Video Capture: Short Clips, If You Please
The TV-In feature works a lot better than the TV-Output. All cards with TV-In functionality use Philips' combo chip SAA-7108E, for which NVIDIA offers a separate capture driver.
Of course, we shouldn't expect miracles. Since no form of hardware compression is implemented and the sound encoding is left to the soundcard, the quality of the captured file is strongly dependent on the overall system configuration. The factors that have the greatest influence on the results are usually the following: hard disk performance; CPU speed; and IRQ problems. None of the cards tested here are equipped with a TV tuner, so a TV signal also needs to be provided, either from a VCR or a TV set.
While this TV-In implementation will be more than sufficient for watching a bit of TV or capturing a short movie, anyone expecting a real video editing solution will be sorely disappointed. While definitely possible, the effort involved with the tools and hardware supplied is simply too great.
