Question about capture cards

[bladestorm]

Hello, i'm new to this and in the market for a capture card. My question is
can capture cards in general really capture the source image quality perfectly? For example, if I want to capture video that is DVD quality or even better will the capture be the same quality providing the settings are right?

[DJRumpy]

For most typical capture cards the answer would be no. Unless your capture card captures the signal via component inputs (this type of card is typically very expensive), your input will suffer from analog noise, and signal loss. You can pre-process your captures to eliminate a lot of the noise, but you cannot compensate for signal loss. They will never look as good as the original. If you can capture from component inputs, then your captures should yeild better results, although I haven't seen any captures from a component capable capture card. If anyone on the forum has one, they may be able to give you more info on expected quality, and costs.