradation in video, then you know it is iMovie 11 process that is causing it. From here on, you can further compress the video using Handbrake and adjust the settings to give best quality vs size.

There are software available on the PC side that can enhance and resize an already weak VHS captured footage and make it look better before you import it into iMovie 11. But this require quite a bit of computer horsepower to complete it in any acceptable time frame.