choosing a capture card

[nless00]

hello, and thank you for your time.....

I have a buddy that wants a capture card, but he doesn't know which one to get.. his budge for one this card is $120, i dunno how to choose the card for him because i have no clue about video editing etc.. i am computer repair guy but no knowledge of this kind video editing stuff, he has digital camera with A/V output (red,white,yellow) and he wants to connect to his system, and able to tranfer the video into his system so i figure a he need capture card.. but the problem which one would do the the job good not perfect because perfect cost more lol, but what card would recommend for him ?

thank you for your time again...

 

[gothitbycar]

If he has a digital camera check to see if he has an IEEE 1394 port on it (Firewire or i.Link.) If he does that would be the best route to take because the information will be sent digitally and you wont loose quality like you would using the A/V outputs.

If he needs it, some video authoring programs come with a A/V connection box. That may be the best bet since he probably needs the software also. He also needs USB 2.0 or a firewire port for an external box to get best quality.

If you want you can get an ati tv wonder. I believe that has a video in port, its cheap (60 bucks) and is from a reliable company. After that you just need the software.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[nless00]

i see, i was looking at the ati wonder, yes i know ati is a kickass i am not the lost in the video card world lol... but you thank you for your reply!

 

[Mr5oh]

I guess it really depends on what he means by video editing. Is he just trying to get family videos and such on the PC in MPEG (or whatever), and maybe add some titles and such?

Really the hard part is going to be finding the right software for the job.

Personally for a video input, I recommend the MSI TV@nywhere, I bought mine at a local shop for just under $50. This would get you a RCA video input, and for a stereo input (red and white plugs) you could use an adapter to go from the 1/4" jack to the RCA (My adapter was 0.95 cents).

Now this obvisuly isn't going to be production quality, but it also isn't production quality price.

I have used this setup for transferring and recording all sorts of movies, and have not had any complaints (Quality is very good). After this part, software is all you need for video editing.

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[Crashman]

The best cards have hardware MPEG2 encoding. That means you get smooth encodes even with a weak CPU or when multitasking, because the MPEG2 encoder chip does the work other cards use the CPU for. Hauppauge has their WinPVR series, but I know there are other companies offering this feature as well. All cost over $100, but his budget is $120, so I think you can find something.

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