Help capturing 720x480 (Vdub) and Cap card?

[colt4523]

I will be changing my capture process soon with some new equipment and I came across a capture question.

My system: Winxp; Geforce 5900nu graphics card; 1 gib ram

Capture process: Tv tuner/VCR -->Hauppauge 401 (s-video bt878); VFW drivers--> Vdub--> Huffy

With this setup I can only capture 640x480. I would like to cap or at least have the option to cap at 720x480 since the avi's will be going on dvd's. Is this a driver issue, vdub, or the capture card.

I would also like to throw out into the mix if my hauppauge should be upgraded . I prefer to capture to avi and will most likely be getting a standalone recorder eventually, so I do not technically need to capture to mpeg2. However, I would not mind being able to choose avi or mpeg2. I love flexibility! Is my Hauppauge outdated (chipset)? Any suggestions? Brands? Chipsets?

thanks
colt4523

[reboot]

Hauppage PVR-250, 350 or 500 would all work.

[edDV]

"capture to avi"

Canopus ADVC 50 or 55

[The_Doman]

I am using here a PCTV with the BTWINCAP drivers and capturing fulll PAL DVD resolution with the MJPEG codec.
You can always try if the BTWINCAP drivers will work for you.

[colt4523]

I did not expect those Canopus ADVC 50 or 55 cards to be so expensive. I can get a standalone recorder for the same price.

I will give the BTWINCAP drivers a look. Hopefully it will let me cap at 720x480.

Is there any other decent cap software other then vdub. What do the majority of the people here use?

[edDV]

What you get with Canopus ADVC 50/55 is a quality NTSC/PAL decoder to A/D DV stream conversion at very good quality (full DV 720x480, 4:1:1/4:2:0, 48Khz PCM audio, 25-35 Mbps stream) on par with a Sony DV camcorder.

The ADVC-100 also provides the return path with NTSC/PAL encoder.

Brooktree based boards are not in this class.
Ref: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html

[The_Doman]

Virtualdub never worked for me because there were always audio sync problems.
I am now using the excellent AVI_io which has a perfect audio sync.

[LCSHG]

colt4523

You should try the BTWINCAP drivers, but only if has a 8x8 chipset. Make sure first. Whatever drivers you use make sure there for your chipset
You can tell what chipset by the model number.
If your Houppauge card is a BT or Conextant 8x8 (prefer 878a) and you deciede to get did of it, I'd be intrested.

[colt4523]

I finally got around to changing drivers and I was able to capture at 720x480 with the btwincap drivers. The only problem is that I cannot prieview as I capture (i am using vdub) and I get a driver error when I start up vdub, but it still works.