Video capture cards.

[ipodmusicman]

Hi there,

A friend of mine wants to use his PC to record stuff that he has on his PVR so that he can archive it to DVD to be playable on his DVD player.

Now generally, I'd advise on a DVD recorder, but with a very limited budget, and I mean, very limited, going for the PC route is going to be more feasible since he has a PC that can handle video capturing, etc and as a matter of fact, his PC is right next to the TV.

I want to advice him to get a video capture card, but I am not too sure which one to recommend. I have a Hauppauge PVR150 myself, but I find that you have to use their software to capture video. I want him to capture in Windows Movie Maker or Sony Vegas, top and tail the vid and remove commercials if necessary and write it straight to DVD.

I want to make it very easy for him to get his videos onto DVD without having to worry about problems with drivers, etc. Of course, the card must have onboard MPEG2 encoding.

Suggestions?

Thanks

 

[sn3rd]

The PVR150 would have been my suggestion

 

[Turiko]

Now generally, I'd advise on a DVD recorder

Of course, the card must have onboard MPEG2 encoding

Generally with the cheaper brands, they offer some minimal a-la-MJPEG compression. The more expensive cards have real MPEG-2 encoder hardware.

DVD recorders are no longer expensive, and far less prone to hassles. I bought one for the same amount of cash it would have cost me for a decent PC based solution and it was far more convenient, especially when attempting to record stuff during loadshedding, a stupid little UPS was enough to hold the recorder up for 4 hours. A PC wouldn't last nearly as long.

 

[Dan C]

Don't think cards with mpeg-2 encoders can capture straight to any other format. Maybe wrong here, but I tried with my Hauppauge PVR150 to capture in virtualdub.. no go !