AVERMEDIA DVD EZMAKER PCI - any good?

[newguy2004]

Hello, i'm a newbie to capturing video. I have an old analogue camcorder and can't afford to buy a dv camcorder. I'am looking for a cheap way to put my video onto my computer so I can edit and put them onto dvd. I found the avermedia dvd ezmaker and was wondering if it is any good, what 'framerate' does it capture at and so on. Also if anyone could knows of a videoclip I could download so I can see how good the capture actually is I would be very gratefull.

I apologize if this is in the wrong thread.

Thankyou for any help
Pete

[lordsmurf]

AVerMedia = junk.
I have two spare ones here. Sell cheap.

Better cards? For cheap?
Look for an ATI All In Wonder 7000 or high (AIW) on eBay.

THing like Hauppauge WinTV Go! are cheap too, as are ATI Wonder cards, but I'm not a fan.

[HitmanHearns]

I searched forum and found this. Is Avermedia really junk? Because I am looking for a cheap way to capture video and this seemed pretty cheap.

[BrainStorm69]

I have one and it works for me. I don't use the software that came with it though. I use VirtualVCR with the Huffyuv codec and then convert to MPEG with TMPGEnc.

[housepig]

same here - the included NeoDVD software is clunky, not-very-customizable, and the mpegs that the capture software grabs are not compatible with other authoring software.

so I use iuVCR to capture in .avi, 720x480, 29.97fps, MJPEG or Huffyuv codec. I get good results, clean as the original footage.

and since I've seen them for as low as $10 after rebates, it's hard to compete on price.

[HitmanHearns]

You saw Avermedia DVD Ezmaker for just $10 or are you talking about something else?

[housepig]

You saw Avermedia DVD Ezmaker for just $10 or are you talking about something else?

not long after I got mine (for about $40), I saw them advertised for $40, with a $30 mail-in rebate.

[sacajaweeda]

Ignore ATI/Intel Fan-boy (lordsmurf). Dollar for dollar, Avermedia's BT8xx cards knock the snot out of ATI. If you're new to this and looking to do it on the cheap, don't piss your money away on an overpriced ATI card. Not worth the money.

[HitmanHearns]

Ignore ATI/Intel Fan-boy (lordsmurf). Dollar for dollar, Avermedia's BT8xx cards knock the snot out of ATI. If you're new to this and looking to do it on the cheap, don't piss your money away on an overpriced ATI card. Not worth the money.

In general, regardless of price for this question, just how much is the difference in quality between the two?

[sacajaweeda]

Negligible.

[HitmanHearns]

Does everyone else agree?

[housepig]

hard to say - I've never seen an mpeg capture done on an ATI card. I can only say that, to my eyes (and those of my testing pool) the video quality from my Aver EZDVD card is just as good as teh source video.

and if you get it on the cheap cheap, and you don't like the quality, you can always upgrade - you'll only be out $10-15 and a little time...

[lordsmurf]

The BT8x8 chipset has very finite limitations to what it can do. Find trevlac or fulcilives, and ask them.

There are many, many cards that are superior to the Aver cards. The ATI Theatre chips are but one of these. Sure, the AVER cards work, but the internal resizing of video sucks, and the drivers are often ... I don't want to say "bad", but there's issues... read some of trevlac's older posts from earlier this year, ones where he, I and Fulci were in the same thread. The "amazing discoveries" thread I believe was one of them, they all happened in the same 60-day or so period.

You've got a lot of things to consider. These are really only suited for AVI capturing, and then may some special care in retaining AR and sharpness.

Satstorm has a good PAL thought on these too, at least one the chipsets in general.

Ignore ATI/Intel Fan-boy (lordsmurf). .

I like what works. These work. Quality too. These are quality.

[HitmanHearns]

The BT8x8 chipset has very finite limitations to what it can do. Find trevlac or fulcilives, and ask them.

There are many, many cards that are superior to the Aver cards. The ATI Theatre chips are but one of these. Sure, the AVER cards work, but the internal resizing of video sucks, and the drivers are often ... I don't want to say "bad", but there's issues... read some of trevlac's older posts from earlier this year, ones where he, I and Fulci were in the same thread. The "amazing discoveries" thread I believe was one of them, they all happened in the same 60-day or so period.

You've got a lot of things to consider. These are really only suited for AVI capturing, and then may some special care in retaining AR and sharpness.

Satstorm has a good PAL thought on these too, at least one the chipsets in general.

Ignore ATI/Intel Fan-boy (lordsmurf). .

I like what works. These work. Quality too. These are quality.

You say internal resizing of video is bad. If I have Adobe Premiere or high-end software like that, can I not just resize with that and it will be OK?

What is the quality without internal resizing?

Thank you everyone has been very helpful. I think I am going with the Avermedia DVD Ezmaker because its cheap and I can't find a "Radeon" AIW card for anything less than $70 even on eBay. Also in another thread i was told the ATI cards dont work well with PAL VCRs.