Is there any point...

[rvl123]

...in capturing in 720x480 when you're capturing VHS cassettes? I assume you can just raise the bitrate instead.

I am just playing this whole capture thing out in my head before making the plunge for a card.

I want as few artifacts and blocks as possible. Will a $50 Aver card do this for me (capturing VHS tapes)?

Just trying to get some understanding before making the plunge.

Oh and will a 10 gig drive (secondary, the whole thing empty) be able to capture 3 hrs of tape. If so, how will the quality be?

Thanks.

[housepig]

the Aver EZ DVDmaker card has given me great results with capturing from VHS (assuming the source is good - garbage in, garbage out).

but I don't capture direct to mpeg if I want quality, I capture as a Huffyuv-codec .avi file, then convert with TMPGenc.

(and yes, I capture 720x480, 29.97fps)

If you capture that way, you will need about 26Gb per hour of video, so your 10Gb drive would be good for about 20 minutes.

[SLK001]

Capture at the highest quality that you can. This way, your capture will contain virtually all that the VHS tape can offer. You can discard unneeded quality later, but you can add needed quality once you are through capturing.

I capture at high bitrates, then convert to VBR MPEG2 with a software encoder.

[fmctm1sw]

Ah, it's this weeks installment of "capture at final desired res" or "capture as high as you can." You'll hear this both ways my friend and everyone has their opinions and facts.... It's great message board fodder....

[housepig]

SLK001 has a great point.. you can always throw data away, you can't add what's not there.

and fmctm1sw has made a good point as well (in a backhanded sort of way) - all this stuff comes down to personal preference. I make the recommendations that I make and use the tools and methods I use because I've done head to head comparisons, and this gives me results I like.

your mileage may vary. nothing better than trying a few different tools and methods and seeing which one gives you the most bang for the buck.