Need replies. What is a good cheap video capture card

[ndiguy5]

Want to transfer movies to p.c. and maybe watch tv on it.
Already have an awesome video card.
please reply.
PCI type

 

[NTB]

How cheap? Most people here will reccomend the Leadtek card that sells at newegg for ~$50. Never had a chance to use it myself, but judging from all the reccomendations, it must work. The only problem that I see with it is that it is, if I remember correctly, a software-only solution. Which means that it's going to peg your CPU @ 100% usage any time you try to capture. And if you try to do anything while it's working, you might start dropping frames. I had another card - an old Hauppauge - for a long time, and this is exactly what would happen on my computer. It would drop frames left and right if I so much as looked at the computer cross-eyed while it was capturing. Like I said though, this is just my experience, and with a different card. Somebody (or several people) may come in here and say I'm wrong.

What I have now for video capture is a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250. This board has an MPEG encoding chip built into the board, which takes most of the load off of the CPU when a capture is taking place. I can sit here and do pretty much whatever I want while it is capturing, and not have to worry about it. I would highly reccomend it, except for one point: The board retails for $150. I'm not sure if you could find it cheaper on line or not; you'd have to look.

Nate

 

[lordtyranus2]

I like this for a PCI solution.

http://www.shentech.com/vixt91ra91pr.html

 

[chocoruacal]

Cheap is a relative term...can mean anything from the Leadtek mentioned above, to a 9700 All in Wonder

Older chipset = bt878 = well supported by third party drivers and Dscaler
Newer chipset(s) = Philips 713x and Conexant CX2388x = not necessarily supported by Dscaler

VirtualVCR should work with any of them.

Get yourself over to Newegg and find a card in your price range.