Simple card question: Hau WinTV or 5564 Xtasy Everything

[IAmBlakeM]

If this question has been answered before I apologize, I've read about 50 pages worth of back threads and all the reviews on capture cards. I have narrowed it (I think) to the Hauppauge WINTV PCI or Visiontek 5564 Xtasy Cinema Everything. I am building a new box specifically for capture and conversion. It will be an el cheapo motherboard based off the KT266A platform, XP1800+, 512MB DDR, 80gig 7200rpm HD, SB Live! Value, etc.

The only thing I care about is being able to capture uncompressed avi using huffyuv and virtualdub, then converting to VCD with Tmpgenc. I don't care about packaged software or hardware mpeg encoding in the slightest. Quality > Speed. I do care about good drivers and no dropped frames. I will be using this card to cap cable TV, then encode the avi to vcd. Stereo sound is a must as well. Low cost and quality of capture are my top priorities.

If anyone has any opinions on which card will better suit my needs, please voice them. If I've left an obvious card out, please let me know which. If you feel like telling me to **** off and go read more, I'll take that too

[YngwieJM]

Phuk off...Just kidding. I had an Xtasy and was quite happy with it. I capped at 720x480 with V-dub as uncompped .avi with nary a dropped frame. My pc is an MSI mobo (266a), a 1700+, 768 mb ddr ram, etc. so it's pretty similar to yours. CompUSA has the xtasy for $75 or so and I think it's a great bargain!