Capture Card?? Video Card??

SephirothJenova · Post by **SephirothJenova** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 7:47 pm

Okay, I really wanted to build my own computer for college next year (and my senior year of HS), but I'm having a little trouble trying to figure out capture and video cards. I was considering getting an nVidia video card and a separate DC10+ Studio capture card. But people keep telling me that I can capture with some video cards. I haven't heard great things about the ATi All In One Wonders (I think those are the only video cards with TV-IN), so I don't want to go that way. Can somebody help me out?

Sephiroth

TokyoU15 · Post by **TokyoU15** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:23 pm

I'm almost positive some nVidia cards have TV IN...Look into GeForce4 series.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nf2_home.html

That one has a firewire port, so I'm almost certain you can capture with that one.

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:34 pm

ATI and the ALL-IN-WONDER series ( plus the Radion 7000 ) are cheep in price
and I have had only a minor Focus Issue with mine ^^
[Qualification Statement]
I cheated and re-tuned the tuner + changed the Sample and Hold settings for better colors.

most people do not know how to do these things and I would advise against it.

Waldo · Post by **Waldo** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 2:01 am

Buying a video card that can do video capture as well is an option, but they remind me of those multifunction machines that scan/copy/print/fax. If you go with a combo card, you may be able to do everything you need, but the quality may suffer since you aren't dealing with a dedicated video editing card. I'd recommend getting a seperate capture card. That way if your needs change in the future, you can swap out the video editing card for a newer model instead of having to buy another combo card.

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:53 am

. . . I . . I might actually state a ***WARNING*** here about building your own Bare-Bones computer for this coming Fall Season because the Computer Basic's are in the process of changing things - right now! ( even the people who sell things on E-bay are confused - THAT should indecate to you that something is Wrong T_T and it is! )

the standards last fall were easy to figure-out, PC-2700 168 pin RAM ^^

this fall, someone is trying to mess with the designs, and is screwing-up EVERYBODY !!

the standards for this fall season are PC-3500 184 pin RAM T_T but;
1) the processors for the 4.2gig multi-level usage are not available yet
2) the Motherboards for PC-3500 & PC-4300 are changing as fast as I'm typing T_T
3) Hard Drives are now either Parallel -or- Serial feed designs
( and they are not marking them as to which they are! )

. now, I can afford to buy things and test them-out . . . many people are having a hard time paying for their Internets ISP Connections.
. Computers are like an un-finished Hobby; just when you get it working the way you like it, some smuck will "re-design the wheel" T_T

I average around $2000°° a year in Software and Updates to my computer ( the newest is usually very expensive ) so I'd think about what you need to get by with, before I'd buy anything new!

if it is available in your area, check-out PC Gamers & Popular Computing for what is new, how they rate capture cards, and how they are testing things . . . the Newest is only 2% of the time the best !!!!!

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 3:55 pm

post-it wrote:. . . I . . I might actually state a ***WARNING*** here about building your own Bare-Bones computer for this coming Fall Season because the Computer Basic's are in the process of changing things - right now! ( even the people who sell things on E-bay are confused - THAT should indecate to you that something is Wrong T_T and it is! )

the standards last fall were easy to figure-out, PC-2700 168 pin RAM ^^

this fall, someone is trying to mess with the designs, and is screwing-up EVERYBODY !!

the standards for this fall season are PC-3500 184 pin RAM T_T but;
1) the processors for the 4.2gig multi-level usage are not available yet
2) the Motherboards for PC-3500 & PC-4300 are changing as fast as I'm typing T_T
3) Hard Drives are now either Parallel -or- Serial feed designs
( and they are not marking them as to which they are! )

. now, I can afford to buy things and test them-out . . . many people are having a hard time paying for their Internets ISP Connections.
. Computers are like an un-finished Hobby; just when you get it working the way you like it, some smuck will "re-design the wheel" T_T

I average around $2000°° a year in Software and Updates to my computer ( the newest is usually very expensive ) so I'd think about what you need to get by with, before I'd buy anything new!

if it is available in your area, check-out PC Gamers & Popular Computing for what is new, how they rate capture cards, and how they are testing things . . . the Newest is only 2% of the time the best !!!!!

What the fuck are you talking about? Speak coherently.

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 4:49 pm

I am not sure post-it man, if it's so much a language barrier as a brain barrier O_O. Man that shit is whack, makes no sense.

O_O

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:16 pm

Waldo wrote:Buying a video card that can do video capture as well is an option, but they remind me of those multifunction machines that scan/copy/print/fax. If you go with a combo card, you may be able to do everything you need, but the quality may suffer since you aren't dealing with a dedicated video editing card. I'd recommend getting a seperate capture card. That way if your needs change in the future, you can swap out the video editing card for a newer model instead of having to buy another combo card.

Not entirely. I have a GeForce4 TI4200 128 MB card from Gainward. It has S-video-in and out. From my tests, I can capture at 720x480 HUFYUV at 30 fps with maybe 1 frame dropped out of thousands.

Now I will warn that my computer is a dual Athlon and it's quite possible this is the reason for such nice results, but suffice to say, combo video cards (for gaming and capturing) can work pretty well. At the same time, having something like the DC10 is better for real-time editing and whatnot...or at least that's what I hear. I am just commenting on capture capabilities.

So Sephiroth, it is possible to get a decent 3D card and capture card in one. Depends on your overall computer too though.

Quu · Post by **Quu** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:29 pm

my advice...

get a firewire card ($15) and an external analog<->DV converter for about $2-300 (Canpus makes an aweosme one)

then just get a 3d card you can use for games

SephirothJenova · Post by **SephirothJenova** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:35 pm

I was thinking of getting the NVIDIA GeForce 128MB card with just TV-out (the basic one that anyone could buy at Best Buy) with a separate DC10 capture card. I mainly wanted to be able to hook my PC up to the family's big screen TV (5 wire composite video (Red, White, Blue Orange, Yellow I think)) and be able to hook it up to a VCR (maybe a composite DVD player if there is one) and play PS2 games such as FFX on it. I would really like to be able to capture footage from all. But I think I'm going to build a basic computer; the only things that will be different from the models in retails stores will be more RAM, capture card, and a better sound card. That's basically what I wanted to do with my computer, so any feedback on what parts to look into will help a lot. Please try to be as exact as possible when suggesting parts, because I still don't know as much as you guys on computer hardware. I know basics of what stuff is and how it is put together.

Sephiroth