Best hardware capture device for MPEG-2/PCM content?

[NewHomebrew]

Looking to trasnfer some VHS to DVD. My parameters:

-audio must be uncompressed PCM. can't deviate from this.
-want to capture as mpeg-2 to avoid "massive" file sizes of 20gb
-want an external (hardware) converter as my PC only has 256mb ram
-should be firewire based I suppose.
-budget is less than $400

Have excellent playback device, also Sony Vegas (will this recognize firewire input for capture?) and DVD Architect. So the software is just about covered.

What do you recommend for a hardware converter? I see lots of conflicting opinions in the review section. My friend likes the Pinnacle Studio 9 DV Firewire MovieBox but you can only get PCM audio if you capture AVI (massive file size problem for me). The mpeg-2 capture is ac3 audio

[snafu099]

I have the ADS usb InstantDvd-2 device and it will do any analog in whth your choice of audio.

They also have the InstantDvd +dv which also accepts dv input.

Excellent quality but neither have a tuner, pvr or scheduleing

Also have the Compro usb VideoMate Live that has tuner, pvr and schedule. Does not seem to have audio option you want, only choice I see is 48 or 41 . Also of excellent quality

Price range $150/200 USD

[lordsmurf]

Buy a DVD recorder that does PCM.

[entwood]

three apples high, blue and cryptic as usual, eh.

[bugster]

-audio must be uncompressed PCM. can't deviate from this.
-want to capture as mpeg-2 to avoid "massive" file sizes of 20gb

Two slightly conflicting requirements there it appears!

How about the ADVC-100 with the mainconcept encoder. The ADVC will convert the video to DV (with PCM audio). This is then transferred via firewire to your PC where mainconcept will 'capture' it and convert to mpeg-2 on the fly.

If you have any cash left over after purchasing whatever you decide, why not splash out on a memory upgrade for your PC. Memory is pretty damn cheap these days

[NewHomebrew]

-audio must be uncompressed PCM. can't deviate from this.
-want to capture as mpeg-2 to avoid "massive" file sizes of 20gb

Two slightly conflicting requirements there it appears!

How about the ADVC-100 with the mainconcept encoder. The ADVC will convert the video to DV (with PCM audio). This is then transferred via firewire to your PC where mainconcept will 'capture' it and convert to mpeg-2 on the fly.

If you have any cash left over after purchasing whatever you decide, why not splash out on a memory upgrade for your PC. Memory is pretty damn cheap these days

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into all of them, although I don't know if a standalone will give me the kind of control I want over bitrate and the ones I have encountered use ac3 audio.

I don't like compressed audio. Just my thing. The program for each dvd is less than an hour so the space is available to use both max video and audio bitrate.

[lordsmurf]

In that case, know that recorders generally have PCM audio at 1-hour mode (the JVC DR-M10S does for sure).

This is probably perfect for what you want.