Capture Cards

Arnie.d said:

Also, left of the EXT SYNC connectors on the back of my player is this 75Ω on/off switch. Any idea what it's for?

Darth Mallwalker said:

If you had an external device like another LD or professional video monitor providing a sync signal, then I think you'd turn that switch on.

Without an external sync connected I believe you should leave that switch off so the player generates its own sync pulses from its internal clock.

You will usually find 3D comb filters in capture cards at the higher end of the range, e.g. the Sweetspot/PDI Deluxe, ATI Theater 550 Pro or the Compro Videomate X500.

Alternatively, as mentioned in the other thread, you could route the composite signal through a DVD recorder and capture the s-video output.

I'll add my 2¢ worth in here as I have also been trying to work out what capture card setup to use.

An alternative to those cards mentioned by Moth3r is the MCE TV capture card.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCE-TV-7135-PCI&cat=VID

It's main advantage is it's price - dirt cheap!

This card uses a newer Philips chip than the PDI/Sweetspot cards.  I have no idea if the comb filter inside is more advanced or if that will make any noticable difference to the end result.  The Philips chips used in the MCE/PDI cards both have 'Adaptive 2/4 line comb filters' as mentioned in their respective datasheets.

The only thing that I can see that the PDI has over the cheap MCE is that the PDI also uses the BT878A 'Fusion' chip.  As mentioned by Moth3r here, there is a special BT878 tweaker within Virtualdub which will probably enable better results from the PDI as compared to the MCE.

Neither the PDI or the MCE have BNC connectors, but if you are pretty handy with a soldering iron then BNC connectors probably won't be too difficult to fit.

Sorry, I was incorrect in my post above: the comb filter on the PDI Deluxe/Sweetspot card is 'only' 2D.

(But consider that a 3D comb filter only gives an advantage on static images, any motion and the filter has to resort back to 2D mode).

Orinoco_Womble said:

I'll add my 2¢ worth in here as I have also been trying to work out what capture card setup to use.

An alternative to those cards mentioned by Moth3r is the MCE TV capture card.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCE-TV-7135-PCI&cat=VID

It's main advantage is it's price - dirt cheap!

This card uses a newer Philips chip than the PDI/Sweetspot cards.  I have no idea if the comb filter inside is more advanced or if that will make any noticable difference to the end result.  The Philips chips used in the MCE/PDI cards both have 'Adaptive 2/4 line comb filters' as mentioned in their respective datasheets.

The only thing that I can see that the PDI has over the cheap MCE is that the PDI also uses the BT878A 'Fusion' chip.  As mentioned by Moth3r here, there is a special BT878 tweaker within Virtualdub which will probably enable better results from the PDI as compared to the MCE.

Neither the PDI or the MCE have BNC connectors, but if you are pretty handy with a soldering iron then BNC connectors probably won't be too difficult to fit.

I have both cards. I can assure you the PDI is much better.

I'm not doubting that Arnie.  I'm certain that the sweetspot is a VERY good card and worth every penny and in fact, I pretty much said the same thing in my post.

I was just trying to point out that there is a 'cheap' alternative which may get pretty good results.  Obviously when you pay 10x more for a capture card you expect a significanlty better capture, which I'm certain the sweetspot delivers.

I seems to me that capturing analogue video is unfortunately becoming a dying art.

These days anyone and their gran can hook something up to a DVD recorder and hit the record button, and there is precious little info or comparisons on capture card specs.

I have both cards. I can assure you the PDI is much better.

Arnie, do you still have capture files from both cards? Could you post comparison screenshots to illustrate the better quality of the PDI card?

Moth3r said:

I seems to me that capturing analogue video is unfortunately becoming a dying art.

These days anyone and their gran can hook something up to a DVD recorder and hit the record button, and there is precious little info or comparisons on capture card specs.

I have both cards. I can assure you the PDI is much better.

Arnie, do you still have capture files from both cards? Could you post comparison screenshots to illustrate the better quality of the PDI card?

No, I don't, sorry.

That’s a shame Arnie.  It would have been mighty interesting to see the differences between the cards.

Well, the image quality might not differ very much, but with the PDI card you can much more accurately adjust the capture settings. This is very helpful with the sharpness settings. To reduce the ghosting the sharpness has to be reduced. When the ghosting is at a minimum the image of the PDI is slightly sharper.

Although I don't have the old captures anymore I found some screenshots I once mailed. But they are kind of difficult to compare because the PDI captures are much brighter. Anyway, here they are.

MCE TV (7135):

Sweetspot/PDI deluxe (7118):

MCE TV (7135):

Sweetspot/PDI deluxe (7118):

Many thanks for posting those images Arnie.

I can definitely see what you're saying now.  You're right, the PDI card 'appears' ever so slightly sharper, but the images from the MCE 'seems' slightly more natural to me.  Maybe that's because the capture is not quite as sharp and has smoothed some of the noise/colours a bit more.  I don't know.

Also, the differences (if any) between the comb filters don't seem all that great either.  Some areas on the MCE look better and smoother but in other parts the colours seem less precise and they both show pretty much the same amount of rain bowing.

I really was expecting the PDI card to absolutely trounce the MCE, but I don't think it does.  The results are a heck of a lot closer than I would have imagined.

What do the rest of you think?

Unfortunately the difference isn't very big, but still visible. I think I've reached about the maximum I can get out of laserdisc with the V800 and these capture cards.

Here are a few more screenshots for comparison: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DJZ9TEN5

Yeah, you're right, the PDI/Sweetspot card is better as we expected.  Having the ability to squeeze a bit more out of the video from tweaking the BT878 is definitely a good thing.

I still think the MCE is not a bad card though and definitely worth every penny of it's $20 USD price.

Orinoco_Womble said:

Yeah, you're right, the PDI/Sweetspot card is better as we expected.  Having the ability to squeeze a bit more out of the video from tweaking the BT878 is definitely a good thing.

I still think the MCE is not a bad card though and definitely worth every penny of it's $20 USD price.

 I didn't use the BT878 tweaking for my captures. I don't know if you are under the impression that I did but I thought I would mention it to make sure.

Yeah, I was under the impression that you’d used the BT878 tweaker.  Sorry, can’t think why I made that assumption.  The BT878 tweaker does sound like a really useful thing though.  It would be really interesting to see a before and after type capture with and without using the BT878 tweaker.

Moth3r said:

I seems to me that capturing analogue video is unfortunately becoming a dying art.

These days anyone and their gran can hook something up to a DVD recorder and hit the record button, and there is precious little info or comparisons on capture card specs.    

Bumping this old thread because I agree with Moth3r and because I want to find a nice capture card. 

I too bought a set top DVD recorder and recorded some stuff with it, and while the picture is not bad, it's horribly interlaced and just isn't as nice as I would like for it to be. 

Can anyone recommend a nice capture card capable of old analog captures for a decent price?

I would like to be able to capture video from PS3 games as well, but it's not essential that whatever card I get does both. 

reave said:

Moth3r said:

I seems to me that capturing analogue video is unfortunately becoming a dying art.

These days anyone and their gran can hook something up to a DVD recorder and hit the record button, and there is precious little info or comparisons on capture card specs.    

Looking back, I now realise that these comments smacked of video snobbery to some extent. I've since shown (here) that you can get very good results from a DVD recorder.

Bumping this old thread because I agree with Moth3r and because I want to find a nice capture card. 

I too bought a set top DVD recorder and recorded some stuff with it, and while the picture is not bad, it's horribly interlaced and just isn't as nice as I would like for it to be. 

What exactly do you mean by "horribly interlaced"? If your source is interlaced, then your capture will be too - this is not a "horrible" thing (actually, I would say it is very desirable).

Can anyone recommend a nice capture card capable of old analog captures for a decent price?

I would like to be able to capture video from PS3 games as well, but it's not essential that whatever card I get does both. 

I bought a fairly cheap Compro card a couple of years ago: it has composite, s-video and component inputs. I can't recommend it yet until I've tested it myself, though.

I'll record something again and take a look at it. It's been a while since I used the DVD Recorder, I just remember seeing some nasty interlacing from programs I had recorded off of TV. 

I've got to get something myself eventually for other projects. But I'll need to add a firewire card to my PC etc.

When I did some transfers in college, I wound up having to use the Dazzle converter which though it can be bought in office stores, actually did quite well.