Capture hardware -- looking for recommendations [updated]

[WoodsieLord]

Hello everybody, I'm willing to go one step forward and upgrade my video capture hardware; but I'm still unsure in what card should I look for. Right now, I'm capturing with my Asus9600XT VIVO.

I use it to capture analog TV (usually cartoons/anime episodes) with VirtualVCR in huffyuv. Afterwards I encode to DivX with VirtualDub. Lately, I've been asking for help here in doom9 forums to get started with avisynth for some filtering. happily I got help and from now on I'm doing some filtering to all my captures.

I started looking for capture cards featuring comb filters, noise reduction algorithms, chroma corrections, [...] if available. In a first instance, I wondered if the cards featuring mpeg2 hardware encoders would let you capture in uncompressed avi so I could make use of huffyuv. I read that capturing directly to mpeg2 means some detail loss, is this right? Is this loss significant in comparison with a huffyuv capture?
Lately I formulated myself another question that I couldn't answer: Will those "MCE ready" products work fine in my XP Pro without Servicepack1?

I took some time reading lots of reviews from different capture cards, although reviews are not that usefull after all... they're allways testing with the hardware with its own bundled software. I'm looking for:

- Better quality! (that's easy to say :D)
- A Tunner is not completely needed, but its a plus if I don't need a VCR (so I can give the one I borrowed back to its owner)
x Don't need FM (of course won't hurt if its allready there)
x Don't really need Hardware Mpeg2 compression
- XP Pro (non MCE 2005) compatible.
- I want to use it with software I choose (like VVCR, Vdub, AVS, etc) so bundled software gives a crap.
x Remote controll is not really needed (of course won't hurt if its allready there)
- It should be between $50-100 range (if it really worths it I can make a better effort), So I can get it here for $100-150 (Argentina :( )

My english is not very good, I feel sorry and please let me know if something's "undecodable" so I'll try to edit it :o
Thanks a lot!!

[jmac698]

Hi,
I suggest you read the capture faq,
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=32575
Also, as mentioned there already, a guide to choosing a card:
http://www.highvid.com/hardware_tips/basic/1/hard_sel_1.shtml

I'm happy with my card, but I wasn't at first. The software it comes with is terrible, but after some research I can now make it usable. It saves me time to cap directly to mpg, with almost no CPU.
What's wrong with your card? If you have specific quality issues, it can probably be fixed with some video programs afterwards.
You could also save hassle by just getting a standalone DVD recorder.
The PVR series are mostly useful for less powerful computers. They are popular for HTPC (a normal computer but made to be small, quiet, cool, good looking, and VCR type features in hardware and software).

As for your other question, yes you can cap without mpg, theoretically, but I haven't tried it. The software on the disk doesn't do this, but video shows in virtualdub and I believe it's uncompressed. You should be able to buy a card with the same capture chip, but without the extra mpg chip, for the same quality of card.

[jggimi]

WoodsieLord:

I've taken the liberty of moving your question, and its followup, into its own thread.

Please do not "hijack" existing threads with unrelated questions or problems.

Thank you.

[WoodsieLord]

@jmac698: Thanks a lot for your answer and forgive my hijack to your thread
@jggimi: Sorry! It won't happen again! :o Thanks for moving my post.

I must do some deeper research to see what can I get in local stores, as far as I saw for now there are just a few cheap TV tunner cards only. If I can't get any good here, I'll have to look for it elsewere.

Thanks!
Woodsie.

[WoodsieLord]

Please sorry for the double posting: I was unsure if I should create another thread or if I could add it here with a little bump :o

Finally!! I have 2 candidates in sight right now!: powercolor 550Pro (Can get it for $140) or Hauppauge pvr150 (Can get it for $148).

The 550Pro, is newer than the hauppauge and features a digital TV tunner (as far as I read, I can still watch analog signals, Am I wrong?), But I'm a bit scared to buy it and discover it wont work elsewhere than XP MCE2k5.
I don't really need any "HTPC" feature; actually I would like to pay for better picture quality!

- Will the 550Pro work under a standard windows XP Pro??
(I can install SP2 if its needed, right now I have just the Blaster patch :D)
- Witch one would you recommend me?

:P Sorry, I promise this is the last time I'll ask this!: Should I be considering mpeg4 hardware encoder cards? mpeg2 is useless to me, I dont even have a DVD Player and my TVs are quite old! (I just like to watch things on PC, as far as I can go is to activate TV out to watch some movies, what I do often cause the tv out wire is allways connected) But considering my final goal are DivX or Xvid Cartoon/Anime episodes I'm still not sure If I should consider them. I feel is unpractical to encode directly to DivX if I have in mind to process it with avisynth and then re-encode it... I think there will be some loss in quality... Am I wrong?

:thanks: Thanks for your answers and your time

[Qjimbo]

The PVR150 has more evolved drivers than the T550 (because Hauppage have had more time to update them), but the picture quality on the PVR150 is no where near as good as the T550s. Also the T550 doesn't have a dvb tuner, though you can hook up a freeview box to it with s-video and get pretty good quality (which is what I've done).

But yeah I used to have a PVR150 and ditched it because of Audio Sync problems, though apparently these have now been fixed. However it's good to bear in mind the PVR150 still software encodes the audio, where as the Theatre 550 encodes video and audio without requiring use of the line-in port of your soundcard.

[DrP]

However it's good to bear in mind the PVR150 still software encodes the audio, where as the Theatre 550 encodes video and audio without requiring use of the line-in port of your soundcard.

The PVR150 hardware encodes the audio. Plug the audio output of whatever into the audio input sockets on the PVR150.

[WoodsieLord]

thanks a lot for your answers :)
I have some questions:
Also the T550 doesn't have a dvb tuner
- what's a dvb tuner? sounds like "digital video b....?" ¬¬ (forgive me, I'm really sorry about my ignorance!) Am I able to tune PAL-N Analog TV with the tunner the 550pro features? I found out that there are some capture / TV cards that work with Satelite receivers... right now I'm considering that digital video tuners and satelite tuners are not the same thing, do they?
- also, what's a 'freeview box' ? I've never seen any equipment, televisions, VCRs not even camcorders featuring S-Video! my TVs are too old and my analog camcorder features RCA connections. Also I had to borrow a Stereo VCR cause mine is monoaurial u_u
If S-Video pays off, then I should be thinking in a new VCR featuring S-video... but If I can make use of the internal tuner I will be happier...
- will the 550 work under windows XP pro (non-MCE?)?

I'm almost convinced to go for the 550Pro having the PVR150 as an alternative...

Thanks again

[Qjimbo]

- A DVB tuner is basically a tuner that picks up Digital TV, rather than Analog signals. The T550 only does analog but has composite and s-vdeo inputs.

- A freeview box is a device that can pick up these digital tv signals and output them as Composite/Svideo. My one only has a SCART connector on, but using a SCART to Svideo adaptor I can get S-video on it. VCRs generally don't output S-Video, but you don't really need S-video on a VCR because the quality is poor enough that composite looks the same.

- Yes. Thats my setup :)

The PVR150 hardware encodes the audio. Plug the audio output of whatever into the audio input sockets on the PVR150.
I just looked on google images and you're right it doens't seem to look like it takes the line-in port, I'm sure I heard it didn't encode it though, maybe it passes the audio to the PC through the PCI bus. Or maybe I'm totally wrong.

In any case the picture quality on the PVR150 is much lower than the T550.

[acrespo]

I have a PVR150MCE and ATI TV Wonder Elite (550Pro card too). PVR150MCE don't have a DVB tuner too. You need a freeview box in both cards. Hauppauge have other solutions to DVB signals.

The image quality is best in 550Pro card than PVR150MCE. The 3D comb filter give me a much more quality.