Quality: PC vs Standalone DVD Recorder?

[Desk]

After a bad experience with a Philips standalone DVD recorder I'm toying with the idea of building a PC that can do the job instead.

When recording from Sky Digital with the Philips in top quality mode the results were virtually indistinguishable from the source.

I guess what I'm wondering is if a capture card on a PC could get a similar result, and whether encoding software like TMPEG can match Philips' on-the-fly system?

It would be handy if the PC could double as a decent games machine so I've been eyeing the Leadtek GeForce4 Ti 4200 with MyVIVO graphics card...

http://www.leadtek.com.tw/www/Web_Leadtek/vga/A250_letd_myvivo.asp

but my primary aim is to at match the performance of a standalone DVD recorder at a reasonably comparable cost.

Many, many thanks,

Desk

[Jester700]

TMPGEnc will outdo the Philips in quality, but will take much longer. You'll capture in realtime, THEN encode in greater than realtime (depending on CPU), THEN author & burn. It'll end up maybe 5x realtime or more, but the quality and flexibility will be unbeatable.

[Desk]

TMPGEnc will outdo the Philips in quality.

But doesn't the quality of the capture card determine just how good an image you get in the first place, before running it through TMPEG?

I've heard warnings that you need cards costing up to $1,000 before you can match the performance of a standalone DVD recorder.

Anyone know if this is true?

Desk

[ItsMe]

I am currently using the VMagic TV Plus (+/- $400) for recording straight from cable to MPEG. I get more or less the same quality as the source when using 6000min and 8000 max VBR.

One system I am currently considering is the Shuttle SB51G barebone. The idea being to transfer my VMagic card and DVD burner into the Shuttle.

See: http://www.shuttle.com/new/product/barebone/specs_b.asp?B_id=8

The problem is that it is almost impossible to use Windows when using a TV as a monitor, most modern software requires a resolution of at least 800x600 which a TV cannot really handle. One solution to this, would be to use remote desktop sharing to use my desktop PC as a 'remote control' for the Shuttle.

[Jester700]

TMPGEnc will outdo the Philips in quality.

But doesn't the quality of the capture card determine just how good an image you get in the first place, before running it through TMPEG?

I've heard warnings that you need cards costing up to $1,000 before you can match the performance of a standalone DVD recorder.

Anyone know if this is true?

Desk

Whoops. My bad - I was assuming a DV AVI source, in which case I stand by my statements. If you're capping with an analog card, yes, the card matters a lot. But the capping chips in the hardware recorders aren't kilobuck chips - the whole machine is less than that! I think some of the last generation of them used the stream machine chip. Since the iTVC15 beats that one pretty handily, the <$200 Hauppauge card using it (and similar models) should outdo such machines. I can't imagine even the newest <$1000 hardware recorder using better than this chip.