Can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive capture card? I’m looking for something that will allow for vhs-digital transfer, and will serve as a tuner.
I understand that there are also some that will allow (not sure if this is a hardware or software solution) for digital recording (a la TiVO).
What features am I looking for? And software should be bundled with it?
For the best results, get an external device that will sync the audio and video. Video capture cards can have a problem with syncing the audio and video.
I was trying to capture some VHS tapes through a capture card and had a lot of audio sync issues. It would be okay at first, but would slowly get out of sync. After 10 minutes, it was unusable. I tried 3 capture cards and the results were all the same.
Evidentally the video card just captures the video. Audio is captured through your sound card and somehow gets matched to the audio. If some of the timings get off (because of dropped frames or whatever), the audio gets out of sync. Captures from DVD seemed to work better than captures from VHS.
The site videohelp.com has a lot of information about video capture. You can read about just about every capture device and find something to meet your needs.
I just installed this card on my brother-in-law’s computer. (Make sure you have XP or 2000 for this card)
I got it for $19.99 a couple months ago (right after Thanksgiving day) but it seems to be more expensive now.
It installed effortlessly (with a few restarts required) and the software is pretty simple and easy to figure out. I believe the software is TVR3 or something like that.
It can record TV (which is one of the things you’re looking for), and it will accept an analog signal or digital signal from anything you can hook up to it with a coax or S-vid connection (the other thing you’re looking for).
You can also use it to ‘preview’ 16 channels at once, which is pretty cool.
So, that should cover the things you need it to do.
fimore, what software were you using to do the capture?
Thanks for the help so far. As I understand it, some of these cards have their own processor hardware built in, while others rely on the cpu for video processing (resulting in a lot more work for the cpu)- what notation am I looking for to see the difference?
Like I said, not loking for anything too flashy- tv viewing (especially with Tivo-like effects!) would would be fine, but mostly I want to be able to backup some older vhs tapes to video for posterity (my son’s utrasound for example).
When encoding, what’s the usual meg/minute rate? I understand that the file format makes a difference, but for an mpeg, what am I looking at?
I put one in my wifes computer for basic TV watching and recording, she’s quite happy with it. I think it’s this one from newegg.
I had tried Pinnacle, Ulead, and some of the freeware capture programs listed on videohelp.com. I tried 3 different capture cards and 2 different sound cards. They all had the same audio sync issues. One suggestion was to try AVI captures, but my system couldn’t handle that. Too many dropped frames. I was doing mpeg captures instead. It didn’t report any dropped frames, but it was getting out of sync somehow.
Some of the forum posts indicate that certain motherboard chipsets can cause the audio sync issues. That must be what’s going on in my case because I changed out just about everything else. Getting an external device fixed all my problems. I can capture anything perfectly now.
When you look at the description of the product it should tell you if it has an onboard encoder. Of course, these tend to be a little bit pricey. Keep in mind that if you choose to go the route of a TV tuner card, you will need tons of real estate on the harddrive. I would recommend getting a second one installed or using a USB type storage device for the Tivo part of it. Also, when/if you ever do any editing you should read from one drive and write to another for best performance and harddrive life.
AVI file (uncompressed) 80-100 MB per minute
MPEG Video (compressed) 8-10 MB per minute
Thanks for the assistance. The more I research this, the less I seem to know about any of this. Apparently, there are roughly 10,000 items that say they do what I need. Though I will be looking at a new HDD…probably external. though, thankfully, I know a bit about those.
Last round of questions, I promise.
what about these models?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1698860&CatId=1427
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1527484&CatId=0
Thanks again to all, especially Uncommon Sense.
Not really. With so many different kinds and brands it would be impossible to compare them all.
They have the advantage of plug and play. See no problem with them. They used to be price prohibitive, but I see they’ve come way down.
Yes, a tuner card does not know the different between an analog arial signal and the analog signal from your vcr or camcorder (unless you have a digital camcorder, then firewire/usb may be applicable).
Depends. Your processor won’t be affected a great deal just by the card recording standard video to the HD. You really get bogged down when you try to edit and render stuff. If you record to a seperate HD then you should see only a minimal load on the processor as opposed to having one HD which you would be accessing for your other tasks as well (surfing/word processing). Two HD’s = good.
Not sure what you mean there.
You’re very welcome. I’d go with the USB from Pinnacle. The price is right and it looks like a feature rich device too.
Also, read through some of the stuff from videohelp.com that filmore linked to earlier - they’ve got the answers.
Well, after looking around, I think I’ve decided on these. If you see anything horribly wrong, let me know.
The Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert (as linked by VenusProbe)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=26375&Tab=11&NoMapp=0
I also figured I’d get an external HD to go with it.(120 gig for $69…refurbished, but good reviews)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1647889&Tab=0&NoMapp=0
If anyone sees anything hinky, let me know.
Oh, btw Uncomnon Sense- I was concerned as to how sound was transfered, as there don’t seem to be sound ports on most of these cards. I deduced that ther’s some sort of internal connection made between the tuner and the sound card. I’ve a sound blaster, so I figure any connections will be standard. Either that, or the adapter cable included with the unit.