Best Video Capture Card

Reddragon · Post by **Reddragon** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 1:31 am

Some of you may get mad because this sounds like a newbie question but Don't Flame. I just want to know what to you people is THE BEST VIDEO CAPTURE CARD (add price if you know). It can be anything and any price because usually better means more money. I looked around the forums but still can't find a well reasonable good capture card. This will also help me because I'm trying to pick one. I know that it usually depends on your system to see which video capture card you need but...ah whatever. So what is the best Video capture card?

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 1:37 am

Alot of people like the Hauppauge WinTV401 cards. They are probably the best analog capture cards you can by.

There is always the possibility of getting a FireWire card and a DV breakout box as well.

Also your source is in VHS format right?

Many capture cards will not record from a DVD player - and besides there are better ways of getting footage off of DVDs(check guides off main page if interested).

~klinky

Reddragon · Post by **Reddragon** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 1:47 am

Sorry I was trying to look for that guide and even after looking for a while, I couldn't find it. Must have overlooked it or something. So could you klinky or someone else tell me why we don't need video capture cards if we got dvds? It really intrigues me. I thought you need video capture cards to get them off dvds

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:09 am

The guide is right here:

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/

IT covers alot and is not exactly straight foreward. If you've never dealt with video on a computer before it may be daunting or confusing. Just go through it slowly.

TVs & Video cassetes are "analog" devices. They receive/send an analog signal. DVDs use digital encoding, then converts it to analog for a TV. Computers are digital. If you have a DVD-Rom you can digitally copy the DVD to your computer with no loss in quality. You can infact, give it better quality on occasian, once it's on your computer. Doing this is alot better than trying to capture through a capture card. Since the capture card is taking analog input and converting it to digital.

You'd go :

Digital DVD > Analog output over cable into capture card -->Digital file on computer.

That's a waste. Also Macrovision prevents this most of the time by giving you a flickering picture that looks crappy.

Read the guides and use DVDs, digitally :p

EarthCurrent · Post by **EarthCurrent** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:11 am

Reddragon wrote:I thought you need video capture cards to get them off dvds

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... eoget.html

Reddragon · Post by **Reddragon** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:16 am

So if I only use dvd's....then I don't even need a video capture card...right?

Reddragon · Post by **Reddragon** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:18 am

oh wait but sometimes I want to get stuff off camcorders so I would still need them...

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:20 am

If you want to get stuff off a Camcorder, yeah most likely. Unless it's a DV camera, then you would probably just need a FireWire card.

But if all you're going to use for AMVs is DVDs, then all you need is a DVD-ROM.