Best card for Video capture?

[xtacydima]

I am asking this for a friend. Whats a good card to capture video from a VCR (analogue not digital) to create either VCD or preferrably DVD (I guess VOB files not too sure how it works), files or movie image. He has a Sony 4x DVD Burner. Price Range he is looking is ~$100 but he is willing to look at higher end models.

Thanks

[xtacydima]

Anyone?

[donfrabrizio]

I´m in the possesion of a hauppauge primio and I will say that it´s a very good card to watch TV on but when I tryed copying some VCR-tapes it wasn´t good at all.You had a lot of stipes but the audio was good.

If I was you I woudn´t start copying VCR-tapes to PC because the quality of the tapes is too low.I have never seen a movie which was recorded with a high quality from a VCR and I have tryed a lot.

You could always ask advice at www.vcdhelp.com

[Dee-ehn]

There are some pretty good capture devices by Pinnacle and Miro. If you want high quality captures (although VHS doesn't provide a high quality pictre), you better spend some more money than $100.

This question has been answered some time before, in this very same forum. Perhaps our search can help you out...?

Keep us updated

[xtacydima]

Like I said this is being asked on account of one of my friends. I too realize that regular VCR won't be excellent quality, however, some of his video's have once been recorded that way, and he wishes to still put them on a DVD as obviously a DVD will outlast an old tape and is smaller and easier to store. I was thinking that ATI might have a good capture device but now that you mention Pinnacle and Miro I will pass those down also. He is willing to go over the $100 range as long as the product is worth it.

Thanks

[edit] Wow just looked at the Pinnacle DV500, I hope its as powerful as the half a G it costs... hehehe [/edit]

[Wannez]

note: Miro and Pinnacle are the same nowadays.

The Pinnacle DV500 is a bit old. They have some new cards with analog (VCR) input now, that are "cheaper". The Studio Deluxe can be called the "new" DV500. It's about 200-250 $ I guess.

There is also an external option, through firewire MovieboxDV . I don't know how it performs though.

There's another brand worth some attention; Matrox has a few good cards too. The Matrox RTX10 for example, provides excellent quality for a fair price. (still more than 100$ though)

For ~100$ you won't get much more than a TV-card with analog input. And the VHS-capture quality of such cards just euhm .. sucks, compared to the cards I mentioned above.

I used to have a DV500, but now I have a Matrox RTX100 Xtreme and I'd recommend Matrox. They give a warranty of 3 years unlike Pinnacle (my DV500 gave up on me when the warranty period was just expired.. :Z ). And Matrox still fully supports Adobe Premiere; you get the full version bundled with the Matrox card.

[matt69x]

I own a Hauppauge wintv 401 (the stereo model) and think its great. Hauppauges are the ONLY cards i know of that actually capture the full 640*480 60FPS interlaced video. most any other $100 card is gonna do 320*240 @30FPS. The sound card dose the audio capturing so keep that in mind. Also i can say that the new drivers on their website SUCK!. they make the video quality look horrible. the ones that came on the CD with the card look awesome. you can capture video @ 24 bit 30 fps 640 480 44100 stereo audio. you can choose to apply compressions on the fly, or capture raw avi. you better have either a FAST computer or a HUGE dedicated hard drive though.