still capturing

[straliss440]

I have a wintv go card using s-video connection from my digibox and capturing through windvd. After a little help from here my video captures are (IMO) excellent, however stills captures are rubbish. They are very grainy and fairly blurred. I am assuming this is a card problem as according to the specs for this card I shouldn`t be able to cap in full screen DVD but windvd allows me to do this, in stereo as well.
If this is the case then I would like to upgarde my card and reading through here it would appear a PVR setup would be my better option. However as I am running an AMD setup I am reading mixed reviews on the hauppauge cards and AMD chips.
My system is

XPAthlon 2400
1024Mb 2100 DDR
64Mb NVidia graphics
120g 7200 HD

I am open to suggestions.

[thecoalman]

The problem with capturing a still is the fact that the resolution is so small. Even if your taking a a still from where the source is a true 720x480. The cheapest $40 digital camera will produce a higher resolution than that. If you have a decent image editing program try adjusting it in that.

How about an example of your stills.

[straliss440]

I get what your saying about the resolution which is what is swaying me towards it being a card problem more than a source one. Reducing an image down to 50k for posting makes it look rubbish anyway, but now you`ve mentioned small resolution, the stills can be best described as "blown up". If I reduce the size down to 340x288 or less then they look O.K. I am really looking for images around the 640x480 size (depending on aspect ratio of capture). I have photoshop 7 so I`ll try playing around with some images in that.

[thecoalman]

If I reduce the size down to 340x288 or less then they look O.K. .

Read this article http://www.digitalfaq.com/understandsource.htm . Most sources are about that size which is why it looks good. I doubt there's anything wrong with your card

[straliss440]

Thanks for the info. I`ve had a read of the guide which is shedding light on the matter (the U.K needs HDTV ). It also says that windvd is the worst software to use especially at high res, but I`ve got to say results I get from it (video wise) are as good as the source. Maybe this is a contributing factor for still caps. I may give power vcr a go as the guide suggests.
Thanks again, looks like you`ve saved me a few pennies.