Best capture settings?

[moonrocks]

You should be able to get the PVR-150 for between $50-60 if you shop around. Yes, it ignores Macrovision.

[drfsupercenter]

Thanks, just curious with that card (or the DVC90), can you get caption data too? That is helpful for real-time capture off of TV (my mom is gonna get cable in my room soon)

--EDIT--

Oh yeah, what is the max. resolution and framerate for that card?

[drfsupercenter]

Also, I just saw a pic on the Net, it shows a coax in and a yellow RCA in. Where do you put the audio? Does it get the coax's audio, and where does the red and white go? (this is for two different setups - plugging the VCR in with RCA, or using the Channel 3 setup via coax)

[moonrocks]

It's got a mini jack line-in for the audio, I use a stereo RCA to Mini cable for the audio from my VCR to the PVR-150.

I've never tried using the closed captioning. I think it supports it though. I just did a screen grab of my 150's help file for captioning:

http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/4837/150captions4jc.png

Edit:
Well, I just played around with my 150 for 10 minutes or so but I wasn't able to figure out how to display close captioning. Captioning may or may not be supported with that card. Just don't want to give you false hope on that feature.

[drfsupercenter]

Now, does the card need to support captions? Like my DVC-90 would NOT have caption support?

And, with your experience with the 150 card, how would you rate its features, out of 10? The Dazzle would be 7/10, just because it is unable to do HQ encodes. Probably because it does not have hardware compression, and I don't have a great amount of memory.

Bottom line, would you say it's a great product, or one of those Chinese companies that can't even use proper grammar in their help files?

[moonrocks]

As far as caption support for a capture card, I really can't help you there. I never use captions so I never worry about it. I do believe (but I could be wrong) that a capture card needs to specifically support closed captions for them to display.

If your price range is below $60 or so, I don't think you're going to do much better than a card like the Hauppauge PVR-150. I've had mine for 18 months or so and have absolutely no problems with it. I'll give it a 9/10.

It captures great quality from live TV and VHS tapes straight to DVD compliant mpeg2. My ATI All-In-Wonder card does a great job with live TV too but it chokes on Macrovison tapes which the 150 breezes right through.

The only time my 150 has problems is with very old tapes recorded in EP mode. I'm talking old tapes, like 20 years old. But that's not so much the 150's fault but that the tapes are in such poor quality.

But I don't want to sell you just on the 150! Get other peoples opinions on good cards too. I'm just saying for the money, and my experience, the 150 is a great capture card.

[drfsupercenter]

Well, you are right that I do have limited money, I am even selling some old children's books on eBay to make money

Now, just curious, how much RAM do you have and how fast is your CPU? That helps me, because if you have the same as me I know it is a smart choice.

[drfsupercenter]

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=4839414

This card is more money than I thought... where did you find it for $50?

[moonrocks]

I bought mine at CompUSA about a year and a half ago. With rebates I paid $56. Shop around, be patient, and you'll find it for $60 or less.

I've got a Pentium 4 running at 3.0 GHz with 1 GB RAM. But, that's the beauty of hardware compression cards. Because all of the video work is being done directly on the card itself, your CPU speed and RAM don't matter as much. Your PC isn't processing the video, the card is.

[drfsupercenter]

Well I only have 2GHz CPU and 768 MB RAM.

And, even on eBay, those cards are expensive... I guess I will wait until I get the money for selling stuff on eBay and see how much I got.

[drfsupercenter]

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0212432

Hmmm, this says that the maximum capture resolution is 320x240, how big does yours capture?

Hmmm, that's the wrong one.

Now, there are two PVR-150's, and the Media Center Edition seems to be cheaper... what is the difference other thatn that the MCE has RCA audio inputs?

[moonrocks]

I don't know a lot about the MCE version, I've got the standard 150. But, I'm almost positive the MCE version doesn't come with capture software. You would have to use free software like GB-PVR or SageTV.

[drfsupercenter]

Hmmm, should I call the manufacturer and ask?

[moonrocks]

The MCE version will use the capture features of a PC using the Windows Media Center version of XP. For people with other OS's they need to use some other capture software.

This link gives a good description of the features of the MCE version and lots of reviews from people who bought one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00064GI2O/103-7736245-1489443?v=glance&n=172282

[drfsupercenter]

Well, what do they mean by Media Center software? Wouldn't something like Ulead work for capturing?

I think I will call the maunfacturer if there's a phone number, just to check.