Need recommendations for CHEAP video capture device

[Noahtuck]

Hey all

Like the title say's.

I want to capture between 5-15 minutes of game play from older game consoles for demonstration purposes.

I don't need HD quality, composite &/or S-VHS input is good enough but I still want a decent vid cap & I need to cap in 4:3 or 16:9
with audio of course.

It can be either PCI or USB, USB would be nice than I can easily move it from PC to PC.
It must be W7 64bit compatible.

I would prefer it to be $40.00 or less as it will be basically used for the limited purpose of games, no restoration or the like.

I have been checking out a few USB devices, Sabrent, EZCAP, etc. but there are so many and so many conflicting reviews, although a lot of the bad reviews seem to be about things that leads one to believe the reviewer does not know his head from a hole in the ground.

Any recommendations from actual users would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!

[usually_quiet]

ATI TV Wonder 600 USB. I have one and it works quite well for for me to do TV captures from a cable box with Windows 7 32-bit. lordsmurf also says it is very good and swears it works perfectly using Windows 7 64-bit as well. There are Vista drivers for it and Windows 7 drivers from EMPIA that work if you edit the registry. I bought mine new in box from ebay. Here is a current listing for one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-TV-Wonder-HD-600-/121082104748?pt=US_Video_Capture_TV_Tune...item1c310e4bac

[Noahtuck]

Cool, that's one I did not come across yet.
I am going to have to look up some specs on it and see what else I can find out about it.

I will be using them on a quad core 3.?ghz (I can't remember offhand but my backup PC is over 3.0ghz LOL), with 4gb of DDR2 ram so that, I am sure, will be plenty for game capturing through USB.

Thanks & keep em coming!!

[usually_quiet]

I just remembered something about older game consoles... Video output from the very old ones can be difficult to capture. You had best do some research before you buy a capture device to make sure you don't need something more expensive or nearly impossible to find to succeed with your project.

[Noahtuck]

Well I have used my hauppauge wintv PVR PCI II 250 before and it worked fine, the only problem is I used it on my quad core which I used to have set up as a dual boot between W7 & XP because the drivers for it will only work under XP.

But I have since put in a new hdd with W7 64bit only.
I tried to install it on an old single core machine that I have a 20gb hdd on with XP that I use for older software and linux software, but the software is so buggy and I don't have much ram or space on the old XP machine and quite frankly, I am sick of farting around with the old hauppauge cards and their $H!T support/drivers.
But I don't have enough reason to throw $100.00 or more into a new W7 compatible HD card.
Although at some point in time I am sure I will, just not any time soon and not for this little project(s) I am doing once a week for older game footage.
Which is basically just for emulators running on an original Xbox.

[usually_quiet]

Well I have used my hauppauge wintv PVR PCI II 250 before and it worked fine, the only problem is I used it on my quad core which I used to have set up as a dual boot between W7 & XP because the drivers for it will only work under XP.

But I have since put in a new hdd with W7 64bit only.
I tried to install it on an old single core machine that I have a 20gb hdd on with XP that I use for older software and linux software, but the software is so buggy and I don't have much ram or space on the old XP machine and quite frankly, I am sick of farting around with the old hauppauge cards and their $H!T support/drivers.
But I don't have enough reason to throw $100.00 or more into a new W7 compatible HD card.
Although at some point in time I am sure I will, just not any time soon and not for this little project(s) I am doing once a week for older game footage.
Which is basically just for emulators running on an original Xbox.

I haven't read anything indicating that capturing SD output from the original XBox would be a problem. The consoles I read about were much older systems from 20 years ago.

[Bjs]

Easycaps or dvd easymaker gold pci

Cheap ... both I have, the pci works well for console caps.

Works with other applications like ulead and nero and supported across os's from xp32 > win7.

I have not tested the easycaps unit but make sure its not a clone knock off.

[usually_quiet]

StarTech SVID2USB2 USB 2.0.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4276658&CatId=1428

There are some screenshots from the device here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/349215-Best-PCI-Video-Capture-Card-Windows-7-S-Vide...=1#post2187038

There is some good Windows driver information under the heading "UPDATE: 1/29/2013" in a review for the StarTech's SVID2USB2 here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R13EG4HUZZRZBW/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1

[Noahtuck]

Thanks for all the input!

That startech was one of the couple I was looking at, but on Newegg.

I was thinking about that one you linked to on Ebay, but then I thought, if it does not work correctly it would probably be easier and faster to return something to Newegg.

I ended up getting this one from Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156023

It came thursday and I tried it out and it worked fine for my purpose.

But man, have I become spoiled since I went to all HD LED tv's and bluray players 2 years ago!!
Threw out all my CRT's and went all HD.

I am going to have to invest in an HD card this summer!!
Now on to my next dilemma!!
LOL!