Which of These Four Cards Should I Get?

[sjaguar13]

I need a capture card for watching and capturing TV shows, and for converting old VHS tapes. Based on reviews and the capture card finder thing, I narrowed it down to these four:
1) Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250
2) Hauppauge WinTV GO-Plus
3) Canopus ADVC-100
4) ATI HDTV Wonder

The Hauppauge stuff is cheap and readily available. The Canopus seems a little more professional quality. The HDTV Wonder was the first HDTV card I seen and have been thinking about getting it ever since it came out. Is any one card better than the others, or should I just shoot for the cheapest thing I can find on eBay?

[FulciLives]

I'm tempted to say the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 (or even the 350 model) but I find that sometimes the Hauppauge units do not give the best VHS captures unless you are using some sort of TBC device.

For computer capture of VHS you might be better off with the Canopus ADVC-100 or ADVC-110 but these two Canopus units only capture to DV AVI which then requires a software encode later on to MPEG-2 DVD spec whereas with the Hauppauge WinTV PVR units you can capture direct to MPEG-2 DVD spec files.

If you think you can afford it I highly suggest going with a DVD recorder with a built-in HDD. The two best models right now are the Pioneer DVR-640H-s and the Toshiba RD-XS35 ... only problem is they are not cheap. Expect to pay $320-$350 US Dollars + shipping.

As always use a website such as PRICEGRABBER.COM to find the lowest on-line price.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[thecoalman]

Well picks one and three are certainly forum favorites, the Hauppauge 250 and Canopus are both widely used with few complaints. AFAIK any complaints about the 250 can be chalked up to user error, don't have one so I can only go by what I've read. As far as the Canopus well.... complaints about the canopus are practically non-existent. It just works and works well.

Between them I would suggest you consider what you're going to do with the video. If your going to simply capture, make some minor edits such as trimming the video and author to DVD then the Hauppage is probably your best choice. If you want to do extensive editing such as color correction then go with the Canopus. If you want archive this video for future use and the 14GB per hour files aren't going to be a problem get the Canopus.

Note that the Canopus is a pretty basic product, there are no bells and whistles. About the only extra feature that it has is you can send video back to it from computer and output via s-video/RCA for previewing which of course is a very nice feature.

[dadrab]

Both the above posts are points well put and should be heeded.

I'll add one thing further. The Hauppauge units give you the ability to capture TV where the Canopus one does not.

If capping TV is of value to you, then you can put a chaulk mark in the Hauppauge column.

I wrestled with yours and other questions for months before finally deciding on a PVR-350 - and the decision was based on the availability to record TV.

I hope I don't regret it.

[thecoalman]

I'll add one thing further. The Hauppauge units give you the ability to capture TV where the Canopus one does not.

You can capture any any RCA or S-Video source or even firewire. What you can't do is tune channels nor do you get any scheduling software, it will only record whatever the input is. Basically it's a mini-DV cam without the lens, FYI if your in the market for a new video cam some will perform the same fuction as the Canopus.

[dadrab]

You can capture any any RCA or S-Video source or even firewire. What you can't do is tune channels nor do you get any scheduling software, it will only record whatever the input is. Basically it's a mini-DV cam without the lens, FYI if your in the market for a new video cam some will perform the same fuction as the Canopus.

You are correct. The Hauppauge device includes a TV tuner.

Using the Canopus device coupled with the proper input, you CAN record TV on that too.

[davideck]

AFAIK any complaints about the 250 can be chalked up to user error,

FWIW, I think that the PVR-250 is a great real time encoder, but I did need to add a Frame Synchronizer to prevent occasional A/V Sync issues when transferring SVHS tapes from my camcorder. Gaps between recordings on tape would cause the playback VCR to briefly go to blue screen and then resume normal playback. This would sometimes cause the video timing to drift away from the audio on the DVD. Using an external TBC/Frame Synchronizer (or DVD Recorder in passthrough) eliminated this problem.

Others on this forum have reported having no such issues. YMMV.

[FulciLives]

AFAIK any complaints about the 250 can be chalked up to user error,

FWIW, I think that the PVR-250 is a great real time encoder, but I did need to add a Frame Synchronizer to prevent occasional A/V Sync issues when transferring SVHS tapes from my camcorder. Gaps between recordings on tape would cause the playback VCR to briefly go to blue screen and then resume normal playback. This would sometimes cause the video timing to drift away from the audio on the DVD. Using an external TBC/Frame Synchronizer (or DVD Recorder in passthrough) eliminated this problem.

Others on this forum have reported having no such issues. YMMV.

That has been my experience as well ... you need a TBC if using a Hauppauge WinTV PVR device ... in my case I was able to use my stand alone DVD recorder to "pass" the signal through and take advantage of it's "taming" of the signal but why use the Hauppauge when I have a stand alone DVD recorder LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[davideck]

why use the Hauppauge when I have a stand alone DVD recorder

My PVR-250 rarely gets used now that I have a DVD Recorder. But for Hauppauge users, why buy an External TBC if a DVD Recorder will do more for less?

[jman98]

My PVR-250 rarely gets used now that I have a DVD Recorder. But for Hauppauge users, why buy an External TBC if a DVD Recorder will do more for less?

Just to play Devil's advocate...
Depending on your input source, you might consider DVD Recorder's 352x480 capture resolution to be less than ideal. Want to do 720x480? Too bad. If there's DVD recorder out there that does 720x480, I'd like to know which one it is.

You might consider 2 channel AC3 to be less than ideal, again, depending on your source. Some allow you to do 2 channel PCM, but I don't know of any recorders that offer anything except 2 channel sound. I've even heard of some that actually record in mono

You have ZERO control over the video bit rate, which is the price you pay for making it easy to use. You want to record 80 minutes to DVD? Then you can kiss about 1/3 of your DVD disc goodbye as it gets used for nothing unless you happen to have a DVD recorder that can record in 90 minute increments. (Some may do this, but all certainly do not.)

I'm NOT saying that it doesn't make sense to get a DVD recorder. I'm just pointing out that there are valid reasons why someone might not want to do this. I don't own one as recording to my PC works great for me and I do want more control over the process than a DVD recorder will give.

[davideck]

jman98 -

I was recommending a DVD Recorder instead of an External TBC, not instead of the Hauppauge card.

AKAIK, all DVD Recorders capture at 720x480 for 2 hours or less.

[FulciLives]

Well not all of the stand alone DVD recorders work as well as others.

In my case I have a Pioneer DVR-531H-s and it has selectable bitrate which you choose in 5 - 10 minute increments. For example there is an 80 minute mode, 85 minute mode, 90 minute mode, 95 minute mode etc.

Also all stand alone DVD recorders do Full D1 resolution (720x480 NTSC although some do 704x480 NTSC but that's no big deal). The trick is that you cannot force Full D1 vs Half D1 or when the switch happens. For instance on my Pioneer DVR-531H-s the switch from Full D1 to Half D1 (352x480) does not happen until approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes or 3 hours and 40 minutes (I forget which) but either way that is way "too late" to wait for such a resolution change.

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR units are good for a clean source (like cable TV or satellite TV) and one can argue that they are good for captures where you need some post capture filtering. Then you can capture at 15,000kbps CBR video bitrate ... filter with AviSynth or VirtualDubMod filters ... then do a 2-pass or multi-pass VBR software MPEG-2 DVD spec encode.

So the Hauppauge WinTV PVR units definitely have their place but for Beta/VHS/8mm video capture you might want to use a TBC or a DVD recorder as a pass-through device (so as to use it's TBC like stabilization abilities).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman