Capture Card?

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Capture Card?

Postby Gepetto » Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:03 pm

Hi. I'm looking to purchase a capture card for handling analog footage (like VHS) and digital footage (like Gamecube cutscenes). Since I have no idea what to look for in a capture card, and since a search on online stores gave me a price range from RS$200,00 to RS$1300,00 I thought it would be safer to ask here: How far is the extra dollar worth it and what features do I really need/want?
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Postby Joe88 » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:58 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... x=0&Go.y=0

theres a ton for about $50 that perform quite well but the quality is a little lacking

im not an expert on capturing cards so I cant give you much help
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Re: Capture Card?

Postby Keeper of Hellfire » Sat Oct 21, 2006 7:53 am

Gepetto wrote:Hi. I'm looking to purchase a capture card for handling analog footage (like VHS) and digital footage (like Gamecube cutscenes).
Actually capturing from a game cube is analogue capture too since the video output is analogue.

You should make sure that the capture device has not only composite video input, but also S-Video (or depending on your game cube version RGB) input. Avoid these USB capture devices, they are known for audio/video desynch. And check what formats it can capture.
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Postby yokoexe » Sun Oct 22, 2006 6:03 pm

I use the ATI USB 2.0 TV Wonder and it works well. It was about $130 (CND).
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Postby Gepetto » Sun Oct 22, 2006 6:50 pm

Thank you all. I wrote that all down, and now I'm price-checking.

Cheers!

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Postby Knowname » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:40 am

Only reason why ppl say don't buy USB capture cards is cuz only the newest (USB 2.0) ones are very good at all.

Anyway, yeah. I'd pretty much just do what Keeper said. Don't spend the extra buck. It isn't worth it. Just look for the connections you want. Whether it's PAL or not I guess would be in your case -_-... also, I don't know if your country has those 'TV taxes' and what not that Brits have to pay, but there's a type of tuner you can buy to get around that.

OK, other than that, just get the cheapest one you can get -_-. A few ritze and glitter features you may see are Hardware compression (Hardware MPEG2), 8, 10 or 12-bit compression or an HD/ SDTV tuner.

You do NOT want hardware compression! DO NOT SPRING FOR IT! What H/W compression devices do is basically set up a TIVO or time delayed system for recording. It's much nicer on captures BUT It's pretty much IMPOSSIBLE on console gameing, as you can imagine. Than again, if you can live with, you know, thinking 3 seconds ahead of the screen... than go ahead and spring for something with hardware compression. But be warned o.0.

10 or 12 bit compression is also worth springing for under a few conditions. BUT that information is really hard to find sometimes and *I* really can't tell the difference. So I'd just skip it. Also most captureing software works TONS better with the good ole 8-bit encoders. I'd just stick to 8-bit and again buy the cheapest one that fits your needs.

Lastly we have to seperate the SD (standard deffinition) tuners from the HD (High Def). You don't want HD, just put it that way. If you still want HD than that's cool. You'll just have to buy one seperate. The choice is ultimateley up to you. Just I don't think HD products are anywhere NEAR ready and 'idiot-proof' for public consumer consumption ATM. But suit yourself -_-.
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