Video capture card

[Brighter Hell]

Recently I tried to capture a VHS tape using my Sapphire 9600XT video card. Needless to say it didn't work - no video in. So I've been looking into video capture cards. I'm not sure that I want to buy one, but I do want to know more about them. One that piques my interest is the Videomate TV Gold Plus (from vibecomputers.com). What can anyone here tell me about video capture cards?

-How does sound captured from VHS with one of these cards compare to the same sound captured with an SB Live! 5.1 sound card?

-If i convert a VHS movie to MPEG or MPEG2 and make a DVD, how will the new DVD's video quality compare to the original VHS tape when I watch it on my TV? In other words, is it worth it to convert my existing VHS movies to DVD?

-Is the most common use for these to watch TV? What exactly is the point - wouldn't most people rather watch TV on their...TV?

Anyway I've been wanting to finally get a DVD burner and I figured that a video capture card might be a handy companion purchase. Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Originally posted by Brighter Hell
-How does sound captured from VHS with one of these cards compare to the same sound captured with an SB Live! 5.1 sound card?

I don't think you'd notice a difference - sound quality isn't that great in VHS tapes anyhow.

-If i convert a VHS movie to MPEG or MPEG2 and make a DVD, how will the new DVD's video quality compare to the original VHS tape when I watch it on my TV? In other words, is it worth it to convert my existing VHS movies to DVD?

If you don't use some sort of filtering or other postprocessing method, the quality will be the same at best, but it'll probably look worse on a computer monitor, because computer monitors display progressive video while TV displays interlaced.

-Is the most common use for these to watch TV? What exactly is the point - wouldn't most people rather watch TV on their...TV?

Well I for one don't have a television, only this 20" LCD monitor (with Pinnacle PCTV Rave TV card). Some video applications I use have filtering to provide nice quality TV, and I can capture to DVD / whatever without extra AD/DA conversions in between.