The capture card section needs to be subdivided.

[MrMungus]

Into:

Analog capture.
Firewire/DV capture.
MPEG-2 hardware capture.
MPEG-2 software capture.

For example, cards that do MPEG-2 hardware encoding are vastly different from cards that do MPEG-2 software encoding.

I'll do it just to reduce some of the confusion.

[Will Hay]

Seconded, good idea.
WH.

[Baldrick]

It is hardware only now...I have at least tried to do so...some specifications are very very very very bad.

Doesn't all or at least most support mpeg2 software with correct software???

[MrMungus]

It is hardware only now...I have at least tried to do so...some specifications are very very very very bad.

Doesn't all or at least most support mpeg2 software with correct software???

Yes, most capture cards, including analog and Firewire cards, can create an MPEG file. But there's a huge difference between software encoding adn hardware encoding. Some cards have a built-in MPEG-2 encoder chip that does the encoding on the chip/card (hardware encoding). For example, my intent was to encode directly to MPEG-2 (that is, without having to use TMPGEnc or another converter). So I bought four different cards and found that some have an MPEG-2 encoding chip onboard (hardware encoding) and some rely on the computer's CPU (software encoding) but all of them are listed in the capture card list as "Realtime MPEG-2".

I'll make the list and you guys can do whatever you want with it. You wouldn't even have to change the list much, just identify cards as analog, dv, mpeg hardware or mpeg software.

[Baldrick]

I know the different but many sites doesn't tell if it is hardware....just realtime some times and it could be both cpu and hardware.

mpeg2 hardware cards:

https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCard=&mpeg2=1&searchconnection=Any&pri...&Search=Search

if it isn't correct it is just to click on the email on that page and I will fix it.

[MrMungus]

I know the different but many sites doesn't tell if it is hardware....just realtime some times and it could be both cpu and hardware.

mpeg2 hardware cards:

https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCard=&mpeg2=1&searchconnection=Any&pri...&Search=Search

if it isn't correct it is just to click on the email on that page and I will fix it.

Well, not all the cards on that list are HARDWARE MPEG capture cards. You guys are defining any card that can convert its input into MPEG as having the "Hardware Capturing" capability. The AverMedia card, for example, doesn't have a hardware MPEG encoder chip, for example (uses some variation of a BT analog capture chip).

It's pretty easy to figure out which ones have what by doing some Googling (which I had to do when I was trying to figure out which ones had an onboard MPEG-2 encoder and which ones pushed the MPEG-2 encoding off onto the CPU).

Really, all you'd need is to add another qualifier to the "Feature Search" named "Hardware MPEG-2 Encoding" or "Onboard MPEG-2 Encoder" and even "Onboard MPEG-2 Decoder" to specify which cards have what (not "Capturing" since all of those cards are, technically, "hardware").

What would be even better than that would be specifying what chpset the card is (e.g., BT878, Conexant whatever, etc.) to help differentiate the cards from each other.

Also, aren't MJPEG and MPEG4 forms of software encoding, not hardware encoding? It looks like you guys are mixing up your software capabilities and your hardware capabilities.

So...should I bother making that list?

[Baldrick]

Make a list! It will help me correct the list, removing mpeg hardware from fake hardware cards.

THere are definitive some mjpeg hardware cards(like matrox rainbow, pinnacle dc)...I dont know about the new so called mpeg4 hardware cards, very few so far.

What would be even better than that would be specifying what chpset the card is (e.g., BT878, Conexant whatever, etc.) to help differentiate the cards from each other.

It would be great....but I don't have time...if you are interested you can help, the capture card list editable directly from any webbrowser.