Opinions on capture cards/tv tuners...

[dvdguy24]

Recently, I purchased a Canopus ADVC - 110 from the apple store so that I could quickly capture video from my vcr to my new iMac G5 - hooked it up and since it doesn't require software - it was the easiest thing ever to hook up. I have recently captured vhs directly into iMovie - but from what I understand, the iMovie capture feature is designed almost especially for DV capture - but either way, it works. The picture doesn't look that great while capturing though - it looks better when burned to DVD - I realize you can only get the same quality that the VHS has - you can't make it better. My first question is, is there better card out there that will allow me to capture in iMovie with a better picture during the capture process? I was/am looking for a tv tuner - similar to what I had on my pc - I saw eyetv - which looked good, although it doesn't allow me to capture from my vcr - which isn't what i'm looking for - I want one that does both TV (and has similar tivo like functions) and captures from a VCR. Now again, what is the highest quality picture one can get out of their computer while watching tv? is it just OK?

If recording from TV - what is the best output - Mpeg1? On a MAC would it be a .dv or .mov for Quicktime? - I'd like something to work well with iMovie because I don't think i'll be upgrading software anytime soon.

I want to get back into the stuff that I was doing when I had my PC - I miss capturing from tv and burning them to dvd.

thanks for the suggestions - i'm continuing to read reviews and messages but have yet to decide on which product to purchase.

[lordsmurf]

Canopus is DV capture.

You can make VHS quality better, if you filter it with a good VCR, TBC, and some video processors. The only thing you really cannot do is raise the resolution by too much.

Matrox makes good Mac capture cards, but better have some dough for it, they are not cheap. Although I have seen some on eBay go for a rather good price. Not a whole lot of Mac cards out there, but they exist. I forget the brands/models offhand.

[miksu]

Miglia (www.miglia.com) has gained reputation as high quality capture solution. Their Director's Cut-series would be suitable for you, since it's external (FW) box. For tower-models they have Alchemy card (with tuner).

Edit: It's their Evolution TV, that has tuner and external capture connectors (S-video, composite, audio). Director's Cut is without tuner (but it does SCART for component input/output).

Evolution TV has also built-in MPEG-1/2 and DivX codecs. So no tax on on CPU. It's USB 2.0 thing, not FW, but one can propably live with that.

Then there is Formac StudioDV, which is also external capture box. It's earlier versions (few year ago) used to be not-so-great.

Those are the best known, and propably most affordable. Most capture cards for Mac are pro-quality, and expensive. And you have iMac, so they aren't option really.

[edDV]

You have all you really need. If you get your TV from cable, just rent the DVR from the cable company and then only transfer to iMovie those programs you want to save to DVD.

With the ADVC-110 this would bring the program over in DV format which could then be edited, encoded and authored with your current software.

I go one step futher with my ADVC-100 to my PC. I encode the realtime DV stream to DVD MPeg2 in realtime using a software MPeg2 encoder. That takes a faster than average computer.

If you aren't going the cable DVR route and want to tune OTA analog, then an external tuner that realtime encodes MPeg2 in hardware is a good way to go.

Some that work with MAC.

http://www.hauppauge.com/pdfs/mytvpvr.pdf
http://www.plextor.com/english/news/press/PX-TV402UMacMPEG4_pr.htm
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/evolutiontv-pvr-for-mac-reviewed-verdict-loo...ght-141268.php

[dvdguy24]

Thanks for the suggestions - i'm looking into everything now -

one last thing - anyone know how EyeTV reacts to macrovision? I know some tv tuners completely ignore it - I have a couple of commercial tapes i'd like to transfer, since they are unavailable on dvd at this time - and probably never will be.

[miksu]

Sources at Slashdot claim that EyeTV ignores Macrovision Nice feature!

[Makmic]

The Canopus ADVC 110 can be put in "ignore macrovision" mode by a button combination. Look at the ADVC 100 comments in the capture card section.

By the way, i personally find the ADVC 1X0 DV conversions better than the Miglia one.

[dvdguy24]

Well, I did it - I went to the Apple store last night and bought eye TV - it's really nice - and it was the best price for something a little more advanced. Miksu - that source is correct - it does ignore macrovision - which is a nice feature - because sometimes you just need to copy a purchased vhs that isn't available on dvd to preserve it.

One issue I have with eyeTV is when record a show, it isn't really a "quicktime" movie yet - so the only way to watch it is to play it through eyetv - UNTIL you export it to a different format - not a huge issue - it exports fast. Works well with my iMovie/iDVD software. Another issue is that *and this same thing happend with the Canopus* when I watch TV - it looks fine - when I record, in highest quality (or any quality), I get a 1 inch black line down the left side of the video - it's not there if i'm just watching tv - but it's there in the recorded clip. Also, when I capture vhs - it has this small - very small line at the bottom - not a big deal though, because when you burn it - it doesn't show - and from what I understand/understood from my previous experience with capture cards, this line is normal. So, it's not a huge deal - not even concerned about it.

The TV line that shows on the recording doesn't show MUCH on the finished burned dvd - but does anyone know what that might be ? I never experienced anything like that with recording TV - just VHS.

thanks!