What capture card would give best quality?

[macgvyer]

I have the studio dv converter from fromac. The quality it gives me is okay. Is there something better out there that would give me better quality, but I don't want to spend $1000

Thank you
Corey

[Dude_Son]

I have a ATI AIW Radeon 9000 pro, and Im very happy with it, I got it for like $140 on the net. It gives great quality

[tnjazzgrass]

I have a ATI AIW Radeon 9000 pro, and Im very happy with it, I got it for like $140 on the net. It gives great quality

I just returned one of these to Circuit City. The TV pic was nice, but capture quality was awful. This is the third card I've tried in the last 4 months and so far not a one has been worth a crap.

Next stop: Canopus ADVC-100 ($250 - $300)

(I'm betting it will stop there, based on all the reviews I've read.)

If you want a good transfer card/device, read the reviews on this site. They might actually provide some insight.

Dirk

[Anonymous65]

All the TV tuner capture cards and the ATI cards use the BT 8x8 video decoder chip, or a similar version. Even if this chip is capable of capturing 720x480, the quality is far from broadcast quality! The ADVC-100 has a broadcast quality video decoder chip, and is the only video capture device I have tried (and I have tried almost every card you can buy) that will give you excellent video quality. Unfortunately, I have not found a single PCI video capture card (TV tuner) that use a broadcast quality video decoder chip.

[lordsmurf]

All the TV tuner capture cards and the ATI cards use the BT 8x8 video decoder chip, or a similar version. .

No. That is wrong.

The ATI AIW Radeon use the Theatre chipset, which is one of the best chips money can buy in the "under $500" price range. It operates a hybrid software-hardware encode with MPEG in the ATI MMC.

I'm curious what caused the person to return the card. It was probably not a Radeon or he/she used bad capture software or the older ATI MMC that comes with it (always update from ATI.com).

It is only the low-end $50 ATI TV Wonder and other non-Radeon cards that carry this inferior BT chipset. While it does work, it comes with its share of problems. This chipset is used in many cards, including the infamous AVerMedia series and a few others.

While those Canopus external cards are great, it's not really a capture card, but rather a capture device, as it only transfers DV to the computer using the firewire data port. The computer has almost no control over the format and options: you only get DV at the specified resolution and bit-rate. If all you want is DV AVI, then go for it. It does do the few things it promises quite well.

[Bob W]

IMO if one is going to spend $250 for a capture card then more money for some software you would be much better off just to buy a DVD recorder.

[lordsmurf]

IMO if one is going to spend $250 for a capture card then more money for some software you would be much better off just to buy a DVD recorder.

Only if you can live with having less options. One some things, I surely could live with that. In fact, if I had the money, I buy one tomorrow.

But on other projects (especially restoring or editing), I need to be able to use all of my knowledge and hardware/software to make a truly amazing final product.

[Rookie64]

I have the AIW VE, which has the Theater 200 chip - I'm very satisfied with it.
Paid a little over $100 for it.


I have 2 other AIW Pro cards that I got a few years ago, the first in '98
and the other in 2000.

I use Vegas 4.0 for most of my editing/filtering/etc - and they do have a Broadcast Colors filter you can apply, though I really didn't feel the need to use it.
I've always gotten around washed out colors with the brightness and contrast filters.


I found a setting I like and apply it as a template for most of my projects.
I've been happy with the results I've gotten with that so far.


And Lordsmurf's guides have been extremely helpful

[Anonymous65]

One fact that everybody should be able to agree on is that for anyone to say a capture card is better or worse than another card, you would actually have tried both (or more cards) to make this statement. When someone say that they have a capture card, and it's great, and it's the only card they have ever had, the comment is useless!

The ATI Theatre Rage chip is "just" like the BT8x8 chip. The ATI chip does an excellent job at capturing 352x240 video because it does an interpolation of both fields and makes great looking 352x240 video. However, the ATI chip does a bad job at capturing 720x480 video. It looks more like 720x240 video. So, I say, yes, this is my opinion, the ATI rage theatre chip is not a good video decoder chip, on average just like the BT8x8 chip. If you love the ATI capture card, good for you! I want better quality than what the ATI capture card can give...

[GKar]

As a recovering AVI capturer, finding a used Dazzle DVC II and using TWNH 1958 to capture MPEG2 from Satellite TV almost perfectly saved me hours of converting AVI's to Mpeg2 and quickly produces problem free and great quality movies.

Dazzle DVC II
TWNH 1.9.5.8 freeware capture utility
TmpGenc Author
DVDShrink 3 beta 5
Nero 5.5 Express

[spiderman2k1]

I have ATI and Dazzle 2. Dazzle 2 best for Satellite Dish and laser Disc and ATI best for VHS.


http://www.shopharmony.com/ for tha Dazzle 2 also go to www.dazzlegeek.com to see if the Dazzle 2 will work with your mother board.

For ATI go www.pricewatch.com

[lordsmurf]

One fact that everybody should be able to agree on is that for anyone to say a capture card is better or worse than another card, you would actually have tried both (or more cards) to make this statement. When someone say that they have a capture card, and it's great, and it's the only card they have ever had, the comment is useless!

So true.

I have both a BT8x8 and a ATI Theatre card in my computer. The BT8x8 on its best day could never compete with a Theatre on its worst day. The chips are fundamentally built from very divergent architecture.

[Rookie64]

One fact that everybody should be able to agree on is that for anyone to say a capture card is better or worse than another card, you would actually have tried both (or more cards) to make this statement. When someone say that they have a capture card, and it's great, and it's the only card they have ever had, the comment is useless!

Well, if that was in response to my post, I didn't say one was better than another - I said I was very satisfied with my card.
If if does everything I want it to, then there's really no reason to go out and try other cards to compare.

Though, I have tried Hauppage - was actually the first I ever owned, and maybe they've improved since, but my bad experiences with the one I had was enough to keep me from ever trying another.
It wasn't really my choice, though I didn't know much about capture cards in '95, and put my trust into a friend who sold it to me with my first computer.
Any attempts made to capture from a VHS source were disasterous, to put it mildly.
And I've seen captures from others' Hauppage cards and can't say I was ever impressed...colors bled and you had obvious rolls at the top and bottom of the frames.

I also owned two Snappy capture devices - only got a second 'cause I was certain the first had to be defective, but the second was just as bad.
Won't even go into the trouble that junk caused - at best, if you like your captures psychedelic style, then a Snappy is for you
I can laugh about this now, but trust me, it wasn't funny at the time.

From reading through stuff on these forums, I notice people having a lot of trouble with other capturing devices...such as, Dazzle and Canopus ADVC-100

There was a guy who posted about his bad results trying to capture a commercial VHS tape with a Canopus ADVC-100 and a Datavideo TBC-3000 and a Datavideo DAC-100.

The stuff cost him plenty, and seemed only to cause more trouble for him.

Why spent all that money to be aggravated and have captures that bounce all over the place?

I 've yet to have a bad experince capturing with the AIW cards - I get good results and didn't have to pay outrageous prices for 'em.

Anyway, whatever works for you, go for it...I was just adding my 2 cents that I was happy with mine.