TV card recommendation

[peterboulton]

Hi,

I'd like the forum's recommendation for the right PC TV capture card for me. I live in UK and primarily want one for transferring VHS tapes to DVD, but also for watching TV.

I've had 2 Leadtek Winfast PVR2000 cards which are fine for watching broadcast tv but crap for capturing from VHS - see http://www.dataper.demon.co.uk/delete/example.jpg for an example. Also Leadtek support is non-existent, so anything but Leadtek will be gratefully considered.

Target price=around the £70 mark.

TIA!

Pete

[StupaFly]

I like the PVR 150MCE a lot...The MCE version has S-Video and RCA inputs so you can plug in the camcorder and get your mpeg2 format quick and easy. I got mine on pcalchemy for about 70 bucks, and haven't been disappointed yet.

I might add that if you get this card, make sure you get the tweak utility to turn down the input sound or it is crazy loud for some reason.

[herbs]

Hi,

I'd like the forum's recommendation for the right PC TV capture card for me. I live in UK and primarily want one for transferring VHS tapes to DVD, but also for watching TV.

I've had 2 Leadtek Winfast PVR2000 cards which are fine for watching broadcast tv but crap for capturing from VHS - see http://www.dataper.demon.co.uk/delete/example.jpg for an example. Also Leadtek support is non-existent, so anything but Leadtek will be gratefully considered.

Target price=around the £70 mark.

TIA!

Pete

You have problems with your cables or your system set up if your pvr2000 is making captures like that especially if both cards do that.

[peterboulton]

Thanks for the tip Herbs. I've already also tried a different cable. Any suggestions on what to look for / change with regard to setup problems?

[herbs]

Sorry I don't have such card, but I do know it does both hardware encoding and software encoding so if your using software try hardware encoding or the other way round.

[capone]

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/tun...dex.x?pg=1
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2393&p=1

[peterboulton]

OP here. My 'solution' is to connect the aerial out socket on the VCR with the aerial in socket on the card. No more criss-cross / herringbone type patters as shown in the picture url of my original post.

I guess I might lose a little quality versus S-Video -> SCART but my VHS tape quality is crap anyway.

The main alternative to the Leadtek in UK seems to be Hauppage, and the user reviews I read are fairly negative - unstable drivers etc. and the mpeg2 compression seems worse than the Leadtek.

So, unless anyone feels strongly, guess I'll stick with the Leadtek, curse the non-existent Leadtek support and use my workaround.