Analog Video Capture Quality : Radeon , Pinnacle , Asus

[LorenzGr]

I've bought a All-in-wonder Radeon few months ago . Principally my purpose was to record from an analog source (like tv , vhs , or , better the digital satellite receiver (connected with analog cables ). Before buying this video card i read many review on internet and after that i was thinking that everything was ok. After a few days with my new All in Wonder Radeon unfortunately i have discovered that also with a ultra high quality anolog source (like the sat receiver) , the in video quality was very low .On my computer (Athlon Xp 1700 512 mb ddr), the video captured at the max quality has the video quality of an economical vhs ! And if the source is a vhs the results are also worse! So i decided to change my All in wonder . Now i'm very doubtful ! What to buy ?I can spend at least 600 dollars and so can't to buy a professional video capture card. What you advise ? I have made a research and my chosen can be : Allinwonder 8500 dv , Allinwonder 7500 , Pinnacle dc 10 (in Usa it costs very few , in my country cost the equivalent of 220 dollars) , Asus Geforce 3 ti 500 deluxe (or a Geforce 4 very soon) . Do you have some suggestions?If you are a owner of the previously mentioned video cards what you say about the capture video quality? Is comparable to a vhs quality or better (or very better like (i'm saying like) ) dvd quality? What you advise me?Also if you are an user of others capture cards, please write what you think about your card.My purpose is the input video quality (analog,not firewire). Thanks to all will reply this thread.

 

[Hgabriel]

I am one to buy a separate capture card. Having the features built into the the video card is nice, but a stand alone card is easier to work with IMHO. The best card is the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR. It has a hardware based MPEG2 encoder. Highly worth the ~$200 price tag.

If you want capture capability built with a decent video card, the AIW 7500 would be a good bet. The Nvidia Personal Cinema is also a nice choice.

 

[Pariah]

A Pinnacle Systems DV500+ will probably give you the best results in that price range. It's under $500 here, which may put it over $600 where you are. Absolutely under no circumstances should you use anything made by NVidia, it would be a major downgrade from the ATi you already have if you're solely after better capture quality. The DC10 is a good entry level card, but I would think the AIW would give pretty comparable results if not better.