looking for good capture card without tuner

[Tperez2]

Im trying to find a good capture card that doesnt have a tuner if anyone has one that they can reccomend please let me know

[flaninacupboard]

Canopus ADVC-50 or -100. Excellent devices.

[dxj40c]

If you are looking for something that is not too expensive, you might try the Pinnacle AV/DV. I have been using this card for about six months now for capturing from VHS and have been pleased with the results. Prior to this I was using a Radeon AIW and was getting a lot of dropped frames. The Pinnacle does a much better job, at least, for me.

As far a quality, the quality of captured VHS is a good as the original (which isn't that good for VHS). You can't tell the difference on a regular TV. I've never copied from a digital source so I can't help there.

[lordsmurf]

How much money? Canopus and Matrox have some great pro card for $1000 or more.

[rankz]

If you are after a cheap anolgue i recommend Pinnalce or Leadtek. Both are great quality with VHS tapes and include drivers and capture Programmes.

[DVD_Ripper]

Canopus ADVC-50 or -100. Excellent devices.

I second Canopus products. although I've only played with a 100 a few times. Cheaper external USB products are available... ADSTech, Hippauge are a few ... see the capture cards link to you left and look for USB vs PCI products.

[Tperez2]

Right now im just looking. already bought 2 cards had problems with both

bought avermedia dvd maker pci pro with hardware mpeg and built in tbc if you can beleive the website. got alot of what i was told was mesquito noise was unable to correct it.

then bought aiw 9800 pro captures are very nice except for rolling bars in captured video that make it useless as a capture card nice for tv viewing and game playing though.

untill i can figure out whats wrong with one or both cards ill stay away from any new hardware.

[aguillon]

Your problems might be macrovision related, i.e. copy protection. Some cards will distort signal from VHS that are copy protected (commercial tapes) or even wrongly identify old VHS tapes as copy protected even though they are not. I would definitely look that way for your aiw 9800.

My Canopus ADVC-50 has an un-documented feature (macrovision removal) by removing the last jumper on the card. I ve done that - not sure whether it works or not since I have not tried it on macrovision protected material.

Cheers

[lordsmurf]

tperez has no MV errors. It's power-related, or grounding related. I think an AVR UPS would solve it. Or cheap filters on coax.

[Tperez2]

Here is a stupid question for all you EE'S out t here. why do i only get this noise on my aiw card and not on my tv????

[MikeV]

I'm not an EE, but i do work with cable TV installations. And as lordsmurf said above it sounds like you have a grounding problem with either the computer or with the cable where it comes into the house/apartment. Ensure there is a grounding block and a wire going to a good earth ground where the cable comes into the house. Also check with a voltmeter on your outlets that you have 0 volts AC between the neutral and ground. Anything above 0 volts means you have a bad ground on your power line. Another thing to check is to unplug the cable from the computer and check for voltage between the computer and the cable.

[Tperez2]

How reliable are those 3 prong outlet testers?? You know the ones with the leds on them that tell you if an outlet is wired correctly that you can buy at radio shack does anyone know if they really work???

[MikeV]

They are good for a simple test to see if the hot and neutral are reversed or if the ground is missing. The best way is to test with a voltmeter. The 3 prong testers will only detect 110VAC. Most grounding problems will have a bleeding voltage from around 1VAC up to 110VAC with most being around 50VAC. This is normally caused by the installer wrapping the ground wire around the ground lug but never tightening up the screw. When I bought my house the first thing i did was check the ground and found several outlets that were bad, so i went through every outlet and switch and tightened up the screws, i've had no ground problems since(15 years).

[Tperez2]

ok stupid question which one is the neutral??? i know which one the ground is and how to i test it??

[MikeV]

The wide slot is the neutral, the narrow one is the hot, and of course the round one is ground.

[Tperez2]

That is of course if the oulet is wired correctly

[MikeV]

Oops. Forgot the second part of your question.
To test put your leads into the hot and neutral should be 110-120VAC
Now leave the one lead in the hot and put the other into the ground it should also be between 110-120VAC. Lastly put the leads into the neutral and ground should be 0 to <1VAC. If it is high have an electrician check out your house wiring.
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any damages, fire, or electricution caused by any individual not safely following these instructions. If you are not sure of what you are doing contact a qualified electrician to do the test for you. :

[Tperez2]

I seem to remember testing things like this connecting one lead to a ground point and the other to a chassis to make sure there was no leakage. Now i feel kind of stupid that i didnt think of this myself.



Thanks again.

[PolarBearWY]

then bought aiw 9800 pro captures are very nice except for rolling bars in captured video that make it useless as a capture card nice for tv viewing and game playing though.

As mentioned in the post after yours, your problem probably isn't the card. I have an AIW 9800 Pro and have NEVER dropped a single frame and have a perfect (as close as reasonably possible) picture with every capture.

That being said, I just found that I can grab MPEG2 direct from my Dish receiver without having to re-encode or capture so I'm going to be selling my card as soon as I buy a regular card. But if you know how to build a decent computer and don't fill it with lots of $h!++y software that slows it down, the card is solid as a rock. Absolutely awesome!

[Tperez2]

Ok got out my meter and did the tests Im getting 120 between neutral and hot 120 between ground and hot and less then 1 volt between ground and neutral

[MikeV]

Just remembered reading about a guy that had a problem with AIW cards and not capturing a good signal. It was a few months back, don't remember which site(i think it was here), but what he did was moved the coils up off the circuit board and bent them parallel to the circuit board. This eliminated the hum/rolling that he was getting while capturing. He even had pictures of his modification.

[Tperez2]

yes i know i tried that and voided my warranty in the process but it didnt work. but i was able to fix my problem by fixing the ground outside the house for the cable tv.

[MikeV]

Glad to see you found your problem. Sounds like a standard everyday cable company they take your money but don't care what type of service they give you. Let me guess the ground block was either ti-wrapped to a metal pipe or just hanging there with no ground connected to it.