Need advice on which capture/graphics card I should get with

[Emanef]

Hi guys.

I've recently upgraded a few components in my pc, and I want to get a decent but cheap mpeg card that will capture from the tv to and allow me to burn as vcd's/svcd's to play in my dvd player (whichh does play these!)

My system is now as follows:
AMD T-Bird 1.4
Abit KT7A-raid mobo (but not in raid array)
512mb sdram cas 2
SBlive sound card
2 x IBM 40gb ata100 drive (one 5400 rpm and the other 7200)
Hercules Dynamite TNT 16mb card (agp 2x)

My graphics card is one of the only things I have not yet upgraded, and I don't know if the Hercules will be sufficient with a basic TV tuner/capture card. If not, should I get a cheap new AGP4x card and a seperate capture card, or am I better off getting a combined one, like the ATI Radeon 64DDR VIVO or All in wonder, etc? I don't play many games, so nose-bleed 3d performance is certainly not essential for me......!

If I am better off getting a seperate (cheap!) tv capture card, which should I go for with my system? I've had a good look round, and no-one seems to actually say which is best, and I've noted quite a few comments about mobos with Via chipsets (like mine is) causing problems with some cards.

As it's mostly for just recording the odd tv program to vcd, I'd rather a card that allows capture straight to mpeg, as I don't want to have to spend too much time
converting files between different formats. I also want to avoid usb capture devices.....

I think that's pretty much everything covered, so any advice, especially from anyone with a similar set-up would be much appreciated.

I'm in the UK, btw, so any card would really need to be available here.......!

Many thanks in advance......!

[dumwaldo]

been there, done that, got the t-shirt

https://www.videohelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=71859&forum=2

it doesn't surprise me when i see incoherent dupe threads but when someone takes the time to compose a well thought out post i can't help but wonder why they didn't just use the search feature.

this is not a slam but did you see the search link at the top? maybe it needs to be bigger or somehow more prominant so people will notice it better.

[Emanef]

Hmmm, must admit I hadn't seen the Search option. I have just tried searching, though, and mine was the only post it found! To be honest, I've been trying for a few days just to even get to the site, so had a look through a few forums I thought might be relevant, but couldn't really find the answers I were looking for.

Thanks for the link, though.

The Dazzle DVCII looks very good, presuming it works on my AMD/Via system. Probably worth the investment as well, as it should happily capture at higher res to burn dvd's when dvd burners become cheaper. Though looking at the Dazzle site, it doesn't appear to have a TV tuner or the RF input.

Just a shame I have to pay the same amount of UK pounds as Americans do in dollars......!