Want to get home video pal VHS onto my pc HDD, recomended capture card?

[ha9981]

I need a good capture card within $150 dollars or so for a good capture card that is region free, i already have a vhs player.
Although my vhs player is 10 years old, should i get a new one? if so could you recommend me a good one that you have good experience with that is around $100 dollars. This would be a real help!

Also i want to later look into cleaning up the video as the vhs cassettes are really old, so i fear they may have "artifacts" and such. Would i have to fix this with software or hardware, and before or after. Please keep in mind i can not afford the expensive 600 dollar system like the Canopus ADVC-300 that does it for you. Is there a cheap cost effective hardware method or software?

I have looked into this a lot, some people say that pinnacle and hauppage cards sometimes are not good at this, so i would like one that someone has good personal experience about.

Past that i am sure i will be able to convert the videos into dvd or such, i am sure software will be able to do such, i am very computer literate so it should be a problem. Please let me know if i am wrong here.

Also im not interested in a pal vhs to ntsc dvd recorder unless you know for it to perform really well and better than or comparable to pc in my price range.

In summary:
- a good capture card that you know performs well for its price (approx up to $150)
- do i need a new vhs reciever? if so recommend in $100 range.
- any video enhancing options? should i need hardware or software? (looking for really cheap cost effective hardware, i know it might not be possible)

[ha9981]

any recommendations?
any guidance?

PLZ?

[hech54]

You need to properly address the PAL VHS in an NTSC environment situation first. You say you "already have a vhs player". Is it a PAL VHS player?

[ha9981]

yes it is a pal vhs player, but its about 10 years old, should i replace it?
i basically want the clearest quality conversion into ntsc format on my computer. I am sure that there are many ways of using the computer to convert to ntsc after, so i just want to get the vhs videos in the clearest possible quality onto my computer in about $200.

[hech54]

Actually I MUCH prefer a hardware conversion between PAL<>NTSC over computer conversion.
BUT...since neither you nor I have the bucks for a decent hardware converter...your going to need a PAL format capture card for your computer....or one of those USB "things" that I have no experience with.

That tape better REALLY important (IE...not released to DVD) cause this can get expensive....especially for one tape.

[ha9981]

they are home videos i want to convert.

so i really need to get them done. I need a good suggestion for a card that people know works well, i have heard even the brand names sometime don't perform as well as a cheaper card.

[hech54]

I personally chose a Hauppauge PVR-350. It encodes to MPEG2 "on the fly" to save wear and tear on the computer's processor.....so to speak. I bought mine used (Ebay) and it works perfectly....used it last night as a matter of fact. You can download all of the software and drivers directly from Hauppauge's website(in case you get a used one like me with no software disc)....and you can get them pretty damn cheap. You'll probably need to get yours from "over here" in PAL-Land.