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PDI deluxe and coaxial sources, is there a worthwhile way?

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Although most of my capturing will likely be of VHS sources that will be captured through S-Video, every now and then I'll be wanting to capture some cable, which comes through coaxial. Now, the PDI doesn't have coaxial input. I could buy an adaptor that does component/whatever else the PDI supports, but I've been told that would sort of defeat the purpose of buying such an expensive (for a consumer level) card. Is that true? If so, do I have no choice but to buy a second card for coaxial sources or would using an adaptor still be a better choice? Finally, if using an adaptor is the correct alternative, which ones would you recommend me?
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I assume you're talking about analogue cable, not digital cable that needs a decoding box?

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Exactly. There is digital cable here but what I have now (and for a couple of years, I expect) is analogue.
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So, all you need is an analogue tuner (i.e. the signal is not scrambled or encoded).

Back to your original question, your choice is either to buy a new tuner for your PC (PCI card or USB device), or use an external tuner built in to, for example, a VCR, and capture the VCR's composite output with the PDI Delux card.

I can't say for certain which would give the better quality, but I'd be tempted to get something for your PC - it would cut out the need for a length of composite video cable from the tuner to the capture card.

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If I went the VCR tuner's route, wouldn't it be better to do the capture using the VCR's S-Video out (I intend to bou one with it if possible)?

If I went the PC tuner route, is there one in particular you'd recommend me?
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The tuner extracts a composite video signal from the VHF/UHF carrier frequencies for a particular channel or band. To get s-video, the composite signal has to go through a comb filter to separate the luma and chroma parts. The comb filter inside the PDI delux card is apparently pretty good, so may give better results than a filter inside a VCR.

I've not used a PC tuner in years (it was an old ATI TV Wonder). The trend these days is towards USB devices, but I don't know how good they are.

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What about the s-video on vcr's that have it for playing a tape? I know the comb filter on the PDI is better than the s-video on laserdisc players, the X0 team mentioned they captured composite, right?

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I read somewhere that the PDI deluxe is based on the BT878 chipset, is that true?
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Yes that's true. If you check the specs for the sweetspot card - basically the same as the PDI Deluxe for the European market - it uses these chipsets:
Philips SAA7118 9-bit analog-to-digital converter.
Conexant Fusion BT878A video decoder

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This is allegedly the best available consumer-level analogue capture card and has such an old chipset? There are cheapo cards with the newer 7134, how can this yield better results than those or a Compro Ultra (not X800, that turned out to be no that good after all)?