Need Video Capture Card Advice

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renaissanceman

New Member
I am making an attempt to save my old 8mm camcorder video onto dvd, but the tapes have time-line issues, so I really need to sort all the footage before burning any diskd. Hence, my entering into the computer video editing realm.
My current graphics card is a "Radeon 9600 AGP 8x/4x powered by 128 MB ddr with 128-bit interface." I need help deciding which capture card to use that will be compatible with this card...
 
The capture card or device will have nothing to do with which video card is installed on the system there. I can run a pci type capture card used along with an Asus GeFroce FX5200 128mb card on an old Socket A board as well as on a Socket 939 model board with a Radeon X1300 Pro 256mb card just as easily.

I'm currently running AverMedia hardwares with an ULTRA TV tuner card being easily detected by the CyberLink software that came with an AverMedia DVD EZMaker pci model card. Due to having both installed the CyberLink software seems to detect the tv tuner card even with the video feed plugged into the other.

At the moment I'm trying to preserve footages recorded with an old vhs camcorder before the tapes degrade too far. In the last several years the AverMedia line of pci type models has been a champion. Don't go with a usb type capture device as those are "useless" for the most part. It won't matter who makes them apparently since everyone ends up having major problems. More and more vendors have stopped carrying them for this reason.
 
A WinTV PVR-150 is an awsome capture card. I've used it to capture old VHS tapes and it does very well. However, if you wish to do more than just clipping the ends, you might want to look into another card. MPEG2 is difficult to edit.
 
The one drawback with mpeg II is the sharp lack for internal editing alright. The Cyberlink software included with the AverMedia card does offer far more features for editing then seen with Neodvd that came with earlier models. Cyberlink's Power Director 4 now allows you to cut unwanted sections out of any videos you capture to the hd along with changing speeds and adding effects. The capture format with the new card is mpeg II. That's one item to consider.

The only problem with the new card just installed here is that the software works with the previously installed Aver tv tuner card while the DVD EZMaker card is not being detected by Windows. A bad card? with the correct software that works with the tuner card well. That's a switch since the software was worth it! :D (maybe resource conflict?)
 
Whew, this melts the laymans's brain...Okay, i have a couple of more questions: 1) I've read some complaints about how the audio gets routed. Wouldn't it go into the capture card and then be shipped out to hard drive with the vidio?? 2) All I currently want to due is transfer the vhs to hard drive, take out commercials or move video around that is out of chronological order, then burn to dvd. What card would allow me to due this with reasonable quality, given the source material??? I don't want to go overboard and pay for options I'll never use...but definitely don't want to cheap out and have poor reproduction of family videos.
 
1) What...? Hehe :o Some video cards have a straight though connection. These capture cards just capture VIDEO, and rely on the computer to compress the video and audio. However, most any capture card with a build in MPEG2(or any type) of encoder should capture audio without the need of your soundcard.

2) I have used my WinTV PVR-150 to do this and it has served me very well. You would want this card, or a similar one, because it has a hardware MPEG2 compresser. Just as a video card helps you with 3D graphics, the onboard compressor makes it so your computer doesn't have to compress the video while it captures it(IE better quality, no dropped frames, etc etc...) Also, with a MPEG2 compressor, you don't have to recompress the video later on for DVDs. It's already setup. After you capture the video, you simply need to run it though something like TMPG DVD Author and cut out the commericals.
 
The use of two vhs units is the usual here for pre-editing anything unwanted from vhs tapes. The old capture card patched sound through the line in jack on the sound card. But that offered a tv tuner and capture card at the same time. The new capture cards out simply have audio as well as video inputs.

Once things are edited out you simply run a capture to see an MPEG II file ready for burning on the drive. The software that came with the new capture card here was all that was needed for the tv tuner card already installed. I guess that's the best of both worlds there again. :D
 
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