Having read and read and re-read all that is posted here, and finally understanding that firewire is the bestway to capture from my Sony Digital 8. "Can anyone now say which is the best capture card/program". My operating system is XP and I have updated to windows media 10, previous threads have put down windows media so I wont go into that here. Thks in advance
Its tough to say what the best capture set up is. It really boils down to how much you're willing to spend. I use a $40 ADS Pyro Firewire card and it works fine. I'm not going to say that all capture cards are made equal, but when using 25Mb/s DV (miniDV, Digital-8), a typical Firewire 400 card is all you need. There do exist capture cards out there that also feature an array of real-time effects built into the hardware. I have no experience with these, but if you really don't have the patience for rendering, it seems like it might be a nice feature if you have the cash. Choosing the right software is a big deal, though. Adobe Premiere has served me very well (although I'm having trouble getting it to recognize my camera with XP SP2, but this doesn't seem to be a widespread problem), and it has a robust set of features. Avid Xpress is also a very excellent system, but its expensive, and I wouldn't personally recommend it for beginners/hobbyists. If you want something real basic, Windows Movie Maker (packaged with XP) will capture and edit with a basic set of features. Also, you can look into Pinnacle or Vegas, which are more moderately priced compared to Premiere (I have no personal experience with these).
