Video Capture Cards

malcolm

I would like to capture video on my PC via a PCI card (composite cable) but I'm confused by the card capture rates, one card I was interested in (Pinnacle Studio AV/DV v9) captured PAL at 25 fps and I've been told TV pictures are 75 fps? Would any DVD's made at 25 fps look OK?
Any help would be welcome.

PoloMint

25FPS is standard for PAL, I think NTSC is 30 but I’m not sure.

I capture from a digital terrestrial box at 25FPS and record to DVD and it looks fine.

That card will be good, but if possible try and use true S-Video rather than composite or a scart to S video adapter (which normally only take the composite signal and change it to S Video, so it is no better than composite).

If you cant manage than composite will still be OK

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Channel Hopper

I have a spare analogue capture cards here - MM100 PCTV using the BT849 chipset

A tenner plus postage if you need , I can email you the firmware if you can give me the WinXX system. Unlikely to work with Macintosh though

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malcolm

Thanks for the reply Polomint, I am looking forward to producing my own DVD's!

malcolm

Thanks for the offer, I'm still looking at various cards, I am using XP OS will get in touch If I want to go for the .

comicbookguy

I have tried and wasted money on quite a few cards:

1....Dazzle USB Recomended by a (ex) friend,dreadful capture my old spectrum +2 could do better.

2....Pinnacle Cheapo card (can't remember model) Good for vcd quality caps/can't do full dvd quality caps.

3..Skystar 2 excellant for satellite captures,If you mainly wan't to cap bbc,the this could be the way to go.

4....Nebula freeview Card.Pricey,but good captures off freeview and was easy to use.

5..DVD Recorder (Mico £99/Sainburys) My choice now....If it isn't on BBC (sky star2) then I use my Dvd Recorder now.
You can use it on Sky (except Macrovision PPV Progs/unless you have a bug blaster type product) Freeview (if you have a box) Standard TV
You can then put the resulting DVD+RW in your computer and edit it.Burn your own edited dvd off and erase the RW and use again.

The problem with capture cards it only works as good as you computer and can start dropping frames.But this way you can record the program ads as well,then just edit it at your lesuire.

<<Go for the DVD recorder If You have the cash>>

PoloMint

If you want to see a sample of the capture quality of my system (BT878 chipset on the capture card, it’s very common and on most branded and unbranded analogue capture cards) I can upload some. The file sizes are large, you would probably need 20MB worth to get an idea of the quality, but if you have broadband it shouldn’t be a problem...

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'All you need is duck tape and WD40; if it moves and it shouldn't, use duck tape - if it should move and it doesn't, use WD40'