Some recommendations

[phill9700]

Hi
this is my first post here so please be gentle and im new to all of this capturing stuff and i havent yet bought anything to capture the footage, so i was wondering whether or not someone or lots of people, could point me in the right direction..
i have the following setup..

XP1700 @ 2.2Ghz (11 x 200 FSB) minimum speed setting
I have a dead motherboard at the moment, but getting replacement end of the week, Epox board 8rda3+ ot something like that..
1gig of memory (corsair xms 3200LL Twinx 512mbsx2)
maxtor at133 7200 rpm data drive (getting another for backup as well)
36 gig seagate scsi cheetah along with 29160LP adaptec scsi card (is tghis going to be ok?)
(will be getting) pioneer dvd rom and writer (any recommendations? another make perhaps?)
gigabyte 9700 pro (will be upgrading at some point)
on board sound and network.

if any more information is required for the specs, just please ask, i think i have included everything but the kitchen sink there!!
im looking to capture video (red dwarf ones for a start, sentimental value) tv (music videos more than anything, will save me trying to find them and download them for MYSELF over a 56k modem..) divx some of my favourite dvds so i can just load them off of the hard drive..
im looking for a capture card rather than an all in wonder card as i want to keep things seperate as possible, i feel it could compromise quality and i want to have fast graphics for gaming anyways..
im looking to spend as much as i need to i guess to get something thats not going to just do but going to do the job really well.
i can use s-video connections, scart, aerial anything i guess.
i was looking at pinnicle dc10+ that my friend recommended me, but i havent heard much from that or anything about it so im wondering is it a good buy?
any recommendations from you guys would be most appreaitive as i have no idea on what to buy so i dont want to waste my money on stuff thats just not going to cut what i need to do..
i look forward to hearing some good news from you guys!! thanks for the help (an advanced thanks!!)

[Oliver]

Based on the many recommendations I found here, I bought the Canopus ADVC-50 to capture my VHS videos with. You need a firewire card to go along with it, but I have been very happy with the results, and highly recommend their analog-to-digital converters (ADVC-50, ADVC-100, and the ADVC-1394 which doesn't require a separate firewire card). These products basically take an analog video and converts to DV, so to your computer, it looks like it's receiving video from a DV camera.

[phill9700]

well my dad does have a digital camera so i was wondering also, what might be best to get the video off of that..?
if i capture dvd as well, how would that work? would that card support it or would i have to get another card altogether? my epox board 'did' have firewire, but i have never used it before!
do i have enough cpu power etc and everything else to make this work properly?

[housepig]

I would recommend against the DC10+ card, not because it's not a good card, but it's capturing is limited to the MJPEG compression codec, so it's not super-versatile for capturing.

I would recommend you go for a card with a BT8x8 chip - I have an Aver EZ DVDmaker card, some people don't dig it, I love it. And it was less than $50 here in the U.S.

Browse the Capture Card section, look for stuff with high ratings, and see what people say about the various cards and methods for using them. Nothing beats real-world experience, and you'll find tons of it in that section.

[phill9700]

well i have no idea what im looking for to get and do what i want..
im just trying to capture video (vhs if you prefer) dvd for back up purposes and possibly something off of the tv every now and again.. also my dad digital camcorder i could try and hook up with...
no real sugguestions? i live in the uk so things might not be that easy to get hold of...