hi and recommendations please

[twolf]

I have been all around reading about capture for 3 wks now, and now am lost more than ever..wanted the dv500+, then the rt2500, then the dvnow.av, then the dazzle II, then the dv storm and so on..all have good points and all a bad point or two.

But can you guys recommend something that will give good quality video, proper synching and so forth? All I want is to transfer vhs videos to the computer to burn on dvd. I will purchase a minidv camcorder next year. But for now, I need a good capture card/hardware to put vhs onto dvd. With as good of quality from the vhs as the vhs is(not looking like 2nd gen vhs), audio synching properly and so on, even for longer than one hour capturing..

I have heard the dazzle II quality is not the best, the DC1000 has audion synching problems, the rt2500 is picky, the dvstorm has crisper pic than the rt2500(too expensive), the dv500+ is less picky than the rt2500, but does not capture directly to mpeg2, therefore takes a long time in rendering..and so on...Can anyone advise me on what I need to fulfill my needs concerning this and provide first hand experience with any product that may be a solution and how it performs? I am looking at both the capture to mpeg2 and other capture that will have to be rednered..thanks so much..t

My system is as follows...soyo dragonplus socket A mb kt266a, 1800+amd xp processor, 768 megs ddr pc2100 ram, 450w enermax powersupply, asus v7100 64meg ram pure mx400, 2 80 gig maxtor d740x hdd(tho they are ata133, can only use ata100 with this mb), 1 18gig ultra160 scsi hdd, with controller card, adaptec 4300 firewire card, soundblaster live( if it will work with the board, otherwise onboard sound), 52x cdrom, 56k modem, and the forthcoming philips dvd+rw dvd drive.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: twolf on 2001-11-03 23:01:51 ]</font>

[twolf]

bump*

[Bigpoppad]

Twolf: I am in much the same predicament as you. I have been doing some considerable research into the same cards, including the ATI All in wonder Radeon(one that you didn't include). I would appreciate it if someone would help Twolf and myself out by posting some recommended video capture cards. I noticed that the "Capture Cards" section of the website has been shut down, so this is the only place to turn. Thank you all for your help, this is really one of the best information websites out there!

[mikewg]

I'd recommend the ATI 128, but that's all I know. I got it and I've not had any major problems with it. My soundcard sucked, so I got a new one... and I like the quality of the MPEG files it captures (but not MPEG2 because the audio drifts)... personally, I capture with VirtualDub and then convert over night with TMPGEnc... but that's personal preference.

[VidGuy]

I'm using the Dazzle DVC II without problem (although I have to boot into WinME to use it - it doesn't work properly for me under WinXP).

Now, be aware, I use it to capture at 8.2-10 MBps, then downsample using CCE to SVCD and I get excellent quality - the quality capturing straight to SVCD or VCD is not bad, but I'm a perfectionist.

MPeg2VCD 3.11 will edit the MPegs handily (easier to deal with than MovieStar 4.23, which I find to be cumbersome and slow).

At any rate, for $229 on the web, I thought it was a screaming deal to get realtime MPeg2 capturing (and for DVD [coming soon to my computer], it should be a slam dunk.

I've also heard of people tweaking the SVCD template up to 4500 kbps and getting excellent results (the VBR that Dazzle does tends to be very conservative).

I've never had a sync issue with it using MPeg2VCR or MovieStar to edit.