ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB and PAL?

[MrGlasspoole]

Hi,

i want to transfer my old tapes and from reading here allot of people recommend the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB.
One question is: does the stick work with PAL?

The other question is:
Is it better to capture in Windows XP then Win7/8 with Vista drivers?

The VCR is a JVC HR-S9500 with TBC.

[hech54]

I'm here in Germany as well. I bought the Hauppauge USB Live2. It can and does capture PAL easily, and with some tweaking can also capture NTSC tapes played in a PAL VCR (PAL-60). I'm using XP Pro.....and the Philips clone of your JVC VCR (Philips VR-1100).

[MrGlasspoole]

Nicht mal hier ist man vor Deutschen sicher

I was asking for the TV Wonder cause i was reading the picture is sharper then with the Hauppauge.

Ok, did not know that this JVC has a clone.
I know of Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende clones of other JVC's.
Good to know...

[jman98]

The other question is:
Is it better to capture in Windows XP then Win7/8 with Vista drivers?

I've never heard anyone here say that it's better to capture in XP like "My XP captures are great quality, but the quality is terrible when I use the Vista drivers on a different PC", but you should know that as Windows gets further and further away from Vista, the less likely the drivers are to work in the future. If the Vista drivers still work in Win 8 then I wouldn't bet on them working in Win 9.

For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of ATI equipment at all and I much prefer to use Hauppauge. The advice to use that ATI device is really old. And if I remember correctly it was actually an ATI 600-something model card and not a USB device that everybody was excited about using at the time. That card had a comb filter that a lot of people liked, again, if I remember correctly. To be blunt, usually those older USB devices weren't as good as cards at the time, so I'm just not sure that you are remembering correctly. Or it could be me who isn't remembering correctly because I don't really keep up with ATI since I'm not really a fan. I think Hauppauge makes better capture devices, but that's just my opinion.

[hech54]

Nicht mal hier ist man vor Deutschen sicher

I was asking for the TV Wonder cause i was reading the picture is sharper then with the Hauppauge.

Ok, did not know that this JVC has a clone.
I know of Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende clones of other JVC's.
Good to know...

UND....ich bin Amerikaner!!!!


The Hauppauge has been bulletproof so far.....and as far as clarity goes, we are talking VHS here.


I captured this last week, an NTSC VHS tape from 1981:
https://mega.co.nz/#!vQIAWCSa!Qt5KUSNBL1YfqkusDUSe8iqd8DVWODurJftuV05E8_w
7MB

[jagabo]

I was asking for the TV Wonder cause i was reading the picture is sharper then with the Hauppauge.

That doesn't matter with VHS tape. VHS resolution is far below the abilities of any modern capture device.

[ajk]

I've got the ATI600 USB stick and it works fine with PAL.

[hech54]

I've got the ATI600 USB stick and it works fine with PAL.

I thought it would work with PAL too....it all depends on the install procedure/software. I just don't like the looks of that threaded "American TV cable" connection on the end of it.

[usually_quiet]

I have the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB. I have used it with Widows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 8.1 32-bit. The Vista drivers I used came from https://www.diamondmm.com/tvw600usb-ati-amd-tv-wonder-hd-600.html. The "VISTA 32, VISTA 64 VER 22" driver package dated 2008-8-5 was the one that worked best for all three Windows OS versions.

The included Catalyst Multimedia Center capture software works best with XP or Vista, but there are other choices for capture software that work with the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB if using Windows 7 or Windows 8.x.

Chances are that the OP won't be using the F-type RF connector and will use the composite video and stereo audio connections on the included breakout cable instead.

[Edit]The Hauppauge USB Live 2 is easier to get, probably easier to set up, and there is nothing terribly wrong with it as far as I know. The picture for Hauppauge USB Live 2 is supposed to be a little softer than the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB, but still good quality. I have recommended it as well as the ATI TV Wonder 600 HD USB.

[hech54]

Chances are that the OP won't be using the F-type RF connector and will use the composite video and stereo audio connections on the included breakout cable instead.

I know he won't be....that connection is used for satellite TV "over here".

[usually_quiet]

Chances are that the OP won't be using the F-type RF connector and will use the composite video and stereo audio connections on the included breakout cable instead.

I know he won't be....that connection is used for satellite TV "over here".

Good to know, but no doubt an appropriate adapter can be found if one is needed to use the RF connection. I am certain I have seen them. However I think the tuner is ATSC/NTSC only, so the OP probably won't want to use that connection.

On the other hand the device's analog capture drivers support just about any kind of SD TV system.

[MrGlasspoole]

I've never heard anyone here say that it's better to capture in XP like "My XP captures are great quality, but the quality is terrible when I use the Vista drivers on a different PC"

It was more a "working without problems" then a "quality" question.
I have 2 DOS, 1 Win95, 2 Win98, 1 XP and 5 Win8 machines - so i don't need to compromise.

The advice to use that ATI device is really old.
And if I remember correctly it was actually an ATI 600-something model card and not a USB device

No, the threads are from 2012 and 2013 and its really the USB device.

To be blunt, usually those older USB devices weren't as good as cards at the time

There is a thread about that:
PCI vs. USB capture device

UND....ich bin Amerikaner!!!!

Noch schlimmer - ein Ausländer

I found this here in the forum:

I think Hech54 made a good suggestion for analog tape capture. I have seen clips of some of his VHS captures made with a Hauppauge USB Live2, and they looked good.

and

The Hauppauge USB Live 2 worked very well for one of our members, and his captures looked pretty good.

So hech54 has experience with capturing VHS and if he says the Hauppauge
is good i guess I can buy it.

I just remember the Hauppauge PCI cards from the Win95/98 times and the drivers where horrible.

Is there a good guide for VHS capturing and post processing?
Capturing with VirdualDub?
Codec huffyuv?
Filters?
De-interlacing yes or no?

[usually_quiet]

De-interlacing is always no, unless there is a good reason. A good reason would be to play the video on a website or play it on a device that either cannot play interlaced video or cannot de-interlace.

[hech54]

I just remember the Hauppauge PCI cards from the Win95/98 times and the drivers where horrible.

I also have a Hauppauge PVR-350 card in this computer. Still use it occasionally. Great for XP.

[jagabo]

I've never heard anyone here say that it's better to capture in XP like "My XP captures are great quality, but the quality is terrible when I use the Vista drivers on a different PC"...

You often find that the capture device's video proc amp doesn't work with newer versions of Windows. So you may not be able to adjust brightness, colors, sharpness, noise reduction, etc. with Vista, Win7, or Win8.

And many people running Win7 or Win8 are running 64 bit versions. Old 32 bit drivers won't work.

[ajk]

@MrGlasspoole

I use VirtualDub to capture and generally use Lagarith .avi as the format. After that some Avisynth work as needed, then edit and encode as you prefer.

I also use the ezcap.tv device and image-quality wise I can't tell any difference with the ATI. With both devices the drivers can be a bit fragile, but work fine once you get everything going.

[jman98]

UND....ich bin Amerikaner!!!!

Noch schlimmer - ein Ausländer

For the record, it was hech54 who said that, NOT me. I didn't even quote his remark.

[MrGlasspoole]

Do you guys crop the captured videos to get rid off the stuff that normally is hidden in the
overscan area on crt TVs?
Don't want to watch the movies on my crt's - they are just for console gaming.

Oh and the F-connector is nothing special here in Germany.
Sat-receivers have them and house installation (cable and sat) are done with them.
But the ones for better shielding are called Kompressionsstecker and you need special pliers to mount
them to the cable. Its the same connection like the F-connector but with better quality.

[ajk]

I keep the image area intact through all processing and archive the file like that also. Then, I will make a separate deinterlaced and slightly cropped and re-sized version for viewing purposes, YouTube and so on.

[MrGlasspoole]

For the record, it was hech54 who said that, NOT me. I didn't even quote his remark.

Sorry that was to many quotes. I changed it.

@ajk, youtube is out of question. I try to avoid google the best i can
First think i want to capture is my "Song of the South" tape cause Disney will never release it on DVD/Blu-Ray.
Everything will be for viewing (thats what movies for) but not public.

[hech54]

UND....ich bin Amerikaner!!!!

Noch schlimmer - ein Ausländer

For the record, it was hech54 who said that, NOT me. I didn't even quote his remark.

No worries....I didn't even notice until you pointed it out.