which to buy, ATI AIW, Hauppage 250, or another VCR

[tito13kfm]

I am wanting to do real-time mpeg2 captures of VHS tapes to my computer. I already have a JVC HM-DH30000U DVHS player with TBC, 3DNR and realtime MPEG2 encoding capabilities. The only problem is, you have to have a DVHS tape loaded i the machine for it to do the realtime encodes, so obviously I can't play the tape and have a DVHS tape in at the same time.

Should I, buy another VCR to pass the signal through to the DVHS and then iLink to the pc to capture the encoded MPEG transport stream?

If another vcr, would a simple 4-head vcr with s-video out be sufficient considering that my current DVHS vcr has TBC and DNR already on it? Or would I be losing something in the process?

Should I just buy a capture card with mpeg2 encoding capabilities built in to it? If so, for the money, would you reccommend a hauppage WinTV PVR-250, or an ATI All In Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro (doing this I would need to switch video cards when playing certain games because it's not as powerful as the nvidia I have in there now).

Or should I continue to use my current capture card (crappy BT chipset) and buy mainconcept encoder for realtime captures.

Lordsmurf, what are your thoughts on this (I can almost hear your answer now, GET THE ATI!!)

[ronnylov]

I would start with downloading the demo of mainconcept encoder and try a realtime capture with your current capture card, and if it works well buy the mainconcept encoder. The mainconcept encoder is great anyways, better quality than TMPGEnc in my opinion.

[Will Hay]

I'm an old ATI user and loved the card.
I now have a ADVC-100 and just this week tried the MPEG2 MC1.4 and the results so far are superb.
Will

[indolikaa]

I have the ATI AIW 9000 Pro. So far I haven't found anything about it that pisses me off. Not a bad card at all.

[lordsmurf]

Either get the 2nd VCR (but make it a good one, in the JVC S-VHS line) ... or go for an ATI AIW card and swap primary display in the BIOS as needed.

ATI AIW option is probably easier AND cheaper in this case.

I like the Hauppauge too, but not over ATI. The BT chip card is not even an option - too many quirks on them, not worth the trouble.

[tito13kfm]

or go for an ATI AIW card and swap primary display in the BIOS as needed.

if only I had 2 agp ports.. I can't find a PCI version of the AIW card in my area.. I guess i could always buy online..

[tito13kfm]

Thank you to everybody who has posted replies. I have downloaded a trial version of mainconcept and I am absolutely floored by the results. I can capture MPEG2 in realtime with 1 pass VBR and i'm only using 40% processor time. Obviously I haven't had a good chance to test it out as i've only had it for about an hour, but from what I have seen it is giving me quality that is on par with capturing HuffyUV and encoding with TMPGEnc. At first I thought it was a bit lacking in the options department, until I saw all of the things hidden on the rightside of the screen in advanced options. Now to just import my favorite Quantization matrix and I'll be all set.

I should probably still eventually get an ATI as my capture card always captures some blank pixels on the left side of the capture, but since I am only watching these on a SDTV then the overscan should take care of that anyways.