Recommend a capture card for my purpose

[jayk]

I am planning to buy a video capture card to capture video from my VCR.
I want to convert my collection of video cassettes (VHS) into VCDs to take them along to play on my laptop when I travel.

I do not plan to watch TV on my PC - so TV tuner card is not needed.
I do not play video games on my PC - so do not need a high-end/fast graphic card.

All I want is to burn the content on my VHS cassettes on to CDs with the best quality possible (VCD or if possible,SVCD) to play on my laptop while away from home.

Please recommend a user friendly ,reliable and high quality capture card.

(My PCs are DELLs - 4500 and 4550 with each having 120Gb HD/640mb RAM - the video cards that came with the PC - Geforce4 ?)


BTW , the VHS are movies/other programming that were purchased retail. Not home movies
Are there any copyright issues (macrovision etc) that can affect the capture/burning processes.


Thanks

 

[AnitaPeterson]

how much are you willing to spend? Because you might want to consider something like InstantDVD - it has everything you can wish for, including support for MPEG2, if you later decide to burn DVDs instead of VCDs...

 

[Peter]

Well unless you are shopping for a new graphics card as well (in which case you should go for a VIVO model), a basic TV card will indeed suit you best. The rest is a question of software.
In TV cards, opt for something built around the newer Philips chips or the new Conexant 22xxx chip, not the older Conexant/Brooktree BT8x8 chips.

 

[jayk]

Anita,


I presume you mean ADS USB InstantDVD, an ext device . It sounds great when you read the specs and the features, but when I did a search on Internet, it has more negative than positive reviews and user experience comments.

I was considering it when it was on sale as a buy.com price mistake of the day a few months ago but the mixed (more negative feedback) dissuaded me. It was a good price -around $100 or probably even less.

Have you (or any other reader) used it personally ? If so , what do you think?

 

[jayk]

Peter,

Can you name some cards that use the chips you recommend ?

(the cards in my 2 PCs are
32MB ATI RAGE ULTRA 4X AGP VIDEO and
64MB GEFORCE4 MX 420 W/TV OUT VIDEO ).

 

[oLLie]

Prolink XCapture

or

Flyvideo 2000 (if you don't need stereo audio)

are two low-cost solutions.

Do some searching on avsforum.com in the HTPC forum if you need more info