Video Capture card suggestions(specifics in post)

[Digital Man]

I've been sifting through the forum and the main site, as well as other sites for around 3 hours now and I'm just more confused than ever. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff other than my brief time and recordings with the ATI All in Wonder series of cards. I'm not real happy with them and am looking to get something else.

I am mostly just recording gaming footage. Stuff from Sega Genesis, Sony Playstation, MS Xbox, etc. I'd like to have a card that has component input so that when I record Xbox games that output 720p or 1080i resolution, I can capture that resolution off them. I am also looking for something that doesn't have a response lag in terms of when I move the controller, it moves the character on the screen immediately(as it would with a conventional console to TV setup). The ATI AiW line up has an unavoidable lag where when you move on the controller it takes a second for the character on the screen to respond. This really screws up any gameplay footage I try to get.

I'm not sure what to ask for in terms of what it can record at. When I do videos, no matter what I record them in at, I always convert them to DIVX in the end, so I guess anything that can be converted to the DIVX format would be fine. I'm not looking to make DVDs out of this stuff or anything(though if it were a possibility, it may be kind of fun). I do edit them, but I'm guessing both MPEG and AVI are easily editable with pretty much any decent editing software out there(freeware or priced).

In terms of hardware or whatnot, I've got a P4 3Ghz machine with 1.25 gigs of ram and an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro card. I have two Maxtor HDs, one is 300 gig, the other is 120 gig. I have a SoundBlaster Audigy PCI sound card.

I have heard the brand Happauge is pretty good, but I can't seem to get anyone to tell me a model no. Past that, ATI's TV Wonder series is about the only other thing I know of.

I was trying to keep it under $200 if at all possible. Any thoughts, suggestions or anything else would be much appreciated as I am just utterly lost.

DM

[redwudz]

The Hauppauge cards are hardware MPEG encoders with a tuner. If your final destination for your video is MPEG, they work very well. Most will recommend the 250 model. If you want to go to Divx or Xvid instead, then other types of capture may be better.

For editing, Divx or Xvid are very poor. MPEG is better. Best is a less compressed form of AVI type format. Quite a few cards can capture in less compressed formats.

I'm not sure you are going to get rid of the lag. The video has to be converted to the computer format, then displayed on a monitor, so there is always a little delay. You would be better off to feed the video directly to a TV type monitor and use that for game play then also record it with the computer at the same time.

You won't find a lot of capture cards with component input, at least not usually for a reasonable price. That's more common in higher end video cards.

Others can probably elaborate on all of this, or correct me.

And welcome to our forums.

[Digital Man]

I appreciate the thoughts. :)

I'll take a look into this Hauppauge 250 card, it sounds pretty good from what you've said.

Yeah, I agree, Dr Divx isn't the best when it comes to editing. I guess I should have been a bit clearer, I generally use something like Virtual Dub Mod to edit, then when it's all said and done, I run it through Dr. Divx to convert the huge size down to a lesser one.

On the lag, I was thinking the same thing, but what does one get when they'd like to record off their TV? A buddy of mine uses his camcorder but I don't have anything like that. Are there boxes that can be bought relatively cheaply that allow one to do something like this?

Again, thanks for the help! It's nice to finally have a model no. to actually look at this time around(you're the first person who's ever given me anything other than "Try Hauppauge"). :)

Thanks again,

DM

[Digital Man]

Ok, just took a look at this Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 thing and I gotta say I am pretty impressed! It sounds like a great card! The only thing that worries me are the ports on the back. I mean, I see the Coaxial input, the S-Video...but then I see some weird yellow input and what looks like two headphone jacks. I'm guessing one of the jacks is for your Sound Card to go into? What are the other two? I'd assume that yellow one is for audio...but does it come with some sort of adapter to connect stereo sound into? I'd guess so...but I was just looking for anyone who can confirm. :)

Thanks again ya'll!

DM

[jagabo]

My PVR-250 has the following inputs:

s-video
composite video (yellow)
stereo mini pin-plug (audio)
IR receiver (for remote control)
coax (cable TV or antenna)

[ranchhand]

I'm using the 250PVR card to capture my analog camcorder input / convert to mpeg2, and it works real fast & clean. The mpeg2 files are high quality. Use the WinTV 2000 (free) capture software from Hauggpauge-works real smooth.

[Digital Man]

My PVR-250 has the following inputs:

s-video
composite video (yellow)
stereo mini pin-plug (audio)
IR receiver (for remote control)
coax (cable TV or antenna)

On the stereo mini pin-plug, does it have some sort of converter to put the Right and Left channels from an audio AV cable into it?

Thanks!

DM

[Digital Man]

I'm using the 250PVR card to capture my analog camcorder input / convert to mpeg2, and it works real fast & clean. The mpeg2 files are high quality. Use the WinTV 2000 (free) capture software from Hauggpauge-works real smooth.

Sounds good, I appreciate the input! Have you attempted to record anything that requires any sort of input(like a video game console)?

Thanks!

DM

[jagabo]

You will not be able to record a game console while you play unless you have a TV connected directly to the console. The PVR-250's capture display is a few seconds behind the input video.

There is a "live preview" registry tweek but that still leaves you a frame or two behind and it makes the display less stable.

Check out these sites for PVR-250 (and other models) information:

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/htpc.html
http://www.shspvr.com/

[Digital Man]

Ok, I'll take a look into that. Thanks for the links and help, everyone! :)

DM