Good PC Video Capture Devices

[JediKnightButler]

I'm in the market for a video capture card (USB preferred) for my Windows Vista Ultimate PC so that I can convert some of my old Laserdiscs and wanted to know if anybody had some good recommendations for devices in the $20-30 range. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[FordSVT]

I'm in the market for a video capture card (USB preferred) for my Windows Vista Ultimate PC so that I can convert some of my old Laserdiscs and wanted to know if anybody had some good recommendations for devices in the $20-30 range. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This article and accompanying links should provide you with all the info you'd ever need.

http://dvr.about.com/od/capturetvwithacomputer/bb/bybcc.htm

 

[JediKnightButler]

Thanks for the link but it seems as though the author is mostly talking about TV capture devices. I'm primarily interested in video capture devices for my old Laserdisc player. Do you have any other resources you might suggest? Thanks!

 

[Kryton]

I just got a Pinnacle capture dongle which has HDTV and such as well. Plus, of course, a vidcap connector which I haven't used yet (from either composite RCA-plug video or S-video plus a connector for 2-channel audio).

It was a refurb I paid about $60 for, but so far it's worked very well for me.

 

[Timby]

Thanks for the link but it seems as though the author is mostly talking about TV capture devices. I'm primarily interested in video capture devices for my old Laserdisc player. Do you have any other resources you might suggest? Thanks!

What outputs does your laserdisc player have? If it's standard three-cable RCA, you'll need a breakout box, a card or some other device. We recently converted two of our video editing machines from using antiquated capture cards to this USB-based capture solution, and it's working pretty well.

You still need a video editing platform to actually work with and output your captured assets, though.

 

[Kryton]

Heh...the Pinnacle I got and described above is extremely similar to your USB solution except that, in addition to video capture, it also is HDTV capable (supposedly like a DVR, but I haven't done that yet).

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I have the Pinnacle thing too (Studio Movie Box), and the capture part is the only thing I've been able to get the application (Studio 11) to work (somewhat) for. But after a good period of capturing, my A/V sync was off by quite a bit. Not sure what caused that, I haven't used it in a while.