Capture Cards

[xxxjojoxxx]

Hello, I want to make a purchase for a capture device, but Im not sure which one to go with.
Hauppauge wintv 250 or Canopus ADVC50.
I want to be able to capture tv signal (which i know the win250 does, but also be able to capture from vhs & convert to digital (which the Canopus does.) Can the ADVC50 capture the tv signal as well?
(I do have a video out on my cable box).. i dont see why not right?
Thanks in advance.

[Cole]

The ADVC-50 can not receive a TV signal itself. To capture any TV through this, you would need to connect something like a VCR or a Digital Reciever (or indeed your cable box AFAIK), which is what I have done.

[xxxjojoxxx]

Hi Cole, thanks for responding.. I checked out your video set up & it seems to be exact in what i want to do. Just to clear one thing up.. I now know the advc-50 cannot receive a tv signal itself as I would just use the video out from my cable box. This will then work, right? Then i would just decide on which capture prog I would want to use (or what works with this card).

[Cole]

You're welcome jojo

I don't have cable TV, but logically, if you can send its signal to a television, then you can send its signal to an ADVC-50.

What type of video out is it on your cable box?

The program that I like using the most is WinDV, but be aware of the configuration - set the Max AVI size to 1000000, otherwise you may get chunks of video instead of one long one.

Also be aware that one hour of video captured with the ADVC-50 takes up about 13GB and you have to have a firewire port on your PC to plug the ADVC-50 into.

One thing to point out with the ADVC-50 is that it sometimes does not respond (or sometimes referred to as the black screen bug) - there are easy wasy around this, but I would advise that you have a look through the capture card section for the ADVC-50 here:
https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCardRead=150#comments

Apart from this slight inconvenience, I have been very happy with the quality of the captures.

[xxxjojoxxx]

I've read through the comments & the majority are very happy with the end result. My cable box has rca style outputs. (which will plug right into the Canopus interface) I'll spend the extra money instead of getting the Hauppaugue card. (i would prefer firewire anyhow).

[pippas]

Wise choice, IMHO. -- mind you, as I use the ADVC50 myself, my opinion may be a bit biased!!

[reboot]

As an owner of 3 Hauppauge cards, a BT878 card, and now a Canopus ADVC-110, I'll use the ADVC for all my VHS stuff, but stick with the Hauppauge card(s) for quick TV captures.

[aaronrus]

Hello, I want to make a purchase for a capture device, but Im not sure which one to go with.
Hauppauge wintv 250 or Canopus ADVC50.
I want to be able to capture tv signal (which i know the win250 does, but also be able to capture from vhs & convert to digital (which the Canopus does.) Can the ADVC50 capture the tv signal as well?
(I do have a video out on my cable box).. i dont see why not right?
Thanks in advance.

go with the new sapphire theatrix

go to www.newegg.com and you can pick it up for $75.00

it has the new 550 pro theater chip from ati, and it willhandle tv capture as well..supposed to be top quality

[SatStorm]

Hauppauge winTV PVR 150/250 is for fast and dirty captures, direct to mpeg 2.

Canopus is the best (PAL) or among the best (NTSC) solutions for VHS to DVD convertions.

PVR250 is easy to use: It even has a remote and you can use it like a standalone units (almost).
Canopus is for "studio" like projects.

It's all about what you need and what you wish to do.

[fmctm1sw]

I recently bought an ADVC-50 off ebay. I plan on head to head comparisons with my BT848 cap card. AS mentioned, look through the ADVC comments. I believe the ADVC-50/55/100/110 all use the same
A->D conversion algorithm...