Video Capture Card

Any recommendations? I need 2, one to watch TV on my PC upstairs, and one to capture video game screen shots on my PC downstairs. Something mid to lower-mid range.

 

i've been looking for one myself; haven't really decided but i've heard good things about hauppauge and a few ati cards; just make sure you get hardware decoding with whatever you buy

 

For my site, i use the USB SIIG AVTuner Pro-PVR, cost 100 bucks but its good if you have a laptop or a lack of PCI slots, like I do heh

 

I have heard that most USB capture devices are not recommended if you want to play games, as there's some sort of delay while the video is being sent to the PC in real time.

At work we use Pinnacle capture hardware. They have some PCI cards with TV capabilities, but I'm not sure if their prices are within your range.

The one I have right now is a Prolink Pixelview Pro. Average at best, is hard to get it to work properly under XP. Only with DScaler I have been able to get the resolution up to 720x480, as it seems the card only works up until 320x240 with it's default drivers. So I don't recommend Prolink.

 

PCTV by pinacle are a good series that have been around for many many years. I have one too, which i use for the last five years.

Be warned however. Capturing footage from the S-Video/Composite-in that the cards offer is really really crap compared to captured frames from a frame-buffer.

the "Best" solution for nea-frame-buffer-quality captures is to go for a capture box that supports your desired resolution and is compatible with progessive scan - assuming your source does that sort of signal in the first place. But those cost a testicle as far as their price goes. The pro-looking packs connect via IEEE1394.

Casual PCTV-type capturing should be more than ok for composite-like captures at low resolutions, eg, saturn , n64 and before.

PS: the best option if you want to watch TV on your PC is to get a monitor that has a tuner built-in, rather than going through software . Usually those monitors have sharper quality and many times include component inputs too! You can watch TV while PC is off, and while PC is on, they can overlay over any image that is on a sthe screen, including a PC game -however, last time i checked they don't interact with the OS in any way, so capturing is impossible on them.

 

I would suggest a Hauppage series card. I hear a lot of HTPC users recommend this card. I used to own a 9600Pro all in wonder and that card was perfect. It recorded in S-Video quality MPEG2, no 1-second delay while playing videogames (most capture cards have this), decent video editing software plus TV channel guide.

If any of your computers have an AGP slot, I suggest you look specifically for this videocard becuase i've had no problems with it.

Since I've upgraded, it's been harder for me to find a capture card that does not have the dreaded delay that. Some cheap capture cards have this like from K-world. You can't have this delay if, lets say, you're playing a schmup videogame.

I also hear bad things from ATIs latest capture cards but mainly due to software issues and the 1-second delay.

 

Thanks for the comments.

The screen shots I want are from retro consoles, N64 and before, so I don't need anything too fancy.

I didn't want to have the PC/TV-Monitor since I've seen how they work and usually you don't have a choice as to where you want the TV image to be positioned on the screen, if I can remember correctly.

I've already eliminated the USB option...

Also, does anyone know how the card works with a cable box? I'm assuming to get all of my regular channels I have to split the line coming out the the box, one to the TV and one to the PC?

 

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=100-711041&cat=VCD

Check that one out.

 

Canopus is apparently the best consumer level capture device out there that doesn't drop frames and shit, and also lets you use any software you want. AFAIK, Pinnacle shit requries their turd software. I just bought a Cannopus. It captured video great, but the audio is "wavey". It's most likely my luck... I have had a number of capture devices, and they have all given me shitty results. I am a black cat when it comes to capturing.

 

The delay cant be that bad if I can get perfects on Samba de Amigo on Super Hard mode. 720x480 is the max resolution supported without editing anything anyway. The myth about USB tuners is from using a crappy card, which happens with PCI as well, and the fact that the myth originates from USB 1.0 days. Really, the only better way is to spend the 200-300 bucks on a 480P component capture card, or spend thousands on more.

Edit: TV works great too

 

Eric, I have a fantastic card that does TV plus accepts S-Video and A/V inputs. I'll send you the details when I get home. It has loads of filters as well that can turn a really shitty TV image into a perfect one !! No more ghosting or fuzz for you !

Yakumo

 

OK, back home now. The card you want to get since you live in Japan is the I.O Data GV-MVP/RX2 or the RX2W This is a very good card that will change your PC in to a harddrive recorder thanks to the software that comes with it. You get Magic TV, AEPG Plus, IPEG, Ulead Video Toolbox 2, Power Producer 3 and other stuff. You can capture only in MPEG2 but up to 30MBPS !!! That's far higher than you need. Resolution is either DVD (NTSC) as default or DVD (PAL) or VHS NTSC or PAL. Plus you have the custom option.

Here are two shots I just captured from TV.



Yakumo

 

DO you know, yakumo, if that will work on US Windows OS? I googled it and by the looks of the results this is only sold in Japan. Those screenshots are freaking amazing. How much did it cost you?

 

Those shots are downsampled as well from the original 1.4Meg BMP screen grabs to JPEG.

The card probably won't work on a None Japanese version of XP since it requires the use of the Japanese language packs? or whatever they are called. Maybe if you installed them?

The card set me back 18'000 yen about 1 year ago which is around 155 USD. Don't forget that Japan is expensive for PC items. Its well worth the price though. The way it can take a fuzzy ghosting picture and turn it in to a perfect image is amazing ! You can even set it so that Sega Saturn games that use a mesh instead of transparency actually looks as if they are using transparency ! I have no idea how it works but it's something to do with manipulating the mesh effect. Of course this isn't what it was designed for, just a luck bonus "side effect"

Yakumo

 

Mine was from a 1MB BMP, using a crappy dorm room cable connection

 

At least yours was from a cable connection. Our TV image on the normal TV is bloody awful. Not one channel has a perfect picture. Remember I'm from PAL land (Best TV analogue image :thumbsup so I'm pretty fussy.

Yakumo

 

OK my head's ready to explode now.

Yakumo it's going to be for my English Windows XP system. Are all of your menus in Japanese?

MadHatter that's a cool card. But does the extra monitor port do anything for me? That will be the third one.

Here's one I was looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320024668931&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:US:1

I'm not planning on doing much recording or video editing with them. For one I just want to watch TV, for the other I just want to take screen shots, but nothing too fancy, just basic things.

 

That Radeon VE AIW will do you good, then. THat hauppage is the MCE version and comes with no software, just drivers.

 

Ill probably pick it up then...Ill let you know how it goes...

 

No, it's 100% Japanese.

Yakumo