I've been fiddeling around with my WinTV PCI/ BT878 for quite a while, and I know it's NOT possible with this card to capture FULL PAL RESOLUTION (768*576), but it IS POSSIBLE with letterboxed movies without any combing effects! The capture chip is the issue here - when the data rate gets too high, it seems to lose frames, which leads to putting the wrong half-images together (also called interlacing artefacts).
NOW - let's say I'd invest 250,- € in the WinTV PVR ... but then this card is using an 'advanced' version of the BT878 (BT878 fusion)... Does anybody have this card - or anything like it - and what's the quality like?

Well, VHS is about to die, so there should be some digital replacement to my the VCR that's really working, even on the PC (you won't notice the interlace problem if you view the image only via TV, I've read) - no dropped frames due to the capture chip. What about external digital recorders? I don't know anyone who has one, and it's hard to tell what they're really worth without serious testing (the Nickles 'geeks' (www.nickles.de) will tell that 384*284 pixels is enough - haha!).

I'd like to know your opinion.