PVR capture

[boots]

I need a little advice on capturing video from a DISH PVR. I have rapidly filled up the unit's hard drive (only allows 100 hours). I like the functionality of the unit, but the 100 hour limit keeps me from archiving everything I would like to keep. The PVR has both S-video and composite outputs (and I assume that I would get better results with S-video over composite?). I am looking for a capture card (PCI or PCI-E) that would allow me to dump the programs I have recorded onto a hard drive. I may even build a new computer from scratch for this very purpose. Please help decide on which card to purchase, the best software, and please advise on the best format in which to save the results. I don't really need a tuner, as I use the DISH receiver and have no desire to watch TV on my computer. Thanks for the advice

[edDV]

I need a little advice on capturing video from a DISH PVR. I have rapidly filled up the unit's hard drive (only allows 100 hours). I like the functionality of the unit, but the 100 hour limit keeps me from archiving everything I would like to keep. The PVR has both S-video and composite outputs (and I assume that I would get better results with S-video over composite?). I am looking for a capture card (PCI or PCI-E) that would allow me to dump the programs I have recorded onto a hard drive. I may even build a new computer from scratch for this very purpose. Please help decide on which card to purchase, the best software, and please advise on the best format in which to save the results. I don't really need a tuner, as I use the DISH receiver and have no desire to watch TV on my computer. Thanks for the advice

I can tell you what works best for me although from S-Video on a Motorola DCT 6xxx series HD cable box.

I've tried:
1. Standard Video card to uncompressed HuffYUV
2. ATI All-in-Wonder
3. Recent Hauppauge HDR-1600 (similar to PVR 150/250/350/500)
4. Canopus ADVC-100 (owned 3 years)

The #1 solution can get a quality result but is very demanding on the machine and CPU. I can't see doing this in any volume.

Nothing seems to touch the Canopus ADVC for quality SD and SD letterbox HD capture intended for 480i DVD. Connect S-Video and output SD or HD channels. Use WinDV or other to cap to 480i DV-AVI. It works on slow or fast desktop PCs. CPU load is low. You will still need to encode to MPeg2 for DVD. HD will be reduced to DVD spec.

If your Dish box has IEEE-1394 digital out for locals, that is an option to cap full HD.

The #3 option is viable as well and yields DVD author ready files saving time but with quality compromise vs #4.

[boots]

Thanks. I noticed that Canopus now has an upgraded version of the ADVC-100 , the ADVC110, although I found the ADVC-100 on ebay for a lot less. I don't plan on burning anything to DVD, as I already have a stand alone Panasonic DVD recorder and have accumulated over 200 DVD's, thus my desire to have it all on one or more hard drives. I do like the fact that whenever I record everything onto the DISH PVR, I am able to see the title of the program, the program's description, and the year it was released. I was also wondering if there is a sofware program that will do the same or similar, rather than just having the name of the recording in a simple window on my hard drive. I think that something like SageTV does it, but I don't plan or recording OTA or with cable. One more question: is the ADVC-100 better than a plug in PCI card as from Hauppauge? Thanks again.