Anything really better than BT8x8 capture ?

[tmcmvd]

Hi,

This must be a boring question...

I'm using a BT8x8 equipped capturecard, a tv card in this case.

It gives reasonable quality for it's price.

When I buy a more expensive DC-10 (Pinnacle) I get mainly the same card for a higher price and other drivers.

Does anyone have experience with cards providing a higher quality video capture...is there anything better ?

Is the BT capture comparable with a analog to DV convertor or is the latter better in quality ?

My system does it all, so no realtime MPEG is needed, just want the best picturequality available...

Tnx in advance.

Michael.

[Mirror_Image]

How much are you willing to pay for the "best picture quality available"?

[tmcmvd]

Hmm...something around $200 - $400 is ness. but how mutch better is the quality then ? again i don;t need realtime mpeg encoding. Just best capture from S-Video source.

[pacoreguenga]

Yes! There's better quality.
Yo could go right now and buy Pinnacle's Pro One. (less than $1,000) or a Pinnacle studio deluxe ($200).
The DC10+ should give you more than a BT8x8 equipped card. It has a Zoran chipset available in higher end cards. I have had many products from Pinnacle, Iomega, Canopus and Avermedia. I just Keep a Iomega Buz, an AverTVstudio, and a Pinnacle DV studio card. The Iomega does not work under NT, 2000 or XP, but gives great quality. (better than Pinnacle's DC30+, which I had), and has a really nice purple breakout box. I use it to capture and playback again to Betacam SP and Umatic SP in up to 10 minute chunks. I use it mainly for analog video editing.
I use the AvermediaTVstudio for cheap RT MPG2 encoding for low-end DVD authoring (event and industrial videography)
And finally, I use the DV card to capture good quality video from my DVCAM equipment for Standard-grade DVD authoring. In that case I encode via software.

Now, If I could, I would like to replace them all with a DVRexRT Pro ($5,000) and a DVC100 ($400). And a BOXX computer.

[tmcmvd]

Hmm.. the pro-one is a little over budget. about € 1600,- overhere in europe...the 500 Plus is an option.

Most people seem to be pleased with the video quality. If I would compare a good Analogue to DV convertor with a 500 plus which would give me a better result ? Isn't the 500plus doing the same thing as this convertor does...

tnx again.


[quote="pacoreguenga"]Yes! There's better quality.
Yo could go right now and buy Pinnacle's Pro One. (less than $1,000) or a Pinnacle studio deluxe ($200).
The DC10+ should give you more than a BT8x8 equipped card. It has a Zoran chipset available in higher end cards. I have had many products from Pinnacle, Iomega, Canopus and Avermedia. I just Keep a Iomega Buz, an AverTVstudio, and a Pinnacle DV studio card. The Iomega does not work under NT, 2000 or XP, but gives great quality. (better than Pinnacle's DC30+, which I had), and has a really nice purple breakout box. I use it to capture and playback again to Betacam SP and Umatic SP in up to 10 minute chunks. I use it mainly for analog video editing.

[M!chael]

Prolink is offering some products based on the new CX23880/23881 chipset, e.g. the "XCapture" and "PlayTV HD":

http://www.prolink.com.tw/new_web/products/mutimedia.htm

This is the successor of the BT878 chipset as both come from Conexant (former Broktree). Among other new features it supports 10 bit A/D conversion opposed to the now common 8 bit. the 10 bit A/D conversion should improve the picture quality.

But at the moment I am still very satisfied with my BT878 card...


M!chael

[gastric]

Note that the ProLink cards are not available in the US at this time. One of their US reps gave me an ETA of mid-July which obviously hasn't happened. I haven't seen any other companies selling cards with the new Conexant chipset either.

[avl1]

Turns out you can buy the Prolink products in the US at their online store http://www.prolink-usa.com/english/shoppingmall.html. The price for XCapture card is only $39. I would give it a try.

[gastric]

Well I'll be....! Personally, I'm waiting for the Play TV HD so I can get a tuner built in.

I'd love to hear some reviews on the XCapture. My hope is it solves some of the audio problems (synch, low volume, use of soundcard, etc.)

[lchiu7]

I didn't know the DC10+ had a BT8X8 chip in it. Given my current travails with a Hauppague WinTV PCI FM card and the tuner section, in retrospect I should have not bought it and just put my DC10+ back and used a VCR for the tuner

[tmcmvd]

hmm... as i understand it...there are different versions of the dc-10 ... teh newest is the Plus version. The older versions used to have a zoran or a philips chipset..they were pachable with dc-30 hardware... some dc-10(plus) cards have a bt chipset...

am not sure how to know...

the older dc-10 with dc-30 firmware gives the best results i guess...you should compare...and you can install both cards to try out.

greetz.