Pertinent system specs: Windows 7 64-bit, only have PCIe slots on the motherboard. I usually use VideoStudio for capture and editing.
My old pc, which I really don't want to have to dig out and actually use that thing again, well many years ago I bought a Leadtek PCI video capture card and that thing worked flawlessly. I was very pleased with it.
Well my newer system only has PCIe slots, but USB is also available, firewire I guess too. Anyway I've tried a couple of video capture cards already.
The first was Diamond's VC500: http://www.diamondmm.com/VC500.php
This USB capture device was pretty cheap and it took a while to even get the drivers working right. The problem though ended up that I could not get any sort of video preview working on my machine. Oh I could capture video just fine and it would save and I could go back and play the video file no problem. But to actually WATCH the video being played through the card, couldn't do it. Very weird, yes, but I do need to see what's being played and know when to stop and start recording. Also any audio fed through the device had an annoying high-pitched whine too it, so another strike against this device. It got returned.
The next was Hauppauge's ImpactVCB-e: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_impactvcb.html
I figured I'd try this one next since it seemed to be one of the few, simple analog video capture cards that was still an actual card and not a usb plugin device. Well, this device didn't even want to work at all. Windows would not pick up the new device inserted into the slot. I switched to different slots, I verified that the bios could see that there was something inserted into the slot, so I knew the device was working on a low level of sorts, but Windows didn't seem to like. After playing around with it for an hour or so, I managed to somehow "force" Windows into seeing a new unknown device. Oh but it got better. When it came time for me to point it to the driver files, every time I loaded the drivers the system would hit me with a BSOD. To make a long story short, the reason why is because the 64-bit drivers did not work at all, it kept trying to load the 32-bit ones which were in a different subdirectory. So I couldn't even get this thing to even run on my system.
I'm thinking of trying Hauppauge's USB-Live2 product next, not sure if it'll turn out any better though.
I'm just looking for a simple analog video capture card so I can get some old videos off of VHS tapes. So I don't need any expensive $200 cards with tv tuners and all that crap. I never thought it would turn into such an ordeal. I'd appreciate any recommendations on stuff you've verified actually works with a similar system setup as what I've posted.
My old pc, which I really don't want to have to dig out and actually use that thing again, well many years ago I bought a Leadtek PCI video capture card and that thing worked flawlessly. I was very pleased with it.
Well my newer system only has PCIe slots, but USB is also available, firewire I guess too. Anyway I've tried a couple of video capture cards already.
The first was Diamond's VC500: http://www.diamondmm.com/VC500.php
This USB capture device was pretty cheap and it took a while to even get the drivers working right. The problem though ended up that I could not get any sort of video preview working on my machine. Oh I could capture video just fine and it would save and I could go back and play the video file no problem. But to actually WATCH the video being played through the card, couldn't do it. Very weird, yes, but I do need to see what's being played and know when to stop and start recording. Also any audio fed through the device had an annoying high-pitched whine too it, so another strike against this device. It got returned.
The next was Hauppauge's ImpactVCB-e: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_impactvcb.html
I figured I'd try this one next since it seemed to be one of the few, simple analog video capture cards that was still an actual card and not a usb plugin device. Well, this device didn't even want to work at all. Windows would not pick up the new device inserted into the slot. I switched to different slots, I verified that the bios could see that there was something inserted into the slot, so I knew the device was working on a low level of sorts, but Windows didn't seem to like. After playing around with it for an hour or so, I managed to somehow "force" Windows into seeing a new unknown device. Oh but it got better. When it came time for me to point it to the driver files, every time I loaded the drivers the system would hit me with a BSOD. To make a long story short, the reason why is because the 64-bit drivers did not work at all, it kept trying to load the 32-bit ones which were in a different subdirectory. So I couldn't even get this thing to even run on my system.
I'm thinking of trying Hauppauge's USB-Live2 product next, not sure if it'll turn out any better though.
I'm just looking for a simple analog video capture card so I can get some old videos off of VHS tapes. So I don't need any expensive $200 cards with tv tuners and all that crap. I never thought it would turn into such an ordeal. I'd appreciate any recommendations on stuff you've verified actually works with a similar system setup as what I've posted.