Best capture card model ?

[AquaSky]

I'm in the market for a capture card and I was hoping for some recommendations from folks here that use them. (in b4 "But Aqua, just rip your footage" - I'm working with a few PS2 games that use no pre-rendered footage to speak of).

Something under $200 would be ideal, though I'm willing to shell out a little more for high quality. Above all, I'm looking for relatively clean capture without noise or artifacts. Component ports would be a nice option, but not necessary. Looking for a capture resolution of at least 720x480, by the way. Any suggestions ?

[Farlo]

http://dvr.about.com/od/capturetvwithac ... ppick1.htm

[dvstudio3]

The Leadtek winfast series are the best.


I'd go for the Leadtek DV2000 . It has a composite (yellow) port and a S-video (best quality) port along with left(red) and right (yellow) audio input ports.

Although the Leadtek TV Expert is very similar to the DV2000 + cheaper. The only thing that is different is that it doesnt contain a firewire port (not really necessary unless you need one?) and the default brightness settings are a bit high, so there for you need to do some tweaking.

But in my opinion go for the DV2000, of course you need to pay a bit more (about $10US more) but it saves you from getting the headache of tweaking the brightness. Trust me I have both , thats why i recommend the DV2000.

Oh I almost forgot. The prices for these capture cards varies abit.

The cost in which i bought the TV Expert for was $14(inc. post+hand) and the DV2000 was around $20 - 25(inc. post+hand) BRAND NEW. (although it was only cause it was on an ebay auction otherwise the retail price would be like $40 - $50.

btw. In case you do get one of these. Heres a tip to get the best best result (imo):

Use the S-Video port for the video
and for the audio connect it to the input socket on the computer not the capture card as the capture cards sound card isnt all that great (or i probably couldnt configure it properly?)

Yeah thats it from me

my 2cents

[LantisEscudo]

I've personally had a lot better luck using an external DV bridge than an internal capture card. I'm currently using the discontinued Canopus ADVC-100; its replacement, the ADVC-110 lists for $280. Canopus also makes the ADVC-55 for $230.

[post-it]

a simple DVD Maker & the ASTC Converter Box are all I use.

. tell ya what you don't want -- anything ATI USB or Pinnacle USB; I've lost two lap-tops
this school year alone because of those clowns & Vista! XP loves my WinTV950 USB.
the PVR-1800 isn't too bad either but; what exactly are you trying to capture? If its
on Cable and you're cable is Comcast then Forget-it; nothing can repair their damaged
signals!!!

[MagiTabby]

Sorry to kind of intrude on the topic, but I've been hearing many people recommend something called dc1000 as a good capture card, but.... I can't find it anywhere to buy it. I've only been able to find this:

http://www.amazon.ca/Pinnacle-Video-Tra ... 037&sr=1-5

Would that give me good quality? Or could somebody please send me in the right direction for buying the other card?

[jasper-isis]

Here's what I used to capture PS2 footage recently:
EasyCap USB Capture adapter
Playstation 2 AV Cable with S-Video

After I installed the driver for the adapter, all I had to do was plug it in, connect it to the S-video cord, and start capturing in VirtualdubMod. It worked pretty well - I managed to capture in huffyuv without any dropped frames. Here are two samples of what I got: 1, 2. (Compressed with x264.)

Like dvstudio3 said above, definitely use S-video. The sharpness improvement over RCA composite is significant. Component would probably be even better, but I've never tried it myself.

[post-it]

.. I found something .. that actually works

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... lid=680417

.. "Video Transferring just became whole lot easier thanks to the Pinnacle Video Transfer from Pinnacle®. This device will allow you to copy analog video from any source in MPEG-4 quality to any USB 2.0 storage device" .. I've tryed it on both Portable Hard Drives and Flash 8gig sticks; it works just fine.
.. mine was on sale for like $79.95 at Best Buy. I was board .. .. now I save time when capturing. The modes are 720X480, 640X480, 320X240 frame rates are the same as the broadcast and the audio is .. umm . THAT seems to be the only mystery! ( its in ac_3 for playback. )
.. "It also provides high-quality MPEG-4 encoding in H.264 at up to 720 x 480/ 576 (NTSC/PAL) resolution and supports multiple inputs including S-Video, Composite video and stereo audio. It ensures fast video transfer with High-speed USB 2.0 connection. With a highly portable compact size, this is a great way for backing up videos on the go.

Manufacturer Part# : 82301002211
Dell Part# : A1641314"

[LittleAtari]

I'm in the market for a captured card, too, but I was hopping for one that would accept component input. Most people seem to have been recommending the composite input (unless I missed it somewhere). I've looked in a couple of places and havent been able to find anything. Does anyone have any recommendations as for brands and where to get it? I want this to last me a while so I am expecting to spend a good amount of money on it (with in reason).

[Chemikilla]

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/ for $250
I've seen some stuff capped in HD with it and the quality was perfect