Which capture card?

[trooper116]

I have been doing dsome resaerch into capture cards and I have decided to get a cheaper card for now until i upgrade my computer. I am mainly interested in cards that produce quality avi that i would then reencode as needed. Realtime to mpeg would require more power then i have so thats out. I have found a few cards but they all seem to be similar and i havent seen a whole lot of reviews. Here are the ones I am looking at:
PixelView PlayTV pro
CyberTainment CyberMail AV
Magic Xpress Magic Tview99
VideoHighway Xtreme98
Matrox Raibow Runner
Maxron MaxTV

I have heard alot of good things about the cybermail av but what do you think is the best of theses cards or do you recommend something different. I would like to stay under 60 if possible though. Thanks.

My system:
Athlon 600
384 mb ram
20 gb hd @ 5400rpm
Windows 98SE

[trooper116]

*bump*

[trooper116]

Anybody have any ideas? If you have a suggestion for another capture card under 100 thats fine too. I am primarily wanting this to capture from cable tv and vcr.

[TheInformer]

If you're just after AVI files, a TV tuner card should work fine.
I use a WinTV PCI card myself at present. In the near future I plan to
get a DVMC-DA1/2 and a capture card of some type that will capture
straight to MPEG-1/2.

[ace-tex]

You might want to look into the Pinnacle Studio AV version 7. The capture board does MJPEG commpression, plus it comes with studio 7 editing software, if you need it. You can try out the software with a limited time trial from Pinnacle. Otherwise, product only costs about $125 for both board & software, and it might need your needs. However, since the MJPEG-avi file can get big quickly, you might have an issue with your hardrive. You might need to add another HD. But, they are cheap now, I just bought a 100 GB 7200 Western Digital drive at Sams for $119 (after $100 rebate). Another product that you might consider is the ADS USB Instant DVD ($175 at buy.com). That will take you direct to VCD, SVCD, or DVD-compliant files.

[Buck9419]

ace-tex,
Have you tried the Studio AV version 7 or have you seen any reviews. I have been looking for something to use to convert my tapes to svcd or xsvcd. The Studio AV version 7 looked interesting. I found a place that is clearing out the Studio DC10 plus, less than half the price of the Studio AV, but the capture board list reviews expressed some problems with it's operation and it working in limited OS's. It's also an old product. After reading about alot of the TV boards I thought I might be better off using a board designed to take in the analog video and digitize it. Any thought on the 640X480 max on the Studio AV version 7?

[Racoty]

buck9419,
The studio av version7 is actually just a dc10+ capture card with the studio 7 software.
The card is really good when you can get it to work. but do not expect any support from pinnacle. they have not released any drivers for over a year now for the dc10+.
If you go to http://www.pinnaclesys.com and check their forums you will see just how bad their support sucks.
I had a dc10+ for over a year and finally trashed it. I know have the XTASY Everything 5564 personal cinema made by visiontek it is awesome. it is a geforce 2mmx video card with a external tv tuner. it has a svideo and composite input and out connections. and uses nvida refference drivers.
if you go with pinnacle good luck.
hope this helps.

[Buck9419]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-26 22:52:45, Racoty wrote:
buck9419,
The studio av version7 is actually just a dc10+ capture card with the studio 7 software.
The card is really good when you can get it to work. but do not expect any support from pinnacle. they have not released any drivers for over a year now for the dc10+.
If you go to http://www.pinnaclesys.com and check their forums you will see just how bad their support sucks.
I had a dc10+ for over a year and finally trashed it. I know have the XTASY Everything 5564 personal cinema made by visiontek it is awesome. it is a geforce 2mmx video card with a external tv tuner. it has a svideo and composite input and out connections. and uses nvida refference drivers.
if you go with pinnacle good luck.
hope this helps.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for the input. I wasn't really interested in replacing my Geforce 2 card. I would like to find a nice board that isn't real expensive, not over say low $100's. I appreciate the information about the Pinnacle boards. Didn't know the Studio AV version 7 was just a DC10+ with different software.

I'm going to return the Creative Labs blaster digital VCR board. It had great promise but concerned about some of the no standard things that force you to do work arounds.