Need recommendation for video capture card(detailed info enclosed)

[mirrorlake]

I need to collect video from both VCR and TV, make them into
mpeg4 file or make VCD sample. I also want to use it to watch TV program on my monitor. Budget sensitive.

system: Tbird700/Asus A7V/128MB/Creative GTS2

 

[pm]

Pinnacle PCTV - which can be found for ~$40 if you look hard enough.
You can grab from both VCR and TV (but not, obviously, at the same time), and it has a tuner, so you can watch TV on it. As far as making an MPEG4 or VCD, this is a software issue. You'll just need the right program for this. One warning is that the Win2k drivers for this PCTV are about the most unstable Win2k stuff that I've run into, but the card works great in Win98. No Linux support that I know of.

Hauppaugge WinTV - which is closer to ~$60, but is easier to find. No direct experience with this card, but I've heard mostly good things. No idea if they have a Win2k driver though.

 

[mirrorlake]

so you kick out the TV-wonder, right?
And thank for your suggestion!

 

[pm]

I don't know anything about the TV Wonder - I don't even know the feature set - so I didn't recommend it. I've had bad luck in the past (the distant past, but these things stay with you) with ATI and it's drivers, so I've avoided them for years. I have the PCTV and it's pretty good. I picked it up for $12 at a close-out at Fry's (mine's actually a Miro PCTV, Pinnacle bought them out) and have been extremely happy with it over the years. Considering the card is over 4 years old, I've been very satisfied with the driver support. Of course, they are still selling the card, so I'd hope they'd keep up on the drivers.