All I want to do is capture the content from some old instructional VHS Video Cassettes to my computers disk so I can burn DVD's from them. I was surprised at the low price of some of the capture cards on NewEgg. I am wondering if the 1st card listed on the link that follows will enable me to do this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0 Here is a link to the detailed Specs for the 1st card listed on the linked page above: PV-M4900 FM.RC I could care less about the TV tuner, FM and all of the other stuff. All I want to do is connect my VCR to my computer(hopefully without the TV) and convert VHS cassettes to MPEG2 or whatever. Will this card work or should I look at one without the TV tuner, etc(like the 2nd one on the above linked page) or should I shell out more money for a different card altogether?
Why a DVD? If you make a VCD (alas, 80' per CD-R) or even a KVCD (140' per CD-R) the quality won't be less (since garbage in = garbage out). I cannot understand why people loves making DVD movies with this type of input stuff. Why? A (S)VCD or a K(S)VCD need less time and making them is easier (it's less risky). Going back to your question, you're making, more or less, what is called a 'screener', that it a movie recorded from a TV, which will have less quality than a DVD-rip anyway. I didn't test the item contained in http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814144306#DetailSpecs]PV-M4900 , but by the users comments that devie will be useful to have a better A/V input on you PC. It it really needed? It depends by your needs and your expactations. Alas, only testing it will help you. Maybe do you know someone that can lend it to you? I cannot help you, because for my 'expectations' a VCD obtained from a DVD-rip is better than a DVD movie recorded from an AVI or from an average video capture. But I never watched that stuff....
It doesn't have to be DVD. That was not the primary point of my question. VCD or KVCD is fine and actually preferred. I am not concerned with high quality as these tapes are mostly scenes of a person standing still explaining concepts, pointing to whiteboards, etc. in classroom setting. The thing I am most concerned with is will the card(s) I linked in the earlier message allow me to use a VCR as an input device for my computer so that I can capture the video to MPEG2 or whatever video file type? What I do with it after that is irrelevant.
Do you have a DV cam? The first card (the Pixelview Pro) will capture to avi, (usually) at a small aspect ratio, and medium bitrate. You run the risk of getting dropped frames, and audio desync. Set up correctly, on the right computer, it will work. You will then have to encode those avi's to mpeg-2, then author to dvd, and burn. Very time consuming. For a faster method, try a hardware mpeg-2 encoder card, such as the Hauppauge PVR ones, even the USB-2, if you don't want to open the computer to install a PCI card. Hook the VCR directly to it, and it to the computer. It will record in realtime to your hard drive. You can then directly author the files to dvdr, with no re-encoding needed. If you're not afraid to open your computer, the Hauppauge PVR-150 is a good choice, for about $80 (usually less).
