"Paul" <nospam@needed.com> wrote in message
news:ejuotl$pbu$1@aioe.server.aioe.org...
> Mattrixx wrote:
>>
>
> You can see on this page, that people are pretty happy with a CX2388x
> family
> chip. It is the successor to the BT848/878. The nice thing about this
> chip,
> is you can get a card for dirt cheap. And since you aren't using the TV
> tuner, it doesn't matter if a cheap card has a bad tuner or not.
>
> http://www.videohelp.com/capturecard...derby=Comments
>
> There are a ton of capture products out there. If you click on this link,
> you'll end up on one of the largest web pages I've ever seen. Don't
> click on this if you are on dialup. I can fix a coffee and sandwich
> while this loads over ADSL.
>
> http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/bttv/
>
> In terms of card types, there are roughly three types for analog capture.
> There are uncompressed cards (like the CX2388x based products or the
> BT848/BT878 based products). There are cards that record in compressed
> format, but have no hardware decompression (means processor load during
> preview or playback). The third kind has compression in capture, and
> decompression in viewing, and maybe even an output plug to connect
> directly to a TV set.
>
> The uncompressed card will either eat disk like there is no tomorrow.
> Or eats processor, during capture, if the processor has to compress
> the uncompressed stream on the fly.
>
> A card that captures compressed, means less bus traffic, and no processor
> load during plain capture. But if you want to preview or playback, the
> processor does the decompression. The compression methods used, tend
> to be lossy, meaning the image will be softer than the original. If
> the compression format happens to be the same as the final output format,
> there might be no further losses by transcoding. Otherwise, some software
> would have to decompress and recompress again for the final render.
>
> A card with both compression and decompression, removes the penalty of
> previewing during capture. But otherwise, the issues of quality (softness)
> versus bandwidth, remains.
>
> This is an example of a card with both compression and decompression
> $136.94:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-WinT.../dp/B00008OOWC
>
> This is the cheapest CX2388x family chip from Newegg (where they at least
> mention which chip is used). There are some cheaper 713x based cards, but
> for a first experiment, I'd try the CX2388x as it is newer:
>
> PROLINK PV-TV304P+FMRC PCI Interface TV/FM Tuner Card - Retail CX23883
> $32
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814144307
>
> The $32 card is cheap enough for a one-off experiment.
>
> There are all sorts of bits and pieces of software out there. This
> is just a random selection. You need to find a piece of software
> that will support the card, preferably without having to rely on
> the drivers that come with the hardware. So it is a complicated
> purchase experience, if you go super-cheap. The PVR-350 will have
> some software you can use, but it still might not be the best
> software for the job. Researching the software is a lot harder
> than selecting a crap capture card :-) Read the customer reviews for
> the capture card, before you buy - Newegg has such reviews for most
> products. For really cheap hardware, occasionally you will see a
> "customer review" that was written by someone from the factory
> in Taiwan. The really negative reviews are the honest ones.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SageTV
> http://www.virtualdub.org/
> http://virtualvcr.sourceforge.net/
> http://www.dscaler.org/about.htm
>
> Paul
Wow, this certainly is a great deal of "good stuff" to digest and research!
I appreciate the time and knowledge it took for you Paul, to respond to my
query.
I am actually replacing an ancient ATI "All In Wonder" which has served me
quite well over the years. I use the supplied ATI software, or a very fine
program (in my opinion)called "neoDVD7" for my Sat. capturing. The down side
of using an ALL IN Wonder is ofcourse, your locked in with that generation
video card.
On another note, with a dual core X2 3800+ CPU, how much more important is
it for hardware compression/decompression encoding on a capture device vrs
software?
Thanks again
Matt