Best external capture card?

[MrSlovenian]

I will be moving out of the country soon and will solely be using my laptop for all my computer needs. I have external hard drives (firewire 800) connected to my laptop for all my storage needs.

I've been looking into an external capture card for tv and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or tips as to what I should get.

Thanks!

[stustunz]

what signal will you be using?

[MrSlovenian]

I'll probably be using Direct TV. I'll be in Costa Rica for a year and they use NTSC, then I'll be moving to Argentina permanently and they use PAL.

[stustunz]

ok but is it satellite,dvb-t,analog-t

[martint123]

Myself, I would wait until I got to where I was going and buy locally as then no mistakes can be made. And sell locally when moving on.

[MrSlovenian]

After a little research both dvb and analog will be available (satellite and cable). At this point I'm not sure which we'd get. The problem with buying locally is that we don't know spanish (thats why we're going to Costa Rica, to learn spanish). So if i can bring something with me that would be best.

[stustunz]

that could be your first test when you get their how to ask for the right tv capture card in spanish

the second would be how to swear at the guy who sold you the wrong card

i got a twinhan star boxII seems to be ok its a Satellite capture and at least if you go down that path you should be able to use it anywhere you can see the sky even if you swap countries but the down side is you need a dish(i got it for my motorhome im building most places we go there are hills in the way of the signal)
where as if you go dvb-t you can get away with a small arial as long as you are close to the signal