Does anybody have a recommendation for an analogue video capture device? I don't mind fitting a PCI card but a USB one would probably be preferred.

I'm also rather interested in one that would allow me to write out straight to a S-VHS VCR and I see that Hauppage do one for the Mac but can't see one for the PC. I guess for output USB won't hack it.

Anyone have suggestions?

Lampsh.

[Aladdin]

I have been using Pinnacle Studio Deluxe (about £175) with my analogue Hi8 camcorder.

It is a PCI card and for analogue input/output there is a breakout box that has s-video ports for you to connect your camcorder to.

My package is version 7 but it's currently on version 8. Version 7 came with Pinnacle Studio 7 and Pinnacle Express software. The former is for capturing and editing the footage and the latter is for burning to CD or DVD. Version 8 comes with Studio 8 which has the burning facility built into it.

For capturing, editing and DVD burning I've been reasonably happy. However, for CD burning I haven't been satisfied with the picture quality so I've used other software for this (TMPGEnc and Sonic MyDVD).

There is another newer Pinnacle product called Studio MovieBox available which has a similar purpose. It comes in 2 versions DV and USB (if you don't want to install a PCI card). It too has s-video ports. The DV version is about £170 and the USB version about £125 from www.dabs.com.

[MarkE19]

Had a look on www.dabs.com and found:

Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 £163.32
USB , but 2.0 not the normal USB 1.1

Mark.

Thanks, both. I will check them out.

Aladdin, I had similar experiences with the SVCD quality on Pinnacle 7 (I think it was included in the firewire board I bought) but there's a patch which improves the quality - though I didn't really "benchmark" the patch against tmpgenc.

I ended up getting Ulead instead of Pinnacle for the greater flexibility in transitions and filters so can't speak from lengthy experience.

lampsh