A good capture card

[coinz]

for plugging in a vcr to change to dvd format and burnt to disc or could you just go with one of the all in wonder cards by ati there will be little or no gaming on this computer also comes with software that is easy to use since the person that this system will be built for is not that great at using the computer

thanks

 

[LED]

Yes ATI AIW cards work fine and Here's some-more info on capturing...the downside to AIW cards is the fact that the whole card must be replaced for any type of Vid upgrade so many like to just go with a separate capture cards such as Hauppauge as an add on...you can also just get a Video Card with VIVO.

 

[edelbrock]

It depends on the performance of the computer. If it is fast enough then an AIW card would work. A card with hardware MPEG 2 encoding such as the Hauppauge cards would be much better and take the load off of the CPU for the encoding. Also give higher quality. The Hauppauge PVR-250 should work well. I use PVR-150mce but it does not come with any software or drivers except for XP Media Center Edition. The PVR-150 retail should be out soon and come with software and be cheaper than the 250 with the same performance and quality.

 

[Ioo]

I would NOT use the ATi cards if your trying to convert commercial VHS movies to digital, as ATi supports macrovision copy protection and will most likely give you lots of trouble. You will need special macrovision striping hardware between your VCR and computer to get the video to record. I have never used the Hauppage cards, so I dont know if they work with macrovision encoded VHS or not.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Every now and then, somebody asks this question... and every time, my answer is the same:

Get an ADS USB Instant DVD 2.0.

It does excellent hardware MPEG2 encoding, and it can tweak the image quite efficiently. And you can always upgrade the videocard, and keep the device unchanged.

Over the week-end I made an experience. I ran a Laserdisc dub through FireWire directly into my computer, and converted the resulting 25 GB .avi file to MPEG2 with Canopus ProCoder (the best encoder, IMHO) at Mastering quality and 4800 Mbps VBR, in 18 hrs.

I also ran the dub through ADS at 4.5 Mbps VBR - obtaining DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file in real-time.

Much to my surprise, the Canopus output was WORSE than the ADS. That`s right, WORSE, although the bitrate was slightly higher. The ADS did a wonderful job with details, contrast, and overall image aspect, not to mention it produced no visible encoding artifacts.

I doubt ANY VIVO video card can attain this level of quality.