Which is Better?

[BillyGoat]

Hi!
I actually did not know what to get for capturing video.

Presently I have a PixelView PlayTV Pro (Rev 9d) capture card but I am very unhappy with the support of Prolink and the card performs very badly.

I am looking at upgrading it to a Pinnacle PCTV (Pro). I just wanted your comments on it.

I capture for VCD (PAL) from TV using PowerVCR II (5000 kpbs. 224 stereo Layer 3 at 640x480) and then use TMPGEnc to re-encode it to VCD PAL.

My main problem with PixelView card is that it performs bad and the software for viewing tv crashes at times. Plus the support at Prolink is BAD. You mail them and they never respond. Their sites have no proper description of drivers...etc.

So please suggest me if this card is any good.

Regards
Billy

[M1dnight]

just my 2cents...

i have a relativly cheap card
hauppage wintv pci-fm [with the raido]

and it has good support.... and has done everything i wanted it to so far,i capture to huffy avi in 480x576 great and bigger to using vdub,[ u do need a fast comp as with every capcard]
i dont really watch tv on my comp but the software is ok, player does what it needs to do n lets ya create groups to sort channels in

comes with a remote to..... witch i think is a plus
its in the same range as that pinnacle card i thinkso................

good luck

[BillyGoat]

Hi!

I read your reply....and i wish I had another option...but the place where I live......sucks........they have only these 2 cards I mentioned. So no chance of me getting another card other than these 2. So please, since beggers can't be choosers, tell me what should I get from amongst these 2.

Billy

[photohap]

The pctv is a good card.. although the software bundled with it is not that good, and the drivers are horrible (you need to get updated ones off the net)... I use my pctv with virtual dub, and ulead video studio 6. I have rarely had a crash.... Running an amd 1.0 gig, with 512 ram, 2-40gig drives, and win98se... I have heard that with win xp there can be some problems with the pctv though....