A/V Capture Device Suggestions

[HatchetMan]

I am in the process of building my own PC and thought that this looked really cool - Turtle Beach Video Magician (http://www.tbeach.com/site/products/vidadv/producthome.asp) - I would really like to back up my VHS collection to DVD, but this appears to be such a new item that I can not find any reviews on it. Since I'm not exactly sure what to look for, have never captured video before, let alone converted analog to digital, I would like to know what you guys think of it. I am also concerned about the Macrovision, will/do these devices pick up on that, is it h/w or s/w related, and can it be bypassed like when I use DVD Shrink to decrypt in Nero for backing up DVD's. Also, while I am at it, I might as well pick up a Turtle Beach sound card (http://www.tbeach.com/site/products/vidadv/combopacks.asp), but the Catalina, Santa Cruz or the Riviera???

[NorthernYankee]

For that price I would just pick up an ATi All In Wonder card which will do everything that Turtle Beach does plus it will Capture Live TV like a TiVo.

--NY

[HatchetMan]

I have heard bad things about ATi, compare to nVidia GeForce anyways. I was going to go with an ASUS Extreme N5900 (http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/en5900/overview.htm).

[Schauf]

I am in the process of building my own PC and thought that this looked really cool - Turtle Beach Video Magician (http://www.tbeach.com/site/products/vidadv/producthome.asp) - I would really like to back up my VHS collection to DVD, but this appears to be such a new item that I can not find any reviews on it. Since I'm not exactly sure what to look for, have never captured video before, let alone conerted analog to digital, I would like to know what you guys think of it. I am also concerned about the Macrovision, will/do these devices pick up on that, is it h/w or s/w related, and can it be bypassed like when I use DVD Shrink to decrypt in Nero for backing up DVD's. Also, while I am at it, I might as well pick up a Turtle Beach sound card (http://www.tbeach.com/site/products/vidadv/combopacks.asp), but the Catalina, Santa Cruz or the Riviera???

All video capture cards will detect the Mavrovision and disable recording of the content. It is possible to obtain hacked drivers to enable the system to record these macrovision protected videos, but it depends on the video card, you'll have to search the net for those. http://www.videohelp.com/ might help you find some good reviews.

As for Turtle Beach sound cards, the Santa Cruz was a great piece of hardware, although it's driver left something to be desired. I still use that card in my media center. They are good for recording or music playback, but not hardcore gaming. The other two are newer and from what I have heard, do not live up to the hype. A good SoundBlaster card is usually a safe bet, but cost much more.

For that price I would just pick up an ATi All In Wonder card which will do everything that Turtle Beach does plus it will Capture Live TV like a TiVo.

--NY

:abovelol: I agree.

[NorthernYankee]

Well I use ATi and I am not going to say its the best but IMO opinion its far better than the nVidia offerings but they are getting better, but not good enough yet. ATi has been doing it for almost 10 years and nVidia has been making their Cinema line for like 2-3 years...so ATi has a bit more of the bugs worked out.

But my next Capture card will be a Haupaugge PVR 250 it is hands down the best card for TV/Vid Capture.

[HatchetMan]

Ok, how about the Canopus ADVC-50 (http://www.canopus.us/US/products/advc-50/pt_advc-50.asp#keybenefits)? Apparently (I don' know from personal experience, just what I read online), you can leave the jumper off the 6th pin to disable macro. Sounds very interesting, any insight?
*EDIT*
No matter which video capture device I go with, it looks like I'll be using this with it - Facet Video Clarifier (http://www.facetvideo.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=83&cat=0&page=1)

[Schauf]

Ok, how about the Canopus ADVC-50 (http://www.canopus.us/US/products/advc-50/pt_advc-50.asp#keybenefits)? Apparently (I don' know from personal experience, just what I read online), you can leave the jumper off the 6th pin to disable macro. Sounds very interesting, any insight?
*EDIT*
No matter which video capture device I go with, it looks like I'll be using this with it - Facet Video Clarifier (http://www.facetvideo.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=83&cat=0&page=1)


"Removes ALL Copy Protection, Macrovision and CGMS/A" The video Clarifier will remove the macrovision encoding from the video stream, the card will not detect the macrovision and will allow you to record the video. In this case you will not need to worry about disabling macrovision detection on the card you are using. I’ve never used one myself, but I’ve never heard complaints about them…

Does this thing do anything besides removing the macrovision encoding? If not, the price seems a bit steep for something that you could just get for free. I would play with the card before I went out and bought the “clarifier”.

[Leviathant]

Canopus is starting to get into the prosumer category as far as A/V capture goes. That's the stuff they used at the local public access TV station anyhow.

All in Wonders suck.

Turtle Beach really upped the ante when they first came out, but I think they've since been bought out. My favorite "real" sound cards are by M-Audio. I record my band with an M-Audio Delta 1010, but you can get their more consumer based stuff pretty cheap, and the quality is fantastic. Really good analaog to digital (and vice versa) converters. Crisp 24-bit 96khz audio.

[HatchetMan]

about ATi from Facet website

Q: I have a PC with a DVD burner. Can I use the Clarifier to record my tapes and DVD's to the DVD burner?
A: Again, there is not a simple answer to this question. First you need two other items in your system, a video digitizer and DVD authoring software. There are lots of video digitizers on the market. Most of them come with authoring software that is adequate to create DVD's. As with any digital video device, the difficulty is synchronizing to a wavering VCR signal. In general, we have had the best luck with USB devices but many other digitizing cards work well. One note, stay away from ATI Radeon products if you want to record from your VCR. If you are only interested in recording DVD's then any digitizer will work.