Capture cards?

[Steel Chicken]

Anyone use video capture cards here?

I have cable TV and have used cap cards in the past, but am looking for a new one. Ive gone through 3 so far and have had nothing but problems.

Hauppauge - refused to actually save the capture file
ATI TV - super high cpu utilization, system instablilites, and after a few minutes would crash the puter.
Studio PCTV - timeshift doesnot work at all (they package wrong cards in the boxes) - wont work with multiple monitors, and video quality is poor.

Why is it so hard to find a decent cap card anymore? Why so many problems? Can anyone reccomend a decent card that does the following:

1. multi monitor support
2. high quality drivers and apps
3. multiple recording formats (dvd, mpeg1,2 etc)
4. low cpu utlilization

thanks!

 

[Kruzin]

Matrox P650/750 or Parhelia combined with one of their RT.x10/.x100 capture cards.

P650 is dual DVI output that can do one CRT+TV
P750 and Parhelia can do 2 CRTs+tv
RT.x10/.x100 are high end products, and very popular with the NLE crowd.

http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/categories.asp?CategoryID=73&Column=2

http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/categories.asp?CategoryID=69&Column=2

 

[Steel Chicken]

Ill look into them, but I dont want to replace my primary GFX card, ATI 9800 pro...

 

[gimpy]

Best capture card I've owned is the MyHD MDP-120
Works great and it does HDTV also if that interests you.

 

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by Steel Chicken
Ill look into them, but I dont want to replace my primary GFX card, ATI 9800 pro...

You don't need to replace your existing card to use the RT.x10/.x100. It will work with that card, but you will need to rely on that card for your multi-monitor needs. The RTs are solely capture/edit cards. They have no VGA output, though they do have composite and S-vid out for a TV...