cheapest and best capture card

[jea46f]

With no help from this place, I bought a Dazzle DVC 80 and can't do much with it. I captured using the software it came with, VideoWave 4, but the video only captures about 5 frames per second on my AMD 1.6 Ghz computer. Virtual Dub fails to captures at around 26fps, but without any audio, which I think is rediculous. I can't find any way to fix the settings on it where it captures AUDIO using the capture card's audio in rather than the ******* microphone. Also, the card won't let me capture in any size other than 320 X 240...

I guess I'll just return the card to Circuit City and try out another one. I'll keep doing this over and over until I find ont that works. Wish someone would help me out by suggesting one.

I'm want to capture from VHS with S-Video, but also from a Sharp Hi8 camcorder with RCA jacks (only 1 audio jack). I don't care how it outputs the audio/video, well, preferrably good quality AVI, as long as I can then convert it using TMPGEnc. I want to make NTSC VCDs...

Any sort of help would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to spend up to $200 on the card...

[Trik]

I've tried the Avermedia AverTV Stereo and the I/O Magic PC PVR.
Both capture fine with software mpeg recorders like PowerVCR.
Both have s-video and comp in.
Neither will allow captures above 320x240 in AVI.
I've heard of people getting them to do it but when they desribe how, its a vague description, and I've never been able to reproduce their results....

I have a friend that has win-tv go, he can cap in AVI in any installed codec up to at least 640x480 using the app that came with the card, he hasn't tried virtual dub yet.
This model s mono audio and I don't think it has s-video.

So, I've ordered a win-tv fm.
This model has stereo and s-video and comp in.

I hope this one does what I need, or I'm out of the capture hobby.

[coda304]

I also have tried a small handful of cheap capture cards. So far all my testing has been done using Small dish satellite VIA Monster SVIDEO cable. I set the Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation with Video Essentials DVD (well worth the $50 I paid for it).


AverTV* $80 *- video quality sucks and uses an el-cheapo Din cord that connects to the SVID cable, making it so my high dollar Monster cable gets connected to this thin non-shielded mass marketed piece of junk cable instead of being connected directly to the card.

WinTV* $100 * – Video quality is OK at best. Drops frames capping anything over 352x240 no matter what drivers I use.


Pinnacle DV 500 Plus* $700 *- Video quality is not bad but looks horrible after converting to SVCD/VCD due to compression codec Pinnacle uses for original source. Didn’t drop a single frame capping at 720x480. The card will only cap at one resolution setting (720x480) and is not compatible with VirtualDub, Huffy or MJPEG codec’s you also cannot capture uncompressed AVI, card is limited to ONLY using the crappy Pinnacle codec. DON’T BUY THIS CARD for analog captures; I have heard it’s great for Firewire caps though.


ASUS Ti500 GE-Force 3 Pure 8200 deluxe * $400 * Captures at just about any custom resolution, has great looking video quality until a white scene appears…all white scenes look horribly washed out with very little detail.


Iomagic PVR (re-bagged Pinnacle PVR * $60 *) This card delivers the best video quality I have seen between all the cards I have tried/returned…LOL. It is limited to only capping at 352x240 with the retail drivers but you can overcome this limitation by installing universal BTW drivers. Using the universal drivers allow 720x480 24bit uncompressed caps!!!



These universal drivers work with numerous capture cards and will allow for full res caps.

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/


Good luck

[Trik]

coda304:

How did you get the universal BTW drivers to install in the iomagic and what OS are you using?

I can't get those drivers to install into anything on any os.
Well I did get them to instal once, but nothing would work. No tuner, no sound, no video.
Also how did you get it to cap over 320x240 in AVI using the IOMagic drivers?

[dj360]

I have WinTV Go and I cannot capture in anything but 320x240. I can do 352x240 if I capture with no compression or huffyuv. I would like to capture at higher resolutions so I can have a better quality when watching my ripped movies in full screen mode. I usually capture in huffyuv and my dropped frame rate is excellent. I only drop ONE frame every minute. Way less than 1 tenth of a percent. But when I capture using DivX compression of any kind, I either drop too many frames or the audio/video synchronization goes awry. I like my WinTV GO card and the only thing I would change is the ability to capture at higher resolutions. Trik-----How does your friend capture at higher resolutions with a WinTV GO card?

[Trik]

I have no idea how he does it.

What he told me was that he uses the software that came with it...
He said he's never used anything like virtualdub or AVI_IO

If someone has server space for a 9meg AVI, I'll upload a sample he made for me to check out.
It looks pretty good to me for a cap from a cableTV source

[dj360]

Well, I have the software and it is called AMCap. I am going to try it and I will let you know what happens.

[Trik]

Here's what he said: "WinTV32 is the viewing app that comes with it. It has built in capture ability and will use whatever codecs you have installed."

[SatStorm]

I have wintv primio fm, and I can grabb at any resolution with no frame drops. Realtime DivX and Xvid with a duron 1200, and using some filters the same time. I use virtualdub for grabbing. Picture is excellent. My model has only composite in, which is enough for VHS to (x)SVCD creation or XviD.

I also own Asus 7700 GTS Deluxe. Great card also, no frame drops, works only with asus capture drivers. win98 and virtualdub. On my athlon 1700xp+, I can also grabb XviD realtime. BUT: This card doesn't allow capture at all resolutions. The Picture is good, the white color could be better.

Also I messed up with many pinacle products. Non of them was better my cheap win tv primio fm.

[dj360]

Do I have to uninstall amcap then? Because when I bring up WinTV32 all I can do is capture pics not video.

[Trik]

I have no idea how he captures with WinTV32.
Check their site for an upgraded version or play around with it to see if you can find setting to capture video and not images...

[dj360]

I found out how to do it. I can capture now using DivX ;-) codec and I lose absolutely zero frames. But.........I can only capture 320x240. I wonder how he gets the higher resolution. If you can find out, I would really like to know. Especially since he has the same card as I do. That would be nice for when I capture DVD's. Thanks!

[coda304]

Trik

I am running WinXP with the universal drivers. I first uninstalled the retail drivers that came with the Iomagic then installed the universal one’s. I recall seeing something saying you have to manually select the type of TV tuner you have for the TV input to work properly. I looked on my card and say that I had the Phillips tuner so I manually selected that one and all was well.

I have read that the WinXP drivers are not compatible with high res caps. In this case you should try the retail W2k one’s instead...I have not tried them personally due to the fact that the universal drivers are working flawlessly.

Good luck

[Macros746]

I have to jump in and say the cheapest and best capture card all around has to be the Radeon AIW 7200. They can be found for under $100, the new drivers are stable (the Omega drivers are even better) and, if you don't like the software (although MMC 7.6 is pretty good) you can just use Virtualdub, AVI_IO and WINVCR or whatever you like. The point is, this bad boy can do everything. ANd the MPEG2 captures can be absolutely beautiful if you tweak them right.

Macros

[TheInformer]

dj360:
I have WinTV Go and I cannot capture in anything but 320x240.

The reason for this is because you have overlay mode turned on. Go and change it to preview mode and you'll suddenly be able to capture higher resolutions.

OVERLAY mode is a hardware dependant mode that has a vertical limit of 240 (or 288 in PAL). There is no horizontal limit. You can capture at 640x240 in overlay mode, but not 640x241.

I captured several video clips at 352x480 with the card and had no problem.

A side note: when you capture in preview mode, if you're dropping too many frames then check the option "Hide Video when Capturing" in VDub.

[dj360]

TheInformer:
The reason for this is because you have overlay mode turned on. Go and change it to preview mode and you'll suddenly be able to capture higher resolutions.

OVERLAY mode is a hardware dependant mode that has a vertical limit of 240 (or 288 in PAL). There is no horizontal limit. You can capture at 640x240 in overlay mode, but not 640x241.

I captured several video clips at 352x480 with the card and had no problem.

A side note: when you capture in preview mode, if you're dropping too many frames then check the option "Hide Video when Capturing" in VDub.

This did not work. I turned off the overlay and I still get no higher resolution vertically and even when I hid on capture, frames were dropping like crazy. What settings should I change? Should I be capturing in huffyuv or uncompressed or can I capture straight to DivX format? Thanks!

[N0SoopForU]

dj360,

I think I have a solution to your problem. Seeing as you are running Windows XP Pro (from your profile) you probably have the XP drivers installed which are WDM drivers. VirtualDub has problems capping at higher resolutions using these drivers because it is a VFw (Video For Windows) application. Try installing the Windows 2000 driver (w2kdrv311.exe) and see if that works. I use that same driver on my XP Pro system and it works flawlessly. I can capture at full 720x480 resolution without a single frame drop.

You can find the Windows 2000 drivers here: http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_nt.htm

[dj360]

NOSoopForU:

I will try that and see if it works. I will let you know if that fixes the problem. Thanks!

[TheInformer]

Hehe if I had paid attention to your OS, I would've given you different advice

A program called iuVCR uses the WDM drivers to capture video. Use it instead of VDub and everything should be ok.

[Trik]

dj360: He posted what he does here: http://home.attbi.com/~out/wintvcapture.gif


TheInformer: I just tried iuVCR with the I/O Magic PC PVR.
It worked and I could cap in AVI at greater than 320x240.
I bet the AverTV will work with it too

Gawd if only someone had pointed me to it 2 cap cards and over $200.00 ago :*(

[dj360]

Hey guys, I appreciate the help but this just isn't working. I will just give up on the higher resolutions until I get a PC with way more ram, faster processor. dvd drive, and hard drive space. For one thing, when I tried to load the WinNT/2000 drivers, that screwed up everything. So, I installed the WDM drivers back in there. Then I tried to use that iuVCR, what a piece of crap. Didn't work for me that well. Kept crashing. Besides, I was looking to capture at high res with no frames dropped. This thing dropped frames like crazy when I tried to capture straight to DivX.

What I am back to doing is what works for me. I capture to huffyuv. Then I encode to DivX. Takes longer and I can't capture to high res, but that's okay. I can make high quality 320x240 captures. And besides, when I do it this way, I only drop around 2 frames every 30 minutes.

Trik- My WinTV32 doesn't even have the capture bulit in. I have to use VidCap32 to capture. Thanks anyway.

[N0SoopForU]

When you installed the Win2K drivers, did you completely uninstall the old drivers? If you don't remove the WDM drivers first it can sometimes lead to complications. Also, did you set the default capture device in VirtualDub to the VFW driver? Even after uninstalling the WDM drivers VirtualDub will still sometimes point to the old driver until you tell it to use the new one.

[BKL]

I have a homebuilt XP1600+ system with I/O Magic PVR (Cyberlink PowerVCR II) and use a Hollywood Dazzle DV Bridge to convert my analog into DV. I have been using Ulead VideoStudio 6 to capture the DV straight to MPEG-1, with some dropped frames when capturing straight to MPEg-2. I just tried using the PVR software to capture the DV straight to MPEG-1 & 2. I have only done it a couple of times while experimenting, but I have been impressed with the capture quality, especially MPEG-2 and think it looks better than what I was getting with VidStudio6! I am getting ready to try capturing a 1-hr episode of Farscape in MPEG-2 using the PVR software.

[dj360]

NOSoopForU:

I am going to try this again. What I did was uninstall all capture software that I had tried in the past. I uninstalled all video drivers and I will install the WinNT/2000 drivers again. Maybe I had a conflict somewhere with those other stupid programs that did me absolutely no good. I really love using VirtualDub. I am so familiar with it and I would hate to have to change to something else. I love the cropping option I can use while capturing and the fact that the new version with ''sync'' mod is fantastic. Hopefully with this fresh install I should get favorable results. Thanks a lot!!!!! DivX ;-) rules!!!!! (SmR not so good)!

[dj360]

I installed the drivers and they work but............I am dropping frames like crazy. It would let me capture to a higher resolution but, crazy fram droppage. More frames dropping than captured. Any further suggestions anyone may have would be helpful. Thanks! Oh yeah.....interlace lines from Hell now too.

[KAce]

hi I Am using
the win tv sw plus the haupage pvr (usb ) capture
this captures in all aspects have put many a film on to dvd in stereo
and as good as it gets the draw back is this costs £175
althou its not cheap it works realy well
if ne one want a sample give me an EM.

KAce

[SatStorm]

My friend, help yourself and simply do this:
Format C:
Then install w98se and w2k.
Don't use millenium or winxp. They suck. Wait until winxp second edition. There is no reason for any OS beyond w2k. Only marketing matters....
Now some generall tips: When you install OS', always set your motherboard to default settings and with no cards on PCI slots. Only VGA. Then start ad cards, load the drivers and reboot. When you finished with al cards and drivers, then, and only then, you set your motherboard to the optimised settings!
That way, you never gonna have problems with any hardware/software. And if some probs appears during the installations, you can always find them before problems!
Repeat this every 6 months, if you install many progs/applications. If your computer is dedicated for a specific job, then you can do this once a year.

Because I follow those rules, I am able to grabb with a duron 1200 and w2K at any resolution with my cheap wintv primio fm.
Also, I prefer XviD than DiVX, because XviD supports interlace, it is totally free and it is like LAME for audio: Every single day a new version!

[dj360]

SatStorm:
All that seems a bit drastic don't you think? I mean, I can capture fine with just 320x240. I just have to turn the bit rate up to make it look good when I play the movie fullscreen. I really don't think I need to get rid of WinXP Pro for all of that. Besides, it might just be that my RAM is insufficient. I mean, I appreciate the suggestion but I don't think the minor inconvenience of capturing at 320x240 should warrant a full overhaul of my system. Other than the resolution deal, I am pretty happy with it. I was just looking to improve quality when I capture movies from DVD and VHS, that's all. But like I said, I appreciate the thought though.

[SatStorm]

if that is OK for your needs, it is OK for me.

[N0SoopForU]

dj360,

What resolution are you capping in that is causing all that frame loss? If it is really high like 720x480, then it could be your system. But, if you're getting mad frame drops at 320x240, then the problem lies somewhere in your software setup.

But, other than dropping mad frames, were you at least able to access the higher resolutions?