OT: Video Capture Cards...

[Three Oranges]

Are they really necessary, or are there straightforward videocard/software combinations that can do the same thing adequately for a lower price?

I am vaguely interested in starting my own review site, and a multimedia component is necessary for any good pop culture page.  The bad movie sites that don't even feature screen caps are much less useful to me in terms of both entertainment and in judging potential watching materials.

Any thoughts on what the latest, greatest and most cost effective solutions are?



Post Edited (06-14-05 15:54)

[dean]

Well I have no idea about the latest, greatest and most cost effective solutions, but I'm also looking for one.  I guess it all depends on what you will use it for: if you are capturing stills from a DVD for instance, you can just use software, but if you wanted to record from VHS a videocard/firewire card is best.  Personally, although I don't know of the options out there and am by no means knowledgable on this topic, but some firewire cards are reasonably cheap [especially since video cards might be expensive for what you might need from it] , and if you have a digital video camera you can just hook the VCR up to the camera and record via firewire onto the computer [although quality probably suffers slightly as a result]  So all you need would be some good software to go with it.

[Jim H]

"and if you have a digital video camera you can just hook the VCR up to the camera and record via firewire onto the computer [although quality probably suffers slightly as a result] So all you need would be some good software to go with it."

Digital video cameras have inputs?  I didn't know that.  Nice feature.

There are many cheap options.  For a movie review site, you don't need exceptionally good quality, I don't think.  I would suggest an ATI TV Wonder.  You can find them in the $30-$40 range.  If you want to get an idea of the quality of that, look in the user reviews for Aberration and Full Eclipse.  Those were captured with my ATI All-in-Wonder (my first capture card) which performs almost identically to my TV Wonder (my current capture card).  They're not perfect, but it is good enough for a movie review site (IMO, at least).

[Three Oranges]

Thanks for the input.

In the back of my mind, I had also considered backing up old VHSes, soI should probably sping for the full capture card.

And I might like to share torrents of random things, like celebrity rodeos from the mid-'80s featuring Markie Post.

[Jim H]

In that case, you probably should get something higher quality.  Since you use torrents, I'm guessing you already have a good sized hard drive.  

I'm not an expert on capture cards, but when I was doing research I remember seeing reviews of a few models in the $100-$150 range which are supposed to be comparable to those in the $500+ range.  I know that's not very helpful, but just so you know you can get good results in that range.