tv cards

[pogotc]

i'm want to buy a tv card so i can transfer some video on a camcorder onto my comp so i can put it onto dvd and was wondering if someone could recommend a good one that doesn't cost to much (ideally less than £70).
Also from what i've read it seems that the USB ones produce a poorer picture quality when you watch TV on it, does the same thing still happen when you capture video from a camcorder.

thanks for any suggestions.

[steveryan]

I'm presuming that your camcorder is analogue, so.... For £70 you won't get better than a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250, it's not perfect but for the money it's hard to beat. The Hauppauge is a hardware MPEG only card so you can capture directly to MPEG, i.e no converting. I think the 250 has been discontinued but you can pick one up on Ebay, one was sold a few minutes ago for £46 incl p&p.

[pogotc]

will this one work as well

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hauppauge-HP-WinTV-PVR-250-MCE-TV-Radio-not-PVR-150_W0QQitemZ523...QQcmdZViewItem


it says is the 250 MCE but i'm guessing i can still connect it to my camcorder ??

[steveryan]

If your camcorder has an S-Video and audio outputs then it will be fine. I've never used the MCE version of the card so I don't know how they compare to the version I have. Best person to ask on here is SHS, he's the Hauppauge expert. His website - http://www.shspvr.com

[pogotc]

thanks for the help, i've checked and i'm pretty sure it does have S-video and audio outputs. There are two sockets, one is yellow with a V next to it and the other is white with an A next to it so i'm guessing thats them.

[steveryan]

The yellow one is usually composite video and the white is audio. Does your camcorder have one of these connectors? http://www.coloredhome.com/video/S-video.JPG

The Hauppauge card in the Ebay auction does not have composite in so you will need to have s-video on your camcorder or get a 250 with composite in.

[pogotc]

oh in that case it doesn't have an S-Video connector (it's quite old so i'm not surprised). Do you know any cards that will work with the composite connectors or can i just get an adapter so it will work.

[winifreid]

What do you want to do with the video after you capture it? If you plan on adding transitions and titles, you may want to capture to avi. If so, don't get the Haupage since it only captures to mpeg. I got a Leadtek expert and it cpatures great in both mpeg and avi. And it is cheap.

[pogotc]

does the Leadtek one work with composite connectors ??

[winifreid]

Yes.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122180

[pogotc]

thanks for the recommendation