Which one should i go for?

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Hi everyone,

Im considering of buying a capture card that directly captures mpeg2 to mpeg1 (vcd compliant), without doing any encoding at all. I cant be bothered anymore to waste my time using software encoders. All im looking for is a capture card that matches the same quality of software encoders. Any ideas on which ones i should look out for? I live in the uk.

sharky

-- sharky (sharkimi@hotmail.com), August 03, 2001

Answers

I'd recommend you look at either ATI or Dazzle. I have the ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon and I get good results from it. Every card out there has good points and bad points, so it's hard to say which is best. Hope this helps: ATI - pro - capture card/video card combo. Can record AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2. Offers variable bit rate recording in latest release of software. con - Bug in latest release of software will not allow you to record audio from an external source through the ATI supplied input dongle. See www.pcphotovideo.com for an ugly workaround. Many many people have problems with ATI cards. They work great for some of us, lousy for others. If you have a problem, you will never be able to talk to tech support on the phone. If you send them e-mail and bother to reply, the reply you get will be useless. You will have to demux and remux all your recorded video before you burn it to VCD or SVCD because ATI doesn't have VCD and SVCD compliant templates. Dazzle - pro - Records MPEG-2 video and can do so in SVCD compliant templates. Supposedly can record MPEG-1 as well, but you should confirm this. Can record at DVD resolutions without dropping frames. con - can't record AVI, but you may not care about this. Doesn't work with AMD systems and I'm not sure this will ever be fixed. Good luck. Do as much research on the web as you can before you get anything. Look for reviews and forums on these cards.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), August 03, 2001.

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