Capturing thru cable-wire vs composite... Is one better?

[DVantrease]

I'm looking at inexpensive (under $75) tv/capture cards. I've read many posts here recommending the I/O Magic PC-PVR card, saying it provides great video quality. I do want to capture from my VCR/camcorder, and was disappointed that this card does not have composite input, only cable/antenna.

I could connect my VCR to the capture card using a cable-wire, or connect camcorder-VCR-capturecard, but will this give me worse quality then if I had a composite card and connected that way?

If it matters, I have Windows XP, AMD Duron 800mhz, 60gb 7200 harddrive for capturing.

[Digitizer]

Coax cable gives MUCH worse quality than composite. If you connect your VCR to your TV using both kinds of inputs and then shuttle between them, the difference is very clear. Coax adds noise to audio also. For best quality, go with a card that has S-Video, provided that your VCR has it.

[TheInformer]

A coax cable is known as an "F" cable and combines the audio and video signals together.

Composite cables at least split the audio and video signals. The video signal is still muddled though because the chroma, lumina, etc information is all combined on one cable (the yellow one).

The S-Video cable splits up the various parts of the video signal into separate lines to give a much better signal to your TV card.

In order of quality between these three,
1. S-Video
2. Composite
3. Coax

You will notice a difference!

[Cleoo]

I have an Asus V6600 Capture card with S-Video Input. No composite input. However, there was a composite to S-Video converter cable.

When I capture with Asus Live, the S-Video appears black and white; the composite shows the correct colors even though I'm connecting the composite through the S-Video input.

Is this correct? Apparently, I should be using composite, but how come I can't get color selecting the S-Video input when that's how I was connecting to my card in the first place???