Best Quality Video Capture Card

[joan_fl]

Anyone have suggestions on this subject? Maybe include some sample screen captures, and or clips?

I have a Radeon 62Meg VIVO... Works preety good, but the stills are terrible.

I also have a DVC II real-time mpeg encoder. Great for Mpeg I and II encoding on the fly. I do quite a bit of this, so this one is worth every penny. I do want to do some still capturing of some video, and both cards I have are quite weak in this area. Any suggestions?


Thanks in advance fo the help,

Joan

[Batman]

The CPU also matters. If you capture as uncompressed avi, then later convert to mpeg 1,2 or divx you should get high quality. Visit vcdhelp.com for capture card reviews and info.

[onerose]

hi joan_fl that's a loaded question, better asked how much $$$ do you have to spend remember you get what you pay for i use a dv 500 (pinnical) it works great for 799.00 at that time i think it's cheaper now about 500.00 but i need ntsc quality or as close as i can get

[joan_fl]

do you have to spend remember you get what you pay for i use a dv 500 (pinnical) it works great for 799.00

Yes but arnt you paying 799 for realtime mpeg encoding? I

better asked how much $$$ do you have to spend

You are right, you do get what you pay for. Im willing to spend upwards of $300-1000. Again though I have realtime mpeg encoding with DVCII & AVI with my Radeon.. Im looking for something of VERY high AVI quality.

I guess my question is.. If my CPU is 1.7ghz, 1 gig of RAM, 250gigs HD.. Is my Redeon giving me the best quality AVI already? Again my stills with the Redeon is less than impressive... Though the source is VHS.

Thanks in advance for the help,

Joan

[Batman]

If you want to preserve quality capture as uncompressed avi (it should be very close to the original source in terms of quality), then later convert (to lower file size).

Yes, you do get what you pay for, most higher end cards have dedicated faster processors and ram, meaning real-time encoding to divx or mpeg is easier and fast.

[joan_fl]

Any suggestions for realtime encoding of DIVX?

[Batman]

Go to a store that has a generous return policy, and try every damn card you can Yeah, you'll probably need a higher end model, it is rather cpu intensive work.

[benderman]

Hardware-encoding can never be as good as capturing with a lossless codec and recompressing with a high-end-codec like DivX. For uncompressed avi-capture I prefer the Haupauge TV-cards. The real best choice for TV-capture would be a DVB-card.

[Batman]

I agree Benderman (did you get your name from Futurama's Bender ) The best quality comes from uncompressed avi or using the huffyuv codec I think, for which you don't need a real high end card.

[joan_fl]

The real best choice for TV-capture would be a DVB-card.

I looked around on the web, and didnt find much on DVB cards. Do you have a URL?

Thanks to everyone for all the help! Id appreciate any other card suggestions.

[benderman]

Maybe you find some information at www.dvbforum.com

[onerose]

dude, yes i live in dertoit damler has bought chrysler but my german is still very poor can you translate
oh yes joan_fl if you are copying vhs to your putor unless you have some broadcast quality equipment you are always going
to get video quality fall off no matter how high end the card is you have to be the judge of what's clear to your eyes