First off, allow me to say that I found this forum unbelievably informative. I've spent the last 2 hours reading threads. My wish is to capture old analog camcorder video to my pc and then on to DVD. I've read many threads that recommend the Hauppauge card for just such a task. Then, I find one thread, where the apparent guru of the site, recommends another card, the Theater 550. I've quoted his reasoning below. My question is (and I understand it is probably a matter of opinion), which card is better? I will be making my purchase online this weekend, and would greatly appreciate the feedback. I was set to by the Hauppauge, until I saw the thread recommending the other card, please advise.
Here is the quote from minion:
Quote:Out of these 2 cards the "Theater 550" should in Theory be the better Capture card because it has a 12 bit decoder were the Hauppaggue has a 10 bit decoder, also the "Theater 550" has Locked audio support so there are no Chance of sync problems , also the "Theater 550" also has a 16MB Frame Buffer so you Don"t Drop frames and it also has a Hardware Dolby Digital AC3 encoder to encode the audio which is the best format for DVD"s and it also has Hardware Noise Filters and 2D/3D Line Filters to Clean up Noise ,Stabilize the Image and help remove interlace Artifacts and it Comes in PCI and PCI-Express Configurations.....
Well Like I said before On Paper the "ATI Tul Theater 550" seems like the Better Card because of the added Features and the Better quality Decoder chip but since it is a Fairly new Card there haven"t been a Lot of Poeple on the Forum who have Bought the Card so i can"t say one way or the other if it is a Better Card or Not ....
The "Hauppague WinTV PVR 150" is a Rather Old Card which has Been Arround for a few Years so Many Poeple have had a Chance to use the Card and Most say it is a Good Card....
I am actually going to sell My "Pinnacle DV500 ADVC Editing Card" and Probably buy the Tul Theater 550 Card because the DV500 Has Many Features that I will never use .....
Cheers
PS: If you Look on the Net for reviews on the Theater 550 Chipset you will Find a Lot of Positive reviews on it"s Image Quality....
Thanks for the response. I'm trying to locate the ATI Tul Theater 550 card to purchase and I'm seeing that their are different brands. Any particular brand, or is the chipset the only thing to worry about? Also, all the ones I'm seeing do not have RCA input (in the picture at least). Are you aware of theater 550 card with RCA inputs? I will rarely use the card as a PVR as I already have a TiVo. I'm only interested in capturing camcorder video via RCA.
Thank you for your help. I purchased the second one you suggested online. Look forward to my future thread in a couple weeks titled "okay, now how the hell do I do this?"
the card is back ordered, but upon further inspection, it appears I will need PCIe (which I do not have)?
Minimum System Requirements: 750-Mhz CPU or faster 128MB RAM or above Microsoft Windows XP, 2000 Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition One available PCI slot (PCI version) One available PCI-E slot (PCI-E version) CD-ROM drive Graphics card with DirectX 8.1 or above Sound card Cable TV signal or amplified antenna.
Well if you Look at the Tigerdirect links it tells you what comes in the Package and it even shows you a Picture...I know the Top link shows one that comes with the Breakout Cable so you can connect to RCA/Composite Inputs/Outputs.....
The one in the Link you Just Posted if you go to the Link and click on "More Images" it will show you a Picture of the Breakout Cable to Connect it to RCA Sources....
