Video capture on laptop - options

[luftphoto]

Hi all! I've searched here but haven't found this question addressed. I have a need to do video display and still-frame capture on a laptop. I'm looking at new laptops too so I'm exploring all my options. I've found a few machines that offer ATI Radeon 9700 based video with TV-Tuner and Video-IN directly on the machine, just plug the raw-video in and go.

My application for the laptop is not to do video editing or create DVDs from camcorders or TV programming. I will be running live-video through the computer and grabbing still frames, similar to a webcam. I have one fairly critical demand of the equipment: there cannot be any significant delay between the video signal coming from the camera and when its displayed. The older USB1-based "video cable" setups are ok (their resolution and quality obviously aren't great) but have an unacceptable delay. The delay-issue is one that probably isn't that critical when dumping video from a tape, etc, so probably isn't much talked about.

QUESTION: Can anyone comment on how well the direct video-in cards on these new laptops work, particularly addressing the "delay" issue I've outlined? For that matter I've not ruled out the newer USB2.0 external boxes that people have had luck with, can anyone comment on that "delay" factor with those?

PS: I have a desktop machine with an ATI 9800pro All-In-Wonder card that fits my demands almost perfectly, I just need a completely portable version of it - or eventually build a small PC around that card, but I'm trying to avoid that.

Thanks!

[deckard8]

Current notebooks can handle video capture quite easily, graphics isn't the problem - main thing to look out for though is the spin speed/access time of the hard disk. Most notebook drives are rather slow in comparison to desktop ones - 4200rpm as opposed to 7200rpm. This is where a notebook with fall down - You will get a lot of dropped frames when capturing with a slow drive. If you can find a notebook when a 7200 rpm drive you'll be laughing, otherwise you may have to get an external usb2 one instead.

[deckard8]

Oops sorry! - disregard what I just said - I didn't read your post correctly. I didn't see the 'still frame' bit.

[luftphoto]

OK... but are the built-in video options or the external USB2 devices "delay free" or is there a slight delay (noticeable enough that if you pan with a camera you can see a noticeable delay)?

The final quality of the video is very good with a good number of the external USB2/firewire devices out there (I've read up on those), but the final on-disk quality isn't really the problem