Help With Capture Card Suggestions

[ice_2003]

right now i have a hauppauge wintv stereo, which i use to capture tv programs, etc (via s-video) from my satellite reciever.

i find that having to encode everything can be time consuming and want a card to will produce better quality captures.

im looking for a realtime mpeg-2 capture card that is in the region of £50-200. Im in PAL region if that helps.
the option of mpeg-1 realtime and raw avi captures would be useful, but not necessary.

any suggestions ?

[bmiller]

I have been using the all in wonder radeon for mpeg2 720x480 8000kb/sec vbr captures.It does a very good job.No problems with artifacts,or a need to re-encode. I'm going to try some 6000 kb/sec vbr captures to see if there is much difference in quality,for seinfeld episodes.
Brad

[txpharoah]

You may find 352x480 at 5000k (5.0MB/S) to be smaller files with better quality than 720x480 at 6.0MB/S

[MrKGB]

If your machine is >= 2GHz, you can do encoding in software using PowerVCR or WinDVD Recorder or Ulead Studio

[bmiller]

I need dvd compliant video,so 720x480 it is.The bit rate i may be able to lower a bit,without loss of quality,and maybe get an extra episode per disk.I'd rather keep quality,and use more disks.
Brad

[ice_2003]

MrKGB - my pc spec is
athlon xp 2100+
512mb ddr pc2700
64mb gainward geforce 4 ti 4200 650 tv/dv
60 & 80gb maxtor diamond 9 hdd's
creative audigy
hauppauge wintv stereo
windows XP

for my wintv card, im using the hauppauge win2k/NT drivers coz i cant get the WDM Video Capture Driver working. the win2k/nt drivers allow me to cap in resolutions abover 352x288 , so i can use progs like vd, and avi_io. the problem is that then programs like PowerVCR dont work.

thats y im looking for a hardware based mpeg compression card.
the wintv card isnt bad, but i think that a better card will produce better quality captures, save time and hdd space.

ideally, im looking for a PCI card, coz im quite happy with my GFX card.
i realise now that i should have gone for the VIVO edition.
is it worth getting a ATI radeon or Gainward geforce 4 VIVO editions ?

any more replies would be appreciated...

[MrKGB]

ice_2003,
Did you try driver from:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/
With this driver you should be able to use all capture software.
My pc is almost the same as yours and I can easily capture in realtime using PowerVCR.
But actually I never do it this way, it is much better to capture using low loss avi, and then remove noise and encode it.

[ice_2003]

MrKGB

problem is, i can't get those drivers to work...maybe im installing the wrong hauppauge drivers first.

(*do u install the hauppauge drivers first?)

can you remember which version of drivers you installed first and which version of the btwincap drivers ?

been trying to get them working for ages...

(btw, (assuming u use tmpgenc, what settings do u use for removing noise?)

any replies would be appreciated

[theslydog]

ice_2003

u are better off with the hauppauge WinTV DVB-s Nexus card as this card has an onboard Mpeg2 decoder and does not rely on ur computers CPU.

It is more exp than the some other cards but heaps better.

There are also tons of programs written for it, ProgDVB, Multidec, My Theatre, other decoding stuff u name it.

It downloads full mpeg2 720x480 no probs at all.

I do anime off satellite, own menus etc, and it comes out near as good as the DVDs u buy - sometimes better. U can do one anime episode (if u cut ads out) at 720x480 XSVCD on a 700-800MB cd as well.

edit

u could also try their new wintv 350-pvr card - better than the 250 and reviews I have read said it was good. check epinions.com for a good one. I have not tried it though.

tsd

[ice_2003]

thanks for the reply theslydog

i few months back i had a look at the WinTV PVR 350 (PCI) and couldnt find a uk distributor. now, ive just seen it for £135, which is in my price range.

apparently, it you can use 3rd party software like virtual dub, whereas the previous version (250) didnt allow this, which is a useful option.

not sure about the WinTV Nexus-s, isnt that to recieve digital tv via the card ?

the all in wonder radeon also does mpeg2 capture, and even though im happy with the graphics card i got right now, i might be tempted to get one of them.

only problem is, not sure which ones are good, if anyone can reccommend a ati all in wonder radeon card (preferably uk distributor) that would be great.

thanks for the replies again...more would be great