Been a while, new technology for capturing (various sources)?

[CaZeek]

It's been over 6 years since I've been involved, so I need a refresher and update on the new technology. Currently for capturing, I have a theater 550 pro card (hardware MPEG-2 encoding) w/ s-video and composite inputs. For VHS playback, I have a the following:
JVC HR-S9911U
Datavideo TBC-1000
Elite Video BVP4+
Studio 1 Proc Amp

What is the best method for me to capture from VHS? Should I use that setup into a capture card or into a DVD recorder or something else? Can I upgrade any of the devices or should I add something to the mix? Is my order correct on the hardware?

Second question: If I am capturing from digital cable today, what is the best option to go with assuming standard def programs?

Thanks for the help.

[usually_quiet]

If you are buying a Windows 7 PC, you will need a different capture device. AMD didn't release Windows 7 drivers for yours. Otherwise, what you have is still fine for VHS capture.

A TV tuner card with an analog tuner and analog A/V inputs is also still the best option for recording the SD output from a digital cable box. While there is manufacturer-provided PVR software that works with pure capture devices without a tuner, all the third-party PVR software that I am familiar with of requires an analog tuner for capturing the output of a set-top box.

[CaZeek]

Thanks. What is the best capture card for windows 7? Is hardware mpeg2 encoding best or raw vid and software encoding? If #2, which software yields the best results? Appreciate the help!

[misermidas]

It does not make much sense to keep raw video files for archiving from VHS .
This will take a lot of space and quality will be no more than VHS.

Raw capture is best when you want to do software restoration or reencoding from your captured video files.

You can also hard encode in MPEG2 or other format with a high bit rate and then reencode to a lower bit rate after restorating.
One inconvenient of hardware encoding is that it does not usually allow variable bit rate wich should be used in any case.

Video quality from VHS does not depend only from digital format but also a lot from the electronic circuitry from the digitalizer.
There will be little difference between digitilazing cards with analogic signals that come from DVB or through a TBC.

[CaZeek]

Thanks- I did not mean to actually archive as raw video. I am wondering whether the quality is better if I capture to raw video and then use a software encoder to encode to MPEG-2 or use a capture card to hardware encode to MPEG-2 directly. Which card is the best for whichever scenario is better?

Also, I forgot to mention the Signvideo DR-1000 above.

[usually_quiet]

Thanks. What is the best capture card for windows 7? Is hardware mpeg2 encoding best or raw vid and software encoding? If #2, which software yields the best results? Appreciate the help!

SD analog capture has fallen by the wayside. Don't expect to find any new VHS and and SD analog capture products that work like what you already have. Consumer interest has moved towards HD capture devices and digital tuners now that analog OTA TV is dead and HD TVs are the norm.

The "best" VHS capture plus analog tuner devices are from the Windows XP era. Most never had any thing but Windows XP drivers available, although a few had Vista drivers too. The ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB PC TV Tuner is an example of such a device. It sometimes turns up on ebay. Some people managed to get it to work in a Windows 7 system, but it was not a plug-and-play experience, while others could not get theirs to work. The TV Wonder PCI 600 PCI does have Windows 7 drivers but it uses different hardware and is not as good as the USB version. It has issues with its automatic gain control unpredictably bleaching out the video in a few frames, then going back to normal. All the TV Wonder 650 and 750 devices also have the same issues with their AGC.

The "best" current PC capture devices for VHS may not be the best ones for recording TV from your digital cable box. Software encoding is preferred for VHS restoration, while hardware encoding is usually preferred for PVR-type use. The Hauppauge 610 USB-Live 2 Analog Video Digitizer and Video Capture Device can be made to work with Virtualdub and some other third-party capture software for losslessly compressed capture, but not with third-party PVR software since it has no tuner. It doesn't do hardware encoding. I don't know what current TV tuner cards work well for SD analog capture using either hardware or software encoding. It is impossible to tell anything from user reviews. Most appear to be written by idiots who have no clue as to how to set up and use their purchase correctly.

If you can find one (they are virtually extinct in N. America), a DVD recorder works well for recording the output from a cable box, but current models won't control your cable box. I bought a Magnavox MDR513H/F7 to use for recording the output from my cable box. It works well for me, but I have to manually change the cable box to the channel I want to record.

I also tried my TV Wonder 650 PCI card for capturing from my cable box and it worked. Windows 7's Media Center could control the cable box and use the card's hardware encoder for capture. (An IR Receiver plus IR blaster is required for analog capture using Windows 7's Media Center. If you don't have one installed, it won't allow you to set up for analog capture.) Video quality was poor using Windows Media Center and I didn't persist with the project to try to improve quality. I decided that I preferred using my only good PC at my desk in the bedroom when doing anything other than watching video and bought the DVD recorder. I may revisit my HTPC project if I build another PC in the near future.