Opinions Please... Which Capture device should i get???

[Tomoyo Narusegawa]

I have:

2000+ XP CPU
512 DDR 333Mhz Ram
120GB 8MB Cache HD
128MB Geforce4 4200 VideoCard
SB Audigy SoundCard
48X CDRW

Wondering wut else should I get???
I would like to do the following...

Capture TV Shows from a Cable source (not digital cable) and store them in SVCD format... Which will later be burned to CD-R...

Which programs should I download/buy???
Which capture card/tv tuner card should i buy???
Should I change/upgrade/add any hardware???

[darkelf]

Since you want to save caps as SVCD, I'm assuming that you wish to capture *directly* to MPEG2.

Hauppage WinTV-DVR - has hardware MPEG2 encoding

*or*

ATI AIW Card - uses software for MPEG2 encoding, but are cheeper.

I don't have any software rec for editing MPEG2. I cap to Huffyuv and do more post-processing.

If you go that route you will need

1. alot of space on that 120gig drive
2. TMPGEnc for encoding to MPEG2
3. VirtualDub for Capping/Editing the Huffy-AVI file before you encode it.

Both proggies are free, tho TMPG has a 30 day trial on MPEG2 encoding.
It gives the best results as long as time is not a consideration.

I have heard that Premiere is a very nice program if you have the time to learn how to use it effectively (and can afford it).

Hope this helps....

[Gee W]

Get the ATI All In Wonder 7500, it is the cheapest card and you can do SVCD captures right out of the box using MMC 7.7. Then all you have to do is burn them with Nero. No fuss. Of course, you will need TMPGEnc to cut the video into 80 Minute segments.

I picked up a card here in Canada for $135 Cdn. (aprox $85 USD). There was one store had hundreds of these cards with no cables. I guess that is why it is so cheap, cuz the retail for close to $200 Cdn ($135 USD) everywhere else.

I just picked up the input box for $20 Cdn ($13 USD) and I was off to the races.

[crahak]

I woudln't go for a AIW 7500 necessarily. If you want something real good... Then you want the v'dub/huffyuv (or mjpeg)/tmpgenc... "mpeg2 on the fly" solutions will never look as good. Besides, the ATI cards I've tried made blurry captures. For quite cheap, you can get a generic BT8x8 card and make good encodes. If you want better than this, then, you'll have to spend serious money on the card and cables. And still, that don't make the source better. And most of the time, the best way to get a better rip would be to go for more CD's, or DVD-R... Anyways, there's already like a milion posts with that question. Do a search and see for yourself (we almost get a new post a day for that one...)

[rhegedus]

You don't necessarily need a TV capture card.

If you have a spare VHS recorder, then you could use the sVHS output (the recorder being used as a tuner) and put it into a dedicated cature card (i.e. without the TV tuner).

If you look at the capture card section (http://www.vcdhelp.com/capturecards), you'll see the Canopus ADVC-100 is well out in front. If you want an internal device then I'd go for the ADVC-50 which does more or less the same job but without anaogue out put and macrovision removal) for about £100 less.

This is the one that I'm going to get (to transfer old VHS to HD) once I get round to it.

Regards,

Rob