need a Tivo PC capture solution (same room, but not adjacent)

Hello all! I am currently shopping for a video capture solution that will allow me to archive some Tivo'ed programs as well as convert some of the kid's VHS tapes to DVDs. My PC and Tivo are in the same room but not next to each other. I'm considering two different solutions based on a lot of research here, but need some help finalizing.

Option-1) Hauppauge WinTV 150 in my PC (Win2K/P4-2.4GHz/512RAM), with coax or composite wiring pulled under floor from Tivo to PC (approx 25ft).

Option-2) Canopus ADVC-110 attached to my laptop (XP/P4-M/1280RAM) via a PCMCIA firewire card.

Option-3) Cheaper USB2 capture solution for my laptop.

Both Hauppauge & Canopus seem to be the hardware of choice here for internal and external capture solutions, respectively, since they rely on quality hardware video compression. The WinTV card and cabling solution (~$100) is significantly cheaper than the Canopus and PCMCIA fireware solution (approx $250). But the Canopus would give me greater mobility to take my capturing to the source instead of pulling lengthy cables. The questions I need help with are....

1) Can I use coax or composite cables at 25+ feet, or will signal strength degrade noticably? If doable, which type of cable would you pull? I don't need HDTV quality, but I don't want obvious flaws either.

2) Will the slightly cheaper WinTV 150 MCE work with Win2K? The MCE model is advertised for the XP Media Center only. I just want video capture capability from my VCR and Tivo, not a full media center. Will the drivers and software work on W2K too, or must I spend a little extra on the non-MCE version?

3) Am I correct to assume that the 30-40GB of free disk space I currently have is enough, since these cards will be compressing the video before writing to disk (~4GB per movie)? Do I need to purchase a 2nd harddrive dedicated to fast (7200rpm) video capture, or is that only necessary for intensive raw captures or software PVRs?

4) Are the USB external capture solutions really that bad in quality? They are significantly cheaper than the Canopus firewire solution, and I don't need high definition perfection, but I don't want frustration and garbage captures either. Are there any good USB solutions with hardware compression, or are they all soft-PVRs that tax the CPU?

I'm leaning towards the WinTV-150 solution because it seems to be the best compromise between price and quality. But I may go with the Canopus if the cable length is a concern, or I could even go USB if there are any good ones out there.

Thanks in advance for the help!
~kroyster

 

Nice to see you've done some serious homework!

For the absolute best quality, a Canopus ADVC-110, bundled with a good encoder if you plan on burning DVD's.

Next best would be the PVR-150 retail, which has the inputs you need from a VCR. IIRC the MCE version doesn't have composite or S-video inputs (correct me if I'm wrong).
Yes, the MCE version will work in Win2k, but you get no remote control.

Take a look at the Hauppauge PVR-USB 2.0
It's hardware mpeg-2 encoding, just like the PVR-150, USB so it's portable from your laptop to your desktop, and has all inputs you need from a VCR.

 

Thanks rebootjim! It's good to hear that the MCE will work in Win2K. And I will check ou the USB version you mentioned.

BTW - The MCE version does have composit and s-video inputs. It's the non-MCE that doesn't, but you can add it for ~$15 with this:
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...r-pvr150-250-350-500/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners

 

Thanks, I thought I may have had it backwards
I still think the PVR-USB 2.0 version is the one you should get.
If you're going to run 25' of cable, you'll need some exceptionally well shielded stuff.

 

I shared your concerns about the cabling, so am leaning towards an external solution. However, there are about 16 customer reviews of the WINTV-PVR-USB2 at amazon.com, and about half are neutral or worse. It appears there are several people having driver issues and recordings that lock up. Makes me wonder if this is a new offering from Hauppauge that still has some kinks to be worked out.

For that reason I'm leaning more towards the Canopus, but still having trouble stomaching the price. Another advantage is that the Canopus claims to be driverless, so hopefully I wouldn't have to worry about driver support for future versions of Windows or even linux.

I did find the ADVC-55 to be about $50 cheaper than the ADVC-110 and appears to have all of the features I need, but it's still gonna be close to $200 after adding a PCMCIA firewire card (about 2x the cost of the internal WinTV-PVR-150). I keep trying to convince myself that the Canopus quality and external convenience are worth another $100, but I'm not quite there yet...

 

The Hauppauge reviews mostly get negative postings because of the software, and confusing driver install. It sucks, really. The hardware is a superb product, and coupled with the right software, does a great job.
The benefit to the Hauppauge, it's also a TV tuner.

 

I'm new to video capture so call me a newb but I bought a Turtle Beach Video Advantage USB to capture video from my vhs-c camcorder and I'm real happy with it. I don't see any difference from the tapes and the newly burned dvd. I'm wondering could I adapt to the screw on bnc connector coming out of the tivo? Or how about dropping programs to tape and then to the capture box? Or would it take a big quality hit like that?