TV Tuner/ Video Capture Card recommendations
 

After a descent tv tuner/video capture card as I am looking to convert all my old home vhs movies to dvd. Any recommendations that don't break the bank but are good quality.

Cheers
Jazz

I have the Leadtek Winfast 2000 Pro XP card (about £30-40 I think). Nice n cheap and not too bad on the quality front. It comes with its own software (basic) and Ulead movie factory for capturing and editing. I've captured a lot of TV, video and Sky+ etc and it works nicely. U can plug your terrestrial TV aerial straight into it and watch the 5 main channels plus teletext control. A remote is also included.

U might need to invest in some svideo/audio leads, which I've done to get the connections between Sky+ / Set top box, VCR to the capture card.

Compro Videomate
 

I have a Compro Videomate DVB-T300 digital TV card and it's excellent. The picture quality is really good. You can also use it with Windows MCE2005 and open source media software Media Portal (which I've just installed).

According to the card spec., you can use it to capture analogue signals (e.g. from a VCR) and convert them to MPEG format. I haven't tried it yet, but am planning to in the next few months.

I know that it has S-VIDEO and composite inputs for video.

Hope that helps.

Here's a link: http://www.comprousa.com/New/en/product/vmt300.html.

I got mine from Microdirect.co.uk a few months ago, for about £70, so it's probably dropped in price by now.

according to the specs it will accept digital TV signals, does that mean you receive free view with it?

I've got one as well and can also recommend it.:thumb: It has an analogue and digital tv tuner so you do receive all freeview channels. You can also connect it to the power switch header on the motherboard so you can use the bundled tv scheduler software to automatically switch on your pc when you want to record a programme.:)
I had a Hauppage PVR250 before and that was a piece of crap. The compro is better in every way.

Glad to have had this thread recommended to me. I have had loads of Hauppauge cards in the past. All have been crap.

Really looking forward to trying out this Compro Videomate. Sounds like it could be good :thumb:

I have a PVR350 and a PVR150; the 150 is for an MCE machine and I havent used it yet but the 350 with its on-board MPEG2 encoder is excellent (the 150 has a hrdware encoder too). The software is ****e, try GB-PVR insted, but the kit is better than anything else. The 8mbps MPEG2/DVD std capture has been faultless as I have trawled my way through my girlfriends mothers collection of Cliff Richard tapes (all eight-f*cking-teen of the b*stards!).

I wouldnt confuse a good quality PVR card with the cheaper TV cards (using ****e software capture); and Hauppauge are better than any others, in my experience.

Simon

I'm just after a TV card, not the ability to capture from external sources. Although I would like to be able to record TV that is playing through the card.

May have a look around for some different software, cos I know we have a good signal, but the WinTV card is not picking up anything at the moment :(

I had a WinTV card; a 'GO' I think; it was ****e, but Ive found the PVR350 to be way superior.

Simon

Cheers for all the replies, I went with a Compro VideoMate TV Gold PlusII as it had good reviews & I got it a decent price. Loads of info to be had here http://www.tv-cards.com/