Which Video Capture card??

**Hangman** · 27th April 2003

I want to add the ability to watch and record TV on to my PC.

I also want to output to a 28" TV but this can be via the TV out on my video card

I haven't got a lot to spend so what is the most cost effective / best way to do it?

Cheers

**Zippeyrude** · 27th April 2003

i bought a wintv usb thingy from hauppauge, absolutely poo, sent it back, im also interested in recommendations.....

**wakadoo** · 29th April 2003

most video cards now are DV in out so unless yer equipment is digital with firewire you will have to go for a VIVO card, m8 has one of these (http://www.aopen.com/products/vga/gf4ti4200-dvc128.htm) and its fab so i am now undecided what one to get as leadtech also do one the same, check em out.

**Hangman** · 2nd May 2003

Originally posted by wakadoo
most video cards now are DV in out so unless yer equipment is digital with firewire you will have to go for a VIVO card, m8 has one of these (http://www.aopen.com/products/vga/gf4ti4200-dvc128.htm) and its fab so i am now undecided what one to get as leadtech also do one the same, check em out.

I can't see how this would allow me to record TV to my hard drive?

**theplayer** · 2nd May 2003

A video-in (either composite or s-video or both) socket on your graphics card allows you to connect just about anything which outputs a video signal - video, tv, sky digital, freeview box, camcorder etc etc. A video-in graphics card normally comes with appropriate software which allows you to "record" the signal - normally saved as an mpeg2 file on your HD.

I have a basic Radeon 64 VIVO (bought on ebay for �30) with an old On Digital box connected - excellent quality .... brillaint way to record tv and then save to CD or DVD

HTH

Cheers

**cosmicma** · 3rd May 2003

just buy a cheap tv card and use 3rd party software like power vcr ver 3 to record to your hard drive
the only issue i can think of is outputing the tv from a graphics card to a normal tv because if you video card has a feature like theatre mode or something similar which will output streaming video properly to a tv it doesn't work so well when video is being overlayed ( like watching tv on a pc monitor with a tv card ) but apart from that i don't see a problem

**The Prodigy** · 3rd May 2003

Don't bother with these crap analog tv cards. Save for a little longer and get a digital TV receiver + capture card. The quality is Soooooo much better.

LaterZ
Leftfield_2k2

**cosmicma** · 3rd May 2003

Originally posted by The Prodigy
Don't bother with these crap analog tv cards. Save for a little longer and get a digital TV receiver + capture card. The quality is Soooooo much better.

LaterZ
Leftfield_2k2

i think he said he doesn't want to spend a lot of money i don't think he would be asking the question if money was no object

**Hangman** · 4th May 2003

Originally posted by cosmicma
i think he said he doesn't want to spend a lot of money i don't think he would be asking the question if money was no object

That is true. The sad case of a married man having to justify expenditure on my PC.

Which cards would people recommend. It doesn't matter if it doesn't have a inbuilt digital decoder but i do want to be able to record from TV to my HD.

**cosmicma** · 5th May 2003

any tv card should do
hauppage do a wide range of cards from pretty cheap to expensive they go quite cheap second hand
if your running xp just make sure there are xp drivers for it or you might struggle getting the thing to work

have a look on ebay is probably your best bet

**bugnote** · 9th May 2003

on this subject, I want to rips some videos to mpegs and only have a laptop....anyone else have this etup and can you recommend any capture cards?

cheers

Bug

**elephantsoup** · 9th May 2003

hi,
to capture to the laptop.. you could use something like..
dazzle digital video creator 80 - its a usb analogue vid cap device
think amazon or such like sell em for around 60 quid.