Best Video Capture Card

I am investigating a Video Capture Card. What is the best capture card for under $250? I am not hearing great things about the Dazzle DVC80.

 

I have the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350, and I like it. About $189 US. Don't get a USB system.

 

For the Best quality I would go for a Professinal quality Analogue/Digital converter Like a Canopus ADVC-100/110 as they are specificly made for Doing professinal quality Transfers from VHS to PC and it doesn"t have the same problems that other Analoge capture devices have Like Sync problems and Dropped Frames and it captures to the best format for Editing which is DV AVI format.....

But if you want to go the absolute simplest way and still get Good quality them maybe check into a DVD recorder...?

 

GrandpaBW,

Why not a usb version? Have you tried and had trouble or just hear that it wasn't a good choice?

Thanks for the input.

 

risky4me, I have read many posts about dropped frames with USB capture. I have not tried a USB card, myself.

 

how about a vivo GPU ?

 

hewlett packard has a dvd writer the dc5000.this writer has a built in capture system and is ideal for converting vhs to dvd ,tv to dvd cam corder movies to dvd plus this writer does everything a dvd writer does.this wriyer comes with vhs to dvd software and if you have a dvd copy progran like 1 click,shrink or dvdxcopy uou can copy dvds.cost 199.00.required cables come with this writer.go to hp.com and check out the specs.1 use this writer with 1 click and anydvd,to date i have converted 62 vhs tapes to dvd and about 24 dvds copied.

 

I have tried both the Dazzle 80 and Plextor USB video capture solutions. DO NOT BUY EITHER unless you want to yank out any remaining hair stands you have. Neither of them work worth a darn. Dropped frames, lost audio, etc....both are junk...

 

Hi, I need some advice for a good PCI capture card in the <$60 range? Here's what I'm considering so far:
Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert ($50),
Hauppauge WinTV-GO ($20),
KWORLD Xpert DVD MAKER ($28),
Prolink PixelView XCapture Card ($32).
Does anyone has personal experience with any of these or can you recommend anything else in the same price range? All I want to do is capture from Hi8 and VHS. I have a 1.6 Gig P4 processor and 1 gig RAM.
Thanks for any advice you might offer!
-Peg

 

I own the "Pixelview XCapture Card" and it is Pretty good for a cheap Capture card...

It has a Composite/RCA Input and a S-video Input so you can capture from pretty Much any analogue Video Source..It is a Max NTSC Capture resolution of 720+480 so it is Ideal for makeing DVD"s and it has a 10Bit decoder chip so the Quality is Fairly good But it doesn"t have a TV Tuner so you can"t capture directly from Cable TV....

Out of all of those cards the only one I can recomend that you Not get is the Hauppauge Win TV Go card because I believe it uses the Older 8 bit BT878 Decoder chip which doesn"t produce as good quality as ones with a 10bit chip.....

I am also a Bit concerned that your System might be a little Bit slow for Full resolution Mpeg-2 capture for DVD as I had Problems with my Old 2.0ghz P-4 with haveing Dropped frames and Sync problems because my CPU was haveing Trouble Keeping up but You should have no problems captureing at Half DVD resolution or SVCD and VCD resolutions which all can be put on to DVD....

Cheers

 

I have the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP at first wasnt impressed but after I updated drivers and updated the software it works great. iv copyed TV shows and backed up lots of VCR to DVD disc. Very happy for the price.

it also has Composite/RCA Input and a S-video Input plus input/coaxial for antena or cable and also has a remote control. I have it hooked up to my bigscreen and control the system from my lazy boy chair when watching TV shows I have schedule to record.

 

Doesn't seem to matter what cap card you get, the software included sucks!
There are two kinds of capture cards. Those that have a hardware mpeg encoder on, and those that do not.
If you want to capture in mpeg-2, then spend more, and get a Haupauge PVR250 or 350 or 500.
There's a ton of 3rd party software and support for these cards.
The Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert is a great second choice.
These are crap:
Hauppauge WinTV-GO ($20),
KWORLD Xpert DVD MAKER ($28),
The Pixelview TVPRO is a decent card, but download the BTWDM drivers for it. The pixelview software and drivers suck. Fortunately it's got the Conexant BT8x8 chip and there's lots of 3rd party support.
If you want to capture in avi, get something with the Conexant BT8x8 chip.
The best tuner/capture software I have found is Showshifter.
The best VHS capture software IMHO is virtualdub.

 

Have you tried the MIT MyHD 120/130? This one allows capture of std and HD content. It might be a bit pricey but a good buy.

 

A great card generally, but especially if you have HDTV and want to capture HDTV. If not, there are cheaper ones that will do the job nicely

 

true but with the BF (broadcast flag) being enforced soon why not grab the better card and have it all? Just my .02


Carl

 

Don't be so quick. BF may not be here anytime soon.
http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?section=business&id=1952
Then, there's always MythTV <grin>

 

RebootJim, well on the EFF website they do monitor this very closely and so do I.

While the courts are reviewing this (recent news on the topic) this is still up in the air. It is clear that there is nothing being changed as of yet so I will err on the side of caution since the day is fast approaching and get my non compliant products while I can (these will continue to function just be careful of those driver updates!). I refuse to give up my fair use rights to the MPAA or the RIAA pigs. The RIAA is also trying to get a BF incorporated into the digital radio and streaming stations as well. If nothing is changed soon this will also come to pass and we will all be screwed.

Carl

 

For every lock, there is an equally capable lock picker.
Every step of the way, the RIAA and MPAA, are getting flack. Fair Use is here to stay.
Although I agree that BF sucks, there's always going to be a way around it. Somehow.
I guess the point is, buy carefully now, to avoid hassles in the future.

 

Hi everyone, thanks for your helpful advice. I decided on the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert - I installed it yesterday and am trying to make sense of everything I've read here. I'm wondering what software to capture with. (I'll be capturing from VHS and 8mm camcorder). Many people have recommended Virtualdub - but since the TV2000 uses WDM drivers, I've heard I should use a WDM capture program like VirtualVCR, not a VfW capture program like Virtualdub. The card came with WinFast PVR software but I'm not sure if that is good for capture. Any suggestions?

 

If you want to capture to avi, virtualdub is excellent. I would suggest that you download and install the BTWincap drivers. http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/
Follow the installation instructions carefully!
These are tweaked for the chip on that card, and work much better than the originals.

There are hundreds of capture programs around.
I prefer to use Intervideo WinDVR for most mpeg-2 captures. If you have a good fast computer, it will cap full D1 (DVD) mpeg-2 video, with no dropped frames, and maintains audio sync nicely.
Many people have had good luck with DScaler. I find it OK. The one option it needs, and doesn't have, is to let you determine where the captured file goes. By default it's into DScaler's installation folder, and doesn't allow you to change it.
There are also quite a few free capture apps, but in the end, none of them are as good as virtualdub (for avi)
Getting started with virtualdub here: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html