Looking to buy video card, suggestions?

[oOGoldenSunOo]

Hi, I am pretty new to digital video, and I've never captured before I was wondering if any of you can suggest a capture card that makes it pretty easy to convert my VHS tapes to dvd format to burn? I'm looking for something thats pretty easy to use. I've also heard that USB captures is really bad? what about that pinnacle movie usb one, I've read some good reviews for that. However, if you do not suggest usb, which I've read was bad, what do you suggest? Thanks!

[andkiich]

I like the ATI All-In-Wonder card myself. Either the 7500 or the 8500 should serve you well and neither is really expensive.

[Piccoro]

Or the ATI AIW 9000 pro.
Or if you have a firewire port, buy a Canopus ADVC100/50.
The ATI All-In-Wonder is a good bet though. They do sell a separate pci AllinWonder card but im not sure how that is compared to the ones on the agp video cards.
Just dont get a PCI AIW video card. You want a AGP if you are buying a videocard.

[TBoneit]

Before you buy AGP or PCI card, check your motherboard and be sure you have a AGP Slot (usually Brown) and PCI Slots are usually white and just for completeness the old ISA Slots were usually black unless EISA Then could be white.

If you have usb 2.0 then the usb solution could be better if you are one of the people that do not want to open the computer.

Good Luck
Roger

P.S. FWIW I use the Canopus ADVC - 100 and have theATI AIW 7500 and the canopus produces better results. YMMV

[spiderman2k1]

ATI is good but there are bug's in all capture card's. ATI AIW is very good for backing but old VHS tape's with out sound problem's but some NTSC tape's ATI AIW does not display right. The only fix' is a World wide vcd you have you out put in pal to fix and capture as pal. Dazzle 2 is better them ATI AIW for sound and picture very good for Satellite dish not goood for backing up old VHS tape's. If I was you get a AIW you can get a radeon for $50.00 dollars AIW if your are gamer get the 7500 or 8500. Then get a Dazzle 2. I love having two capture card some thing Dazzle 2 is better at some thing ATI AIW is better at. Also is you back up old tape's get a Sime copy master. One last thing if you want a Dazzle 2 go to www.dazzlegeek.com to see if it work's with your mother board. You can get a Dazzle 2 at http://www.shopharmony.com/ AIT AIW at www.pricewatch.com also Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 and Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350are said to be very good but I never use one. Keep in mond all capture card's are tad but buggy

[txpharoah]

ATI All In Wonder RADEON.

I've never had any problems with the card. Backed up thousands for videe tapes and recorded hundereds of hours from tv, no problems in sight.

Some of the driver updates have been a pain to install, but you only do that once a year maybe (only needed if something isn't working correctly or when ATI releases better capture software).

You can grab 7x00 cards for $75-125 and newest 9x00 card for $200-300 or so. I have a 7200 AGP and a 7500 AGP. Both work well.

[oOGoldenSunOo]

wow thanks for the replies so it seems like i should get the all in wonder cards...is this easy to put in my computer? like what other cables do I need? and can I use any vcr I have lying around the house? thanks

[txpharoah]

wow thanks for the replies so it seems like i should get the all in wonder cards...is this easy to put in my computer? like what other cables do I need? and can I use any vcr I have lying around the house? thanks

Easy? Should be.
Any VCR? Sure.

[Rich927]

Pinnacle offers two analog capture packages. Pinnacle LINX USB uses USB port to capture from A/V and SVideo. Captures up to 320X280 resolution. Comes with Studio 8 SE software. Cost $69.00. Pinnacle Studio AV. Captures using PCI card you have to install. Captures up to 640X480 resolution. Comes with Studio 8 full edition software. Cost $99.00. Both do a good job. One feature of the Studio software I like is, while during capture, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, sharpness, hue and color saturation of the incoming video on the fly. Lots of products out there to choose from.

[andkiich]

The ATI cards should have everything in them that you will need for the PC and to connect an external source to it.

[txpharoah]

The nice thing about the ATI is that is can adjust gamma, not just hue, brightness, color, saturation, etc.

[holistic]

As stated earlier the ADVC-50 may be a better soulution for you since you appear to be a video virgin.

http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-50/pm_advc-50.asp
http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-50/pt_advc-50.asp

Simplicity - Plug VHS source in - 'capture' in DV codec - edit - ReEncode into Mpeg2 for DVD.
The ADVC dosen't appear to come packaged but for the budget minded , VirtualDub / TMPGEnc combo will do the job OR for a fist full of dollars Adobe's Premiere 6.5 comes with a decent mpeg2 encoder.

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