Why get a NLE capture card?

[Valnar]

I am moving up to a digital video camera and need a firewire port in my PC. I see several for under $100, and then there are cards like the Canopus DV Storm for over $1000. I understand there is software differences, but what are the hardware differences? If all I want to do is capture video (analog or DV) to my PC for the purpose of editing it and converting to MPEG2 (DVD or SVCD burning), what can these high-end cards do for me?

THanks,
Robert

[jtor]

1. Real time stuff
2. analog/digital capture capability
3. Better codecs (hw based)
4. software bundle (you're aware of this already).
...and maybe some more that I'm not aware of.

quite frankly, typical 'hobbyist' can live with cards on the cheaper end of the scale. It just depends on how serious you're into this thing, and maybe how much money you're willing to spend. If you're thinking of making money from this, then you should probably go to the higher end.