I have three choices. Which should I use?

[tonyp2]

Hi all. New member, but I've been lurking for a while. I have three old (maybe ancient) streaming video / capture boards - all of which may still be functionally capable in today's technology. Thing is I'm not sure which one I should settle on.

Specifics:

I'm running an XP Pro system, 3GHz HT. ATI 9600 video. 1 GB RAM. About 170 GB of non-OS disk space. I have a Canon VC-C3 analog video camera that I'd like to use as a webcam. It has both composite and S-Video out. I'd also like to do what everyone else does: take my old VHS tapes and digitize, then burn to DVD. One of the cards I have has a TV tuner, but that's not necessarily a big deciding factor.

I have two Osprey 1000 streaming capture cards. They are both from the mid / late 1990s. One is outfitted with a Bt829A video chip, the other with a Philips SAA7110A. I know both are ancient when it comes to video capture, but can anyone tell me if one is any better than the other? Now, there are no XP drivers for the card itself, but there are XP drivers for the Bt829. The thing is, both of these boards have onboard video encoder / decoder chips, and the card with the SAA7110A has newer version of these chips (the chips are each card are 8x83501/8x83104 vs. 8x83501/8x83105). Osprey does still offer Win2000 drivers for these cards, so I'm feeling that I'd want to use their drivers if I want to take advatntage of the onboard hardware.

The third card is a regular Hauppauge 61001 TV card with a Bt878 video capture chip. I know there's no problem getting XP drivers for this.

But, I'd like to see if one of the wizened old hands here could tell me if - technologically - these older (but way more sophisticated and at the time very expensive) Osprey cards are worth using. Is an Osprey 1000 that cost over $1000 in the late 90s outperformed in terms of video capture by a current day $50 Leadtek? Does a Bt878 outdo either a Bt829 or SAA7110A so much that having onboard hardware encode / decode is not that significant?

[SatStorm]

Use the Hauppauge 61001 TV card with the btwincap drivers.

[tonyp2]

Thanks for your response, SatStorm. Can I ask for a bit more? That is, why I should choose that over (admittedly older) borads that have hardware encode / decode?

[SatStorm]

BT878 is a very popular chip and it is still used today. It has great support, all the applications work excellent with it and has great flexibility (like capping PAL60 or NTSC50 - Few cards can do this!).

Combine a bt878 based card with mainconcept 1.4.2 and you have excellent software realtime mpeg 2 capture. Or use it with virtualdub (or virtualvcr) and capture virtual anything that exist worldwide! With the btwincap drivers you have the best possible picture up to 768 x 576 (for PAL) interlace!

[tonyp2]

That's a strong recommendation. I have read a number of threads which discuss the broad support of the Bt878. I have since found out that (expensive or not) the Osprey 1000 series boards do not output in either MPEG or AVI when their onboard hardware codecs are used, so they turn into nothing more than plain old video capture boards unless I want to start invesigating the subtleties of older compression schemes.

(Is my logic making sense here? Am I making sense?)

So if what I"m saying is correct, then those boards are no better than uncompressed capture boards with an old Bt829 and the other with a Philips SAA7110. I can see why it makes sense to move to a Bt878.

[tonyp2]

BTW, I also already have an Osprey 2000, so I guess the whole point of looking at the 1000 is sort of moot. I just wanted to investigate in case it was worth putting on another machine. Thanks.

[lordsmurf]

BT8x8 chips are generally some of the cheapest, poorest quality chips around, but if you take the time to tweak it really good, it'll give acceptable results. There are many better options out there.