AverTV Studio Capture Questions

[moorthy]

First off, I must say arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! This capture thing sure is frustrating.

My goal is to capture the best quality AVIs from my satellite dish, which is inputted into my Aver card via the S-Video cable. I'd then like to create quality DVDs. (After encoding in MPEG2 with TMPGenc)

On the fly encoding has been a big disappointment so far, so I'd like to start off with a hi-res avi.

My Aver software will only capture to MPEG 1 or 2, so that option (for getting the AVI) doesn't work.

Virtualdub is recommended, but alas, I don't have VFW drivers. Can I get them for XP? I can't find anything on the Aver site.

I've tried other software, but continually run into problems. I want to use the S-video connection, but with some programs I don't see the video source (satellite) on my monitor. It usually shows up very distorted and greenish.

Please help........I'm pulling my hair out.

I do have a DV camcorder. Is that my best option for A/D conversion?

Why is it that in this day and age, that we can get PVRs that produce excellent results on the fly, but I'm struggling to even come close with my brand new computer?

Thanks in advance.

[FOO]

Looks to me like the capture card lacks something if
it can't capture AVI with a user supplied codec.

[moorthy]

Yes, that's why I'm asking for help.