Need cheap PCI capture card with TV tuner, which one?

[MachineMan]

What is a good cheap PCI capture card with TV tuner? I want to capture TV and/or VHS and encode using ulead video studio 7 to DVD(mpg2 720x480). Can I do this or will I need a card that has on board mpeg2 encoding also? I noticed that Ulead has a TV tuner menu.

The card must be able to handle Composite in and out incase I want to go back to VHS. Also a Coaxial TV in would be nice. My current graphics card is fine and already takes the AGP spot so I need PCI.

Im thinking that i could get one for <$125?

[Craig Tucker]

I would suggest one of the ATI AIW range

Sorry did not read the last line properly

[sctele]

I have an ATI tv wonder VE.

Upsides: cost (around 40 bucks), tv tuner, has composite in and catv in, and pci slot.

downsides: It's best quality recording setting is mpeg 2 640 x 240 at 8 Mbit/sec. You can still customize your recording settings to record at avi at 740 x 240.

all in all it's not a bad deal. I can watch tv on my computer and record any shows that i wanna watch. They do have a tivo like function on their recording program but i have yet to make it work. also, another downside is that you have to get another set of drivers, other than the ones it comes with, to enable the catv in to work. But once you get that, its smooth sailing from there.

[MachineMan]

sctele, Do you think I could use the ATI tv wonder card just as a hardware input and capture with other softwares like Ulead video Studio? Does the card have internal encodeing or does your CPU do the work? I just need it for the input and I want my current software and CPU to do the capture and encoding. Im not sure if this is possible to do with any card?

[xxiangg]

I bought Hauppauge WinTV-GO TV card from CompUSA a few months ago. It was
$40 with $20 rebate. It captures at 640x480 with its enclosed driver.
I used PicVedio MJPEG for video compression to reduce the size of the
captured file. MPEG2 is done using TEMPGenc after capture.

When I put it on a Celeron 1G computer, the CPU load is about 50% during
capture with about 0.1% drop of frame. But the major problem is that there
are some horizontal interference lines in the captured AVI. I was told
that it is very likely caused by a non-intel chipset of the motherboard.
Then, I switched to a P4 2.4G computer with intel chipset. The CPU load
is less than 10% with less than 10 dropped frames in 2hour+ capture. The
result is sharp and clean.

One thing you may want to know is what is the capture chip used in the
card. Most older cards use BT8xx chip. The newer cards may use Fusion chip.
Both are made by the same company. But some of the BT8xx based cards will
only capture at 320x240 with its enclosed driver. There is a 3rd party
driver available on web, which will let you capture at 720x480. My card
has Fusion chip. The enclosed driver captures at 640x480. But I can not
find any new driver from web to further increase its resolution.

In addition, in order to capture with good result, the TV signal must be
very good. Most TV-tuner card are very sensitive to the quality of the
signal. The result will not be good if the input signal is not good enough.

[MgPainter]

I have a Leadtek WinFast TV2000/XP PCI capture card with S-video, CATV and tuner jacks. Cost about $75. Running it on a P4 1.8A. In MPEG2 format I cannot capture above 320x240 without getting lines in the video track and distortion in the sound MPEG1 captures seem to work OK, but that's not really what format I want to capture in. Can't get it to capture in avi format either without noise. It might be that I don't have enough horsepower in that computer, so I should try it in my other machine which is a P4 2.6.

One nice feature about the supplied software is that I can program it to capture a TV signal on any given channel at any time, so I have it set to capture certain shows while I'm at work. The software can be a little tricky to program and at times it doesn't seem to capture on the day and time that I programmed, but most of the time it does work.

Overall it's not really doing what I hoped it would do, but maybe there is a problem with the computer. I also have an ADS Instant DVD USB capture box. I can capture at much higher resolution, but I get a bar of noise at the bottom of all frames. So at the moment I'm not really satisfied with either capture device ...guess you can say I'm still looking.

[MachineMan]

I want to capture VHS as well as TV and encode to DVD. Maybe captureing at high resolution is worthless anyway becuase of the source quality. The cards described above seem like they can capture to VCD quality (352x240 <1.5Mbit/sec) which I think is close to VHS. Is this right? Then do I convert to DVD using TMPGenc?

[gmatov]

I use a MSI TV@nywhere, which, on the website said would cap in MPEG1, 2 and 4, but wouldn't do 4 till I DL'd and installed the latest drivers, patches, etc.
I just brought it up to check formats, and it will cap from DVD, MPEG 2, 6400kbps video plus audio, down to MPEG 4, 264 kbps total. How good that is, I haven't tried yet.
Tuner, remote control, WinDVR, S-video, RCA, Cable "F" connector, audio in-out, and it's PCI, for less than 50 bucks, at the show a few months ago.
It's based on a Conexant CX23881 decoder, with a silicon tuner.
Time shifting, commercial skip, scheduled recording, 2 NTSC, 6 PAL formats, etc. Too much to describe.
Check it out at www.msi.com.tw. You might make more of that than I can explain. Hell, I haven't even gotten it to cap with audio, yet, but a post elsewhere said someone should try a separate audio in. Gotta try that.
Cheaper than my Pinnacle PCTV was, and better video cap, so far. Now if only I can get that audio thing working.....

[MachineMan]

This MSI card sounds good and you say for <$50. Can you capture Mpeg2 at 720x480? How do you get Composite In/Out, does it come with a S-Video to Composite cable?

[gmatov]

No, there are 3 separate video inputs. C, S and CableTV (F connector).
Yes, NTSCDVD, 720X480, 6400kbps. 1/2DVD, 352X480, 3600kbps, 1/4DVD, 352X240, 1800kbps, VCD, SVCD, PCMPEG, 1/4PCMPEG, 1/2DVD Hi-Q, 352X480, 7500kbps, and MPEG 4.
When checking thru these settings, the capacity of the 30 gig remaining on my cap drive is from 8 1/2 hours, 1/2 DVDHi-Q, to over 250 hours at MPEG4. MPEG4 is not very good, with the history channel stuff I tried it on, but what can you expect at 224kbps?
I had mentioned NTSC and all the PALs, but it also takes a SECAM input, whatever that is, from B to L1.
I think it's better than the Pinnacle PCTV, Hauppage WinTV, Maxronn I had tried before, and setup was much easier with the included software, MSIPVS.
I'd like to see what an ATI card does to compare its performance with it.

[gilhoy]

I have an ATI tv wonder VE.

Upsides: cost (around 40 bucks), tv tuner, has composite in and catv in, and pci slot.

downsides: It's best quality recording setting is mpeg 2 640 x 240 at 8 Mbit/sec. You can still customize your recording settings to record at avi at 740 x 240.

The setting limit is only true if you use the software that came with it.
I've been using iuVCR and VirtualVCR and both will capture to AVI at
whatever width/height I desire.

This is a great, cheap card for AVI capture, the only downside being having to download the correct drivers, as stated above.

[macleod]

downsides: It's best quality recording setting is mpeg 2 640 x 240 at 8 Mbit/sec. You can still customize your recording settings to record at avi at 740 x 240.

I just responded to someone else that was talking about the ATI only capping at 240 vertical/horizonal lines. the ATI TV wonder card CAN and WILL cap at 720x480.

There are a few guides and a number of searches that will get you the info needed in order to do that. First off though, throw them ATI drivers out the window. I use powervcrII (for real time caps at up to 720x480, but I always do 352x480 for CVD) and use IUVCR to avi cap at 720x480. My card cost me in the $20 range (the one just above the VE with the svideo connections.

I get some great caps with that card. I am not prepared to spend a lot of money on a card (obviously), but you can make your card do a heck of a lot more than 240 v/h (cant remember which one it is) lines.

[FulciLives]

If you want a high quality Tuner type TV capture card then you should consider the FlyVideo series of cards. These are very popular (at least for TV tuner type cards) in that they use one of the best chipsets resulting in a better looking image (including less interference which is a problem with most cards of this type).

Please note that the FlyVideo cards don't work well with VirtualDub (for an odd reason who knows why?) but there are many other freeware/shareware capturing programs that are just as good that the FlyVideo will work well with.

Just make sure you install the latest drivers from the website ... the included drivers leave a lot to be desired.

Also never try to captue straight to mpeg with TV tuner cards ... they aren't really made for that and will produce poor results. It is best to capture to an AVI type file (HuffyUV or MJPEG codecs are the best) then convert that to mpeg1 or mpeg2 using something like TMPGEnc or CCE.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Here is a LINK to an on-line store that carries the FlyVideo cards:
http://store.yahoo.com/lifeview-usa/pcitvvidcapc.html

Here is the homepage for FlyVideo:
http://www.lifeview.com/

GOOD LUCK

*** EDIT ***
The Flyvideo drivers are WDM drivers and VirtualDub doesn't use that so that is why VirtualDub doesn't work (when capturing) but you can import your already captured video INTO VirtualDub after you are done capturing it. There are several capture utilitiles that DO work well with WDM drivers. Look in the TOOLS section of this website.

[harrymj3]

I use Leadtek Winfast2000Xp Deluxe PVR. It captures to AVI Huffyuv at 720 x 480 or MPEG DVD 720 x 480 @ 6000kbs in a Athlon 1.3gig computer that I bought refurbished and without an OS from Ubid for 315.00. It came with a horseshit memory stick. When that stopped working altogeather I foud the problem and now it works extremely well. Took lots of tweeking but it was worth it. 51.00 at Newegg.com. ...... harrymj3

[harrymj3]

I forgot to mention 3 very important things. Make sure you have huffyuv setup correctly. and if you want to capture from your composite outlets buy and use a Sima Copymaster, about 50.00. Also, if you set your MPEG settings to optimum quality you can copy directly to MPEG with almost AVI Huffy quality. You can send your file (huffy or mpg) to MyDVD put a disc in your drive and when you come home from work you'll have a finished disc waiting for you. ........... harrymj3

[buzz86]

i wanted to get the ASUS TV tuner but after i heard your raves about the flyvideo i was thinking of getting that i just have some questions
would you say that the flyvideo card is better than the ASUS tv tuner?
how is it for capturing @720X480?
which one of these do you own?
does it drop any frames?
how is the video quality?
what tv decoder chip does it use?
could you provide me with a picture of the card and all of its acessories?

[fmctm1sw]

I bought Hauppauge WinTV-GO TV card from CompUSA a few months ago. It was
$40 with $20 rebate. It captures at 640x480

Yep. I cap at 720x480 24 bit color with my wintv FM card. Paid $60 ebay last august. I use the BTwincap driver.....

[FulciLives]

i wanted to get the ASUS TV tuner but after i heard your raves about the flyvideo i was thinking of getting that i just have some questions
would you say that the flyvideo card is better than the ASUS tv tuner?
how is it for capturing @720X480?
which one of these do you own?
does it drop any frames?
how is the video quality?
what tv decoder chip does it use?
could you provide me with a picture of the card and all of its acessories?

Everything you need to know about the FlyVideo TV tuner capture cards is right here:

http://www.fly2000.ru/index_e.html

Good Luck!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[MachineMan]

How do I connect my VCR composite (Audio/Video) outputs to the Fly video card? It looks like it only has an S-Video in. Also can I output composite back to my VCR?

[zaqxsw]

How do I connect my VCR composite (Audio/Video) outputs to the Fly video card? It looks like it only has an S-Video in. Also can I output composite back to my VCR?

I am using flyvideo3000 , there is video input for VCR but no video out on the card.

The card also comes with S-Video in, TV, FM, remote control. All in all excelent card, value for money, ~$30. One thing, trash the software comes with it, get the flytv2000 software from Russia, someone's already mentioned the link somewhere in this thread.

[lordsmurf]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=164172