What Card I Buy, for realtime encode ? HELP ME

[Nasp]

I have a Pinnacle PCTV, with poor quality (TV Turner & realtime encode)

I Want a card with video inputs for encode in MPEG 1, MPEG 2
TV Turner e Radio FM are not prioraties, PCI or USB.
The quality in realtime encode near TMPEGenc.

My System
ECS-K7vzm (only two slots PCI)
AMD 1.0GHz , 512 megas
Ati Radeon 9000pro 128megas
two Harddisks IBM 40GB, WD 20GB
Win XP & Win 2000

Matrox RTX 100 are good?

Thanks.

[jfebus]

Hi,

I am planing to buy a real time encoder too...

anyone have some hints to share?

regards,

Jose

[vcdforme]

http://www.vcdhelp.com/capturecards

LeadTek?

[SHS]

SoftwareEncoding or HardwareEncoding?

Software just about any bt8x8 so long as you got the CPU HosePower to push it.
Hardware DVC2, WinTV250/350, PV256 the list gose on

[thxkid]

The Hauppuage PVR cards work will well as long if you plan at DVD quality you capture above 4000 bitrate, I find 6500 to 8000 is perfect.

[bemax]

The ADS Instant DVD USB does a great job of real time encoding to DVD at 5 mb/s (if your machine will support that bitrate). However, it doesn't do very well at VCD or SVCD capture and at lower DVD bitrates. I haven't heard of a hardware encoder which does as well as TMPEGenc.

HTH

[kitty]

There is a general concensus that consumer (<$400) hardware encoders at bitrates < at least 6-8000 are poorer quality than such software encoders as TMPGenc, CCE, etc. I am sure you could buy a pro board for $thousands that would work but mortals cannot afford it.

The WinTV PVR 250 is a decent card (get latest drivers at www.shspvr.com ) at a good price. I am getting some good 352x480 DVD caps last night even at VBR 4400 max 8000 or so in real time.

Some of the $50 cards advertize MPEG1 & MPEG2 but do it in software which is a poor choice for processors < 1.5Ghz or so and even then be careful.

bt8x8 cards get a boost from using drivers at btwincap.sourceforge.net but DO check the supported card list.

[MickeyMouse]

I gotta agree with thxkid about the PVR250. We just purcahsed a Hauppauge PVR-250 at Fry's Electronics for $149 and it looks great. We used a bit rate calculator and calculated a constant bitrate to get 2 hours on a DVD-R and this is what we record at (5000 bps).

We also purcahsed a RealMAGIC Hollywood Plus card for DVD quality output for $49 online at CompUSA. We are receiving our Sony DRU500A today from Sony that was $378 to record the content.

All told, we have laid out about $600 to have a Tivo/DVD-Recorder combination... not a bad deal.

[thesicilian]

I'm dug out my old Avermedia TV Caputre 98 card.

I'm using intervideo winDVR2 for realtime capture & encode. The quality is fantastic. Using SVCD PAL templates.

Check out my post http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=135221[/url]

[AlanC]

Lots of links and information here:

www.tv-cards.com

inclusing a forum dedicated to the question
Which TV-Card should I buy?

If you find it useful, please let others know about the site.

Alan.

[jfebus]

I gotta agree with thxkid about the PVR250. We just purcahsed a Hauppauge PVR-250 at Fry's Electronics for $149 and it looks great. We used a bit rate calculator and calculated a constant bitrate to get 2 hours on a DVD-R and this is what we record at (5000 bps).

We also purcahsed a RealMAGIC Hollywood Plus card for DVD quality output for $49 online at CompUSA. We are receiving our Sony DRU500A today from Sony that was $378 to record the content.

All told, we have laid out about $600 to have a Tivo/DVD-Recorder combination... not a bad deal.

Hi ,

Can you please tell us more about the capture quality of the wintv 250? I am planning to buy one and want to play safe!

Thanks,