Looking for recommendations on 'the best' capture card to buy.

[Flopula]

I've followed this ng and have searched several mfg. websites
(primarily ATI) for info on which would be the most practical capture
card to get. Any personal views would be most appreciated.

I was about to purchase an ATI 8500DV today until I read the recent
comments on problems people have been having. Below is my system
info.. If this were your system (given your knowledge), which capture
card would you install in it to achieve:
1. capture SVCD from Cable TV & Satellite
2. standalone video/cap card (don't want vid card & tivo card -
unless that is highly recommended).
3. a card that can capture at least 1/2 hour without considerable
framedrop.

My system:

AMD Athlon XP 2100 with Volcano 9 and Smartfan 2 HSF
ECS K7S5A Mobo
512mb 2100 DDR
2 - 80Gb 7200 RPM Seagates
ATI Rage Fury Pro (no longer serves its purpose)
Soundblaster Audigy
Windows XP Pro - SP1

* Thanx for any info (not too complicated, please

FS

 

[J.D.]

Flop:

I've been using an ATI All_In_Wonder Radeon 7500 card (64MB) and it
worked fine last time I used it for capture from a VCR. If you can
find one, you should be able to get it for a good price (I got mine
about a year ago).

Make sure you have DMA enabled for any non-removable drives.
Check your jumpers for 4X AGP

My system:

DFI NB72-SC-SR MoBo/with Intel 845 chipset
256 MB
133 FSB

You might wanna check that stuff, too.

Good Luck

J.D.

 

[Robert]

Flop:

I've been using an ATI All_In_Wonder Radeon 7500 card (64MB) and it
worked fine last time I used it for capture from a VCR.

Seconded. I had a Rainbow Runner before Matrox decided to not
support the 400 on WinXP. I've found the AIW to be a friendlier setup.

 

[J.Clarke]

I've followed this ng and have searched several mfg. websites
(primarily ATI) for info on which would be the most practical capture
card to get. Any personal views would be most appreciated.

I was about to purchase an ATI 8500DV today until I read the recent
comments on problems people have been having.

Avoid the DV--the breakout box attaches using a very fragile connector.
go with one of the other AIW models. All the DV gets you that the
others lack is a broken firewire port--if you need firewire you're
better off with a separate board.

Below is my system
info.. If this were your system (given your knowledge), which capture
card would you install in it to achieve:
1. capture SVCD from Cable TV & Satellite
2. standalone video/cap card (don't want vid card & tivo card -
unless that is highly recommended).
3. a card that can capture at least 1/2 hour without considerable
framedrop.

Tivo. Get a series 1, put a Turbonet in it, hack it, and enjoy. I find
this to be a much more satisfactory solution than any of the PC-based
approaches I've tried. And with a DirecTivo the capture quality is far
higher than using a system based on analog capture.

My system:

AMD Athlon XP 2100 with Volcano 9 and Smartfan 2 HSF
ECS K7S5A Mobo
512mb 2100 DDR
2 - 80Gb 7200 RPM Seagates
ATI Rage Fury Pro (no longer serves its purpose)
Soundblaster Audigy
Windows XP Pro - SP1

I've got pretty much the same system except with an 8500DV.

 

[R&B]

Your right but from what I`ve read the 8500 AIW DV uses a Digital tv tuner
which is why there are so many problems with it. All the other AIW cards use
an Analog TV Tuner which does not have those problems. Just to let him
know Goto www.3dgameman.com and at that site there are video reviews of all
things of things including ALL versions of the AIW cards.

 

[Dr. J]

I have a Radeon 8500DV with a far more primitive system than yours and
I have no problems with recording capabilities.

The Digital tuner compared with Hauppauge tuners is substantial. My
fire-wire ports on the 8500DV have given me no problems. However I
can't really give a good say on this yet as I have not had substantial
tests with them yet. Yes the breakout box is fragile, but not that
much more so than any other port that I have ever had. The only reason
I didn't get a newer AIW is that I heard that the new low-end GPUs
were less powerful than the 8500 and because there were no fire-wire
ports on the new ones. Also the digital tuner interested me and has
not failed me.

My only issue is with the sound setup and that is just a matter of how
many things do I want stuck into my sound card lol!
My Rig:

Abit BH6 Motherboard
Powerleap PL-iP3/T 2.0 PGA Celeron Adapter
1.4Ghz Celeron running 100MHz FSB
512 MB PC100 SD RAM
80GB Maxtor 7200RPM 8MB Cache Running with UDMA 33MB/Sec (Ill fix that
soon)
40GB Western Digital 7200RPM 2MB Cache (Main hard drive)
Radeon 8500DV running at AGP 2x and 2/3 CPU/AGP frequency ratio
16x10x40 CDRW Lite-on
16x Hi-val DVD Drive
Soundblaster AWE 64 PCI