Streaming; From the Camera to the Computer

There are a lot of people doing streaming these days. We stream ballgames, church services, local political events, and the list goes on and on. There are all kinds of tools to do the job of getting your video the the website. Many people, however, have difficulties getting audio and video from a camera and an audio source to the computer. Some have tried, with unfavorable results, connecting to a sound card for audio and video to a different video capture component. This can sometimes result in frequent pauses in either the audio or video stream.

The correct way of connecting audio and video, whether from the same or different sources, is through a capture card or a video converter. A capture card is a card that mounts inside of a computer that accepts both audio and video and processes it directly into the bus of the mother board. Most software applications that look for the audio/video streams will recognize the output of a capture card.

Another type of capture/converter device is an audio/video converter. I have used various types of these devices and most I have not been very happy with. One, however, has served me very well in various applications. It is a Canopus branded product within the Grass Valley product lineup. You can find their products at the following location.

Grass Valley Converters

Depending on your setup one of these converters will take your component, composite, s-video, audio source, or HDMI feed and convert it to an input acceptable by your computer. Look to see the type of conversion by product model and find the one that matches your camera outputs and your computer inputs.  I have used these for years and have never experienced a failure. Grass Valley is a maker of professional and consumer equipment for your audio and video needs. Hope this helps in your search for a converter for your video projects.