I know this has been gone over before but with electronics changing so rapidily I thought I needed an update.
I have access to a PC with a DVD writer. The question is what kind of video capture card to put in it. We want good quality DVDs. maybe not the best but not the worse either. So what is the price range and how much is a good one? what features do you look for? Which one do you recommend?
secondly, found DVD blanks for about $20. that seems high since Walgreens will copy a VHS tape to a DVD for $30. Where can I get DVD blanks?
You can get blanks from just about any electronics store. Or try pricewatch.com I saw some dvd blanks for $2.95 each that way but can’t verify the quality.
I bought for $50 an ATI Rage Fury AGP (a/v in out) recently that is supposed to be one of the best dvd video cards there from what I read. But I only like ATI cards anyway cause I think that Microsoft talks to the people at ATI so they are more compatible wiht windows.
Price of DVD blanks depends on which type you use… General or Authoring. The new cheaper IDE DVD-R drives(like the Pioneer DVR-A03) use the General DVD blanks, and the more expensive Pioneer DVR-S201 use the more expensive Authoring media.
That said, in Canada I paid about $15 CDN / general disk, and about $22 CDN / authoring (this was a few months ago). I buy spindles of 50 though, and usually more than one spindle at a time so there is a bulk discount. Also I buy Pioneer brand rather than a generic brand which makes a huge price difference. One web site I visited a minute ago had generic General blanks for $6.95 each.
For cards I look at the specs & price & whether its compatible with whatever OS I use.
You can use external video input boxes from Dazzle, there are several models from 50 dollar & up. Search for ‘dazzle’ at ebay.com to check prices/specs Also try the dvd tech newsgroup & maybe I would try tigerdirect.com for blanks they have several types of dvd ram/rom for sale. Some of the cheap ones are only one sided.