What capture card to buy?

[etay]

What would be the best and the cheapest capture card to produce high quality SVCD from VHS Tapes?
I'm now using Pinnacle PCTV and it cant capture anything over 384 X 288

[vhelp]

etay,

well, my 2cents worth is:
1st, you didn't say what kind of VHS, ie:
* taped tv shows done
--done in SP/SLP/EP mode ? ? (SP being the best quality for any VCD proj)
* store bought movie(s)
* home-made movies from your 8mm or VHS or whatever

So, given the above. . .in any case,

* don't bother w/ SVCD from VHS. Course, you already know this, but are
insisting that when YOU create SVCD from VHS, it'll look like a rip from
DVD. Well, not quite!! But, if you do capture from VHS (store bought
movies, i pressume) you can create great looking VCDs, and almost just
as good a a DVD rip to VCD! I can make a slightely better quality SVCD
vs. VCD, due to my experinece in this area, but I prefer the quality of
the VCD I create, and besides, the SVCD pretty much looks the same as
the VCD, just a slightely sharper look - just a slight.
But, in order to accomplish this, you have to know all about filters and
HOW to use them, per type-of-Source capture!!

My tip for you and other newbies out there trying to do this end of the
video game, is to use the VHS filter that was designed for vdub. It's
a separate D/L from something Graft's site -can't remember exactly, but
you can do a search via Google.com for this "VHS" filter for vdub.
But, even for a newbie, it's a long jerney (capturing and encoding)
The one thing I don't like about the VHS filter, and also why I DON'T
use it, is it bleeds or leaks color onto the next frame or two. But,
for newbies, it wont matter, till you get accustomed to or desire to
improve upon in quality. Then, you'll notice things you never noticed
before, hence my negative use of VHS filter. (Yes, I've tried various
settings, but nothing worked to clear this up on most of my VHS stock)
I'm currently using my OWN bruew of filtering for VHS-to-VCD.
Why do I do VHS-to-VCD still, cause it's cheaper to by VHS movies for
$4 then spend $20 on a DVD. And, if my goal is to create a VCD anyways,
hell or heck, I may as well get the VHS movie instead. I make great
looking VCDs from VHS, so it's ok for me

There are two ways of VCD creations:
A - Analog capturing, or
B - DV transfering via firewire to your harddrive
C - buy the best VHS/VCR player you can find, cause NOT all VCRs are
alike in quality. ie, my 6 year old Sony plays way better video quality
from VHS vs. my new SVHS by JVC.
note, no matter how good you are at VHS-to-VCD, if you VCR's output
quality suck, so will your VCDs!! ...GIGO!! ...machine'wise, he, he...

W/ A, you get great looking color, but w/ B, you loose color quality. I've used MainConcepts codec (a free D/L) and it
works fine, as long as you re-save your DV avi file back w/ it, cause
it adds a LOGO to your video on every frame.

I use a DV cam (no Pass-through) and, I hook up my ATW to it, and capture
analog'wise, cause I love the color quality!! All my VHS-to-VCD's are
IMO, excellent!! But, then again, I'm no newbie, and I'm SO NOT gonna
spoon feed anyone!! Read, Read, Read all the info... everything you need
to know about is all to your left:
* What is
* How to
* Capture
* Convert
* FAQ, etc.
* then, go visit as many website as you can, and do some more reading,
ie, www.Doom9.com (the exact link??)
The reason why I tape to miniDV tapes is so that I don't ruin the VHS
tape from over use of FF/RW. Better to do it w/ a miniDV tape, IMO.

Cards I would recommend are:
* ATW - ati-tv wonder
* dvc I/II - hardware mpeg1/2
* wintv go
* dc10+ - mjpeg avi format
I have used all these cards, and currently, I'm w/ my ATW.

Well, that's about it for me and my 2 cents worth here.
Good luck.

-vhelp