are you still using your PC to capture?

[broadway]

I briefly flirted with capturing video with a TV tuner card, but with my slow PC and 100+ VHS tapes, I decided a DVD recorder was the best bet for me.

For those of you with video capture cards in your PC, are you still using them?

If someone came and asked for your advice, which would you recommend?

On one of those PC maker's website, a guy is being lured by the thought of a $80 tuner card that does excellent captures.

[freebird73717]

I still use my all in wonder ati card for capturing often and am pleased with the quality i get from it. I personally have never used a dvd recoder so i really couldn't offer much advice but.... I can imagine that for a lot of people the dvd recorder route might be quicker/easier.

[jimmalenko]

I use an ADVC-100 (an external A-to-D converter) plugged into my PC over Firewire. I'm very happy with it. Personally I haven't used a DVD Recorder either, but most of my stuff requires editing, and I've read enough here to know that editing MPEG blows in comparison to editing DV-AVI, plus it's easier for me to apply filters to file(s) already on my HDD (as opposed to having to rip a DVD just to get to the source material) so I might stick to my method for a while longer yet.

[Bodyslide]

I use my ATI AIW 9200 to capture both Home Movies and TV Shows. The cost of really good recorders are still not cheap enough for me yet.

[BetaMaster]

I started capturing to my computer, but after a few months got a DVD recorder. I still capture, but not as much. However, I expect that will shift back again.

Pro Computer
- Great for 1 and 2 hour programs
- Much easier to do edits
- Much easier to add things like menus & chapters
- Capture to a variety of formats
- Takes only 10 minutes to burn a DVD once it's all set up

Pro Stand Alone
- Great for 4-6 hour tapes (like sporting events)
- Doesn't tie up your computer
- No need to author after capturing (a 6 hour DVD takes 6 hours to make!)

[Duchess]

I use a small (in terms of physical size) PC for capture and I don't have a DVD recorder and doubt that I ever will. The route I would prefer would be a PC that looks like a HiFi unit that runs something like MS Media Centre software. That would do everything a DVD recorder does plus a heck of a lot more and be just as convenient.

[slacker]

It all depends on what you're ultimate goal is. I take a lot of home movies which require editing, authoring and top notch encoding quality. Therefore, I rely heavily on my capture card, PC, editing and authoring software, dvd burner, etc. A DVD recorder just doesn't make sense in this situation.

On the other hand, if I just want to capture some movies or sports off the TV or whatever, yes, a dvd recorder makes much more sense, absolutely. ALTHOUGH, I have a Media Center PC and it works very well also.

As far as quality, I have both a dvd recorder and a PC/capture card and the PC/capture card STILL performs better with regard to encoding.

[nelson133]

Same as jimmalenko above. DV/AVI much easier to manipulate and edit. I've used a recorder for some things and used other cards and used a software mpg2 encoder for the DV streams and wasn't as happy with the result for most of what I do. Nyah Levi

[broadway]

thanks

I was really looking for comments from those who actually have used both a DVD recorder and a capture card.

[happydog500]

Quality I give DVD Recorders a 9 and computers a 2. Everything is better with a DVD Recorder except editing. (imho).

[yoda313]

Quality I give DVD Recorders a 9 and computers a 2. Everything is better with a DVD Recorder except editing. (imho).

Hi,

Yes that is your opinion

I've been very happy with my hauppauge wintv pvr 250 for the last several years. Excellent output and ease of use. Its mpeg only but since dvd is my ultimate destination it saves me a conversion step. I don't edit mine too heavily so mpeg is more than adequate. The picture quality is superb and matches the source quality quite well.

Kevin

[lordsmurf]

I use DVD recorder to transfer.
I use PC capture card to restore (advanced work).
I do not do large amounts of editing.

Mostly using the DVD recorder these days, in terms of volume. Though the capture card (restoring, editing) still take the bulk of the time.