CAN ANYONE OUT THERE TELL ME IF THE "DIRECTOR-DVD MPEG-2 CARD" FROM (WWW.A-ONE.COM.SG)WEBSITE IS BETTER THAN ATI WONDER CARD AND DAZZLE 2. I HAVE LOT OF VHS TO BE CONVERTED TO DVD/VCD FORMAT. PLEASE HELP ME. SHOULD I CAPTURE MPEG2 OR AVI FORMAT IN THIS CARD AND LATER CONVERT TO VCD/DVD???

-- Ashfaq Ahmed (cmashfaq@awalnet.net.sa), February 16, 2003

Answers

I can give you some advice because I own the tv wonder value edition, it's just the tuner card. Basically it will record tv or you can connect the vcr with composite cables to the back of your comp. It's pretty good, it will let you record your video into mpeg1/2 or avi and you can chose the bit rate too. One of the drawbacks is that it will only record in monoural sound (not stereo) and also you are limited to capture at resolution of 240 vertical, but in most cases since tv is 352x240 you won't need a higher setting. I usually capture 6bit mpg video then convert to vcd. If it's a movie i get good quality, cartoons seem to have more pixelation to them, but quality is always dependant on the source video. A good source like digital vhs tapes will produce good vcd. You should think about saving those large files on CDs as files for burning into dvd later when dvd burners get cheap. Lastly the external Dazzle products are not so good, unless you buy the most expensive one, i think it's called "hollywood studio?" Hope this helps. Daniel

-- daniel (bonl1@cs.com), February 20, 2003.