Am I missing something? I just got WinTV7 and I would like to capture using specific bit rate settings (similar to WinTV2000) but I only see Fair, Good, Better and Best for capture settings.

Using Hauppauge PVR150 with TMPGEnc to trim mpeg files and author dvd. I like to find the exact bit rate when capturing home videos using videohelp.com/calc BitRate calculator. Is this still a good approach? Or should I now be capturing using WinTV's "Best" setting and encoding the resulting file with a dedicated encoding software?

Any one have any ideas? What do you Hauppauge users use to capture?

Hi Hampton80, you're not being ignored, there's just a slight backlog on certain types of questions, this being one of them. The test system with the Hauppauge card is currently busy, and has been for about 7 days, but should be cleared up here in the next 48 hours. It was tapped for a rather lengthy project, as it was sitting idle at the time. I'll look at making a guide for Hauppauge capturing for you. At least one other member is seeking that same right now.

Thanks. :)

What is the best approach for capturing home video (VHS) with a Hauppauge PVR150? In WinTV7 I see Fair, Good, Better, Best? How should I be capturing? A Hauppauge capturing guide as mentioned above would be a great idea as it looks like most of the MPEG capture guides on the site are for archival purposes.

-- merged --

As this has been bumped any way, I'd also like to know the optimal capture software to be used with Hauppauge capture devices. As mentioned 'fair, good, better or best' doesn't give you too much confidence in WinTV.

-- merged --

Well, after doing some research, I think it's probably time to just upgrade my capture card as I'm using Windows7. The problems with the PVR-150 / WinTV v7 were piling up and spending $35 on ebay for the ATI 600 USB stick is worth it to make these troubles go away.

But I wanted to at least share what I did find in regards to WinTV 7's capture settings in case it helps someone else:

From what I can understand so far, here are the quality settings for WinTV7:

Fair
Average Bitrate: 3.5
Min Bitrate: 3
Max Bitrate: 4

Good
Average Bitrate: 4.5
Min Bitrate: 4
Max Bitrate: 5

Better
Average Bitrate: 6
Min Bitrate: 5.5
Max Bitrate: 6.6

Best
Resolution: 720x480
Average Bitrate: 9
Min Bitrate: 8.5
Max Bitrate: 9.9

The bitrates were found in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Hauppauge\ TVServer\<Quality_Setting>

i wish i could help, but i have never owned a Hauppauge card.
i know many people use HD-PVR capturing games and TV, but not sure how it is for VHS transfer
most of us on here use ATI cards
if you are running 7 get a 600USB , if XP get an AIW

From past experiences, the PVR-150 has uncorrectable IRE issues, and should therefore not be used. I have one too, and since I'm helping to rebuild all our systems this week, I'll slip it into an open PCI slow to re-test it.

The PVR-250 and PVR-350 are fine, so I'll make a WinTV guide. It'll probably have a disclaimer not to use the 150 card.
WinTV is the best software to use with those cards.

The ATI AIW (PCI, AGP, PCI-E) cards, or the ATI 600 cards (USB), are a much better solution.