The search for the best TV-tuner card

[aktayal33]

Hi all,

I am planning to buy a new TV-tuner card. My main aim is to capture Tv programs and make VCDs. Which is the best card for this purpose that gives a descent capture speed at a good quality ?

Thanks,

Anil

[Roginator]

Perhaps not the best, but possibly the cheapest TV card can be found at CompUSA this week. The 12/10/01 newspaper ad (also found at compusa.com in .pdf) has a Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro for $29.99 after several rebates.

See Capture Card list at this site for reviews.

[aktayal33]

I already own a Pinnacle PCTV pro. I was looking for something better than that. And yes I have gone through the Capture cards review on this site but its too confusing. Every card has its own goods and bads.

[vhelp]

aktayal33,

I know its tough reading all those review in the capture section!

Anyways, in short, I have and use (currently) the ATI-TV Wonder.
So far, I have nothing but great captures (IMO) and am sharing
them all with you guys/gals here at my great website (framed)

You can find some general settings I used for each clip nicely
layed out for ya.

Anyways, my setup is:
---------------------
* Windows 98
* ATI Rage Fury Pro (agp) (not used for capturing)
* ATI-TV Wonder (I only like capping at 352x480)
* VFW driver (I used hauppgues version, though not using hauppage card)
* WDM driver (not using, but is listed in avi_io and VD)
* APPs: avi_io and now Virtualdub
* Encoder: TMPGenc 12a
* SVCD or xSVCD cuz I use 352x480

TIP:
----
* try and cap at 352x480 and stick to it. going any higher and it's
really a waist of hd space (I have 30g) You don't really need to
cap at 640x480 or 702x480 or higher. If you cap higher then 352x480,
get ready to encode for 8 or more hours.
My encodes for a 1 hour capture setting is (latest record for me) 3 hour.

My System Specs:
--------------------
* Athlon T-Brd 900mhz w/ pc133 128mb ram
* plus (above) specs

So, based on my experience, the above hold true!
And, if you need to see results of my hard efforts/work,
please fee free to jump on over to my website and have
yourself an nice visit. I worked hard on it, and got framed! he, he....

If you like what you see, share your comments, else keep
looking, and I only hope for the best for ya.
Good luck!


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. . .revised web site

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: vhelp on 2001-12-09 01:57:13 ]</font>