What are the difference in analog TV cards?

[50]

Okay, I bought a wintv go card, and for the price I paid(20 bucks) it has met my expectations. I'm just wondering, how come other cards can cost so much more? What are other features in cards I should look for? Is the quality noticably different in the more expensive analog cards?

 

[magomago]

the ones that cost more do stuff - like MPeg2 encoding -in hardware. I have a friend with a 800mhz celeron but his card can encode at 20 mbps or whatever the nomencalutre is and its in hardware so there isn't a CPU hit but I know he paid a good penny for it.

But what you have does it all in software and uses the CPU -and if you don't have a CPU up to par (athlon Xps and the P4s are usually fine) then it becomes a problem capturing at high resolutions, etc.

 

[mosco]

plus some only record mono sound while other stereo, some have remotes, some have s-video in for connecting cameras or vcrs, some not only have hardware encoders but also have hardware decoders and s-video out. Then you get into HD-TV cards that can display high definition broadcasts.

 

[wetcat007]

Some have remotes, there's a difference in picture quality, and drivers and software, some support stero, some support FM tuning, some have more types of inputs and come with software for video editing and such, and are made by a more reputable company to top all that off.