TV capture card help.

[d_stilgar]

I am looking to buy a TV capture card so I can backup all my family's VHS to DVD for Christmas this year. I was wondering if anyone has purchased one (or many) and could reccomend one to me.

Quick Specs.

AMD 64 3400+
ATI X1300
Windows XP Pro SP2

Thanks a million.

Edit: Also any packaged software or reccomended TV tuner software would be great.
Is there digital cable software so that I can program my PC to record shows for me, or maybe search for shows? Thanks again.

[simon275]

Have I got the card for you. It's made by AverMedia they sell in the UK

http://www.averm.co.uk/avermedia/aver/products_capture_EZMakerPCIDeluxe.asp?show=4

It also comes with a usb interface version if you need it.

Most cards come with software for recording tv and stuff like that.

The thing is most cards are one trick ponies they either are for watching TV or capturing from sources. You can get some standard cards which take analog tv and capture from things like vcr's but for digital they are dedicated to digital. So unless you want normal analong tv only may be looking at two cards. Also single card vareties often have poor capture and tv quailty.

Also here is a card from Hauppauge that does the lot I don't know much about it but here it is.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr3000.html

Hope all this helps

[Crimson Sky]

I use Hauppauge cards in all the PC's I want video capture features in--Unlike some other cards that use software for capturing, they have onboard MPEG chips for better capture rates and reliability.

[ajmilton]

yeah i'll agree with crimson on this one. hauppauge is more or less the end-all of consumer-level capture cards
there are presumably better ones out there for professional level, but those probably cost as much as a small car. :p

[d_stilgar]

Thanks guys. Looks like Hauppauge is the way to go.

[Razors Edge]

Well, I don't know too much about this topic, But I do have my Tivo hooked up to my Media Center that I finished building last week. I have a Radeon All-In-Wonder x1600. It works exellent. My dads freind named Greg hooked me up with this black antenna device looking thing. Basicley it has the seriel out for my All in wonder, and it have a in seriel that takes video from the tivo.

Then I have a disk with the driver and software for a Diamond Video/TV card. I use its software to watch, Record (from tivo) and stuff.

[Crimson Sky]

I used an ATI 9800 AIW for the longest time in my "JuJube" media server as a capture card, but upgraded to the Hauppauge PVR 250. I use SnapStream's BeyondTV 4 software for the interface--Unlike Tivo, there is never a monthly charge for channel guides and lineup.

I can also watch live TV from JuJube anywhere in the world --even access my media library files. Remote recordings can be set up using my web enabled cellphone by accessing my personal channel lineup on my account at snapstream.net :)

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/index.php?module=photoshare&type=show&func=viewimage&iid=34&viewkey=

[ajmilton]

what is the large knob on the far right? volume control?

[TheMovement4]

I use to have the 9600 AIW.. my god did I download every episode of Aqua Teen.. Well anyway, I now use just a ATI PCI tv tunner, it has a port for an adapter to connect to a VCR, DVD, what ever, as long as its on composite. I got mine for like $50.

[klingelton]

i bought a really really cheap pci tv card a few years ago on ebay. I recently filed it under B1N. spend some cash, get a decent one. it'll save you nightmares in the future!! (drivers for cheapy cards are crap and difficult to install at best)

[fragged]

Dont go any cheapy cards off of ebay....

Basically there are 2 things to look for in a TV Tuner card, The encoding and Digital/Analog

Encoding is important, software encoding rapes your CPU and looks ****, whereas hardware uses onboard encoding to do a better job faster... think of it in the same way as a graphics card, your fav game will play 10x better with a PCI graphics card than it will with CPU encoding...

The next is digital/analogue, I'm not as sure on this one about facts, but afaik digital can only capture Digital TV, that leaves me doubtful that you will be able to rip VHS with it... But if there is a need get one with dual tuners, one for digital one for analogue (or multiple cards)

Also, some cards have inbuilt FM radios etc, dont use this as a buying point, because your much better off getting a reputable card such as hauppage than a piece of **** that gives no signal what so ever on TV and horribly bad FM radio signal (This is where I went wrong a year back :()

Well thats it, hope it helps
-Fragged