What to buy

DarkFoss

Hello everyone,
Since I bought my dvd burner I've been wanting to capture my aging video tapes as well as my home video's (analog camcorder). Been doing alot of reading around but still somewhat confused as to what would be my best bang for the buck route. I've already got a 9700 pro so would buying something like the TV remote wonder be a good suppliment . How good is the vid capture on it and how good is mmc8.2(conflicts with 9700?) opposed to the mmc 8.6. Tv capture is concidered a plus.
Or would a standalone like the Canopus ADVC-100 ,DataVideo DAC-100 ect be a better option? No tv capture but better quality ?
Or is upgrading to a AIW 9800 pro a better bet in the long run. Since it just came out in June(?) I'm assuming the next AIW card won't be out until first quarter 2004? Don't really want to wait that long.
All thoughts, opinions welcomed. Could have asked these questions in a forum like dvdhelp.com, afterdawn.com but I value/trust the opinions here more

Thanks in advance
DarkFoss

Dr.Who must live

craig588

If your not a gamer the AIW r9600pro would be best. It has the most features.

DarkFoss

Thanks Craig,
I do like to game though, so I don't want to downgrade my performance from the 9700 pro.
So either the the AIW 9800 pro or the AIW 9700 pro. Price difference online is only 45-50$ Gamewise I know the 9800 is faster but does it capture as well or better than the 9700?

Vampyromaniac

I believe the TV/VIVO functionalities of the AIW's 9700 and 9800 are the same. But, a standalone card may be the better option for your purposes. I don't know anything about those so pls wait for more replies. I take it you want to capture from VHS and transfer to DVD?

DarkFoss

That's correct Vampy. Capturing my old vhs's to dvd is my main goal.Tv/vivo options is a plus though. Most standalone's don't have that option, but are probably faster at capturing the 1 1/2 hour shows from tape. I briefly concidered trying my old AIW rage pro pci card out (8megs) but decided against trying to use 2 different ati drivers&mmc's.
Anyone know roughly how long it take's a current AIW card to capture 1 1/2 hours of vhs ? I'm guessing a couple (2-3) hours since it's most likely done through software rather than hardware ?

dipstick

This a pretty damn good capture card if you don't want to go AIW.
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr250_datasheet.htm

DarkFoss

Hmm ,Thanks for the link kakarot! I haven't seen that particular model . Now to find some reviews on it.. I've read on some other forum's that a few earlier Hap model's had capturing issue's. Time to hunt around somemore.

Vampyromaniac

Ah, DarkFoss, I think you may have the wrong idea about "speed."
When you are capturing, you will be playing your tape at normal speed, and recording to your hard drive. There's no way you can speed up the rate at which your tape plays, so you will always be capturing at normal playing speed (90 min show will take 90 min,) no matter what capture card or AIW card you use.

DarkFoss

Heheh Vampy, I must have mis-stated something in my above post ramblings
The speed I was refering to is how long it takes to render/encode from vhs to dvd ready files. Mainly, Which would do the better job an Ati AiW or a standalone. Some standalone's will encode on the fly without the need to spend extra hours re-authoring with other software.
Quality's a bit more important to me than speed but alot of my vhs's are really old. (15-20y) I'm wondering if the AiW can even capture them. Seems most standalone's with decent software are 160-199$ US roughly half what a AiW 9800 pro goes for. I'm narrowing down the list of standalone's no time to post'em now, back to work I go.

Chaos

I have seen vodeo footage that was captued from VHS to an AIW 9700 and it looked great..just need tons of ram and hard disk space that's all

Vampyromaniac

Ah, I gotcha. Yep, the AIW's also encode in real-time, while capturing from VHS. No need to capture first, then encode afterwards. Sure, the AIW should be able to capture anything that a standalone can.
But, if you'd like my opinion, I think for your needs it would be better to go with a standalone card. Just so it's not tied to your video card (you can upgrade independently,) and you won't have to spend extra money on a vid card upgrade you don't really need right now, and also if you ever think you won't need to capture anything again, you can sell the capture card and get some of your money back . . . basically, it's more flexible. Just my thoughts

PS: that Hauppauge card is $145 on Newegg http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ion=15-116-602

DarkFoss

Thanks for all the input so far I must say the Hauppauge 250 does seem like a good fit for my needs.DVD Ulead MovieFactory is a nice bonus too..Although there is no mention of my DVD burner being supported. I also looked at the 350 model 45$ more and the only real difference's are Hardware Mpeg2 decoding Tv out and Fm radio. Nice features but not really needed.Main worries finding the right drivers to work in my rig and possible software conflicts. I also found on SnapStream's website they sell the card and their software for a pretty good deal. This software would really enhance the card's features nicely. Saw it got a great review in Maximum Pc resently.
http://store.snapstream.com/snpcitucakit.html

The Canopus ADVC-100 seems to be my second option. Great at what it does, but around 115 more and no software. It does however lock the audio so there's no need
to worry about the audio getting out of sync during long captures and having to edit/reauthor. Also no worries about possible conflicts with hardware/software. Rock solid performance from what I've read.

ATI AiW 9800 pro is my last option, Damn that little voice in my head that keeps whispering buy it NOW you'll love it . Go on, you know you want it. Just turn around and sell your 5 month old 9700 pro on e-bay to offset the price.

Back to researching while the voice has gone

Pappy_1

May I also suggest http://www.sage.tv/index.html Works great with the Hauppauge 250. I use it myself. Picture quality is superb.