How is AIW 7500 real-time (w/compression) capture?

[Scurvy]

I'm not talking about if you use the TIVO or if other apps are being run ... just want to know what I can expect of a real-time "DVD quality" capture onto a defragmented partition of 7200 RPM hard drive using a AMD 1700+, KT266A, and 512mb PC2100 DDR. No overclocking.

Is the compression still software in the latest AIW's?

Should I just get std. video card and pick up a Pinnacle or Dazzle MPEG2 card later? (ouch $$$)

Should I get the AIW 7500 but do all my captures as raw AVI, then edit and compress to MPEG2 later? (pretty time consuming)


This is just for (eventually) being able to make homemade DVD's of my favorite stuff from my VHS collection and TV programs. I want to rid myself of all videotape related artifacts of the 20th century. I am not "producing" video, but I would need to edit out commercials from Star Trek episodes.

 

[rbV5]

<< Is the compression still software in the latest AIW's? >>


Yes.


<< Should I get the AIW 7500 but do all my captures as raw AVI, then edit and compress to MPEG2 later? (pretty time consuming) >>


If you want the best possible quality, or need to do any editing, thats what I would recommend.

See my rig specs. I can capture at the highest quality setting without dropping frames with my rig in WinXP, Quality is great, reputably better than the lower end hardware encoders. The Ligos GoMotion encoder may be software, but it is the best there is. Honestly, even if you had a higher end hardware encoder, you'd likely re-encode after capturing for editing purposes, so the biggest benefit might be for editing not for capturing anyway.
Myself, I am awaiting purchasing an S-VHS deck for analog capture of my VHS tapes before I turn my Archive over to digital so that I can have the best possible quality to start with(my VCR only has the lower quality composite video-output) I've got nice captures from my VHS tapes however.

I like my AIW 7500, it works very well with XP, and the feature set works great. I currently encode to Divx, until I get a DVD burner, I don't have any use for Mpeg-2 files, they just can't compare to Divx for size/quality. If I need to encode a show to watch later, I just cap to 240 lines Divx in real time. If I want to get the highest possible encoding, I cap Huffyuv 480 lines and then re-encode to Divx with Nandub. If I'm using the ATI VCR for timeshift, I use the ATI VCR codec.

 

[Willoughbyva]

Actually the compression is by hardware on the card.

 

[rbV5]

<< Actually the compression is by hardware on the card. >>



Actually, its not, it is a SOFTWARE encoder. ATI licences Ligos GoMotion software encoding, the very same encoder also used on the Matrox G450 eTV.