What device to use to capture S-Video?

[bfollowell]

When it comes to capturing SD video through an S-Video cable, would it be best to use something like Pinnacle's Dazzle DVD Recorder HD, an EasyCap device, or the Analog to Digital passthrough of a camcorder?

I realize none of these options are likely the "best" to capture this video, but I don't plan to search for old ATI AIW cards, etc, so I guess these seem to be about the most readily available options to get for a modern system so, of these three options, which would likely give the best results? Are there other options that I'm missing that wouldn't be to hard to locate or expensive to get?

Thanks.

-- merged --

I finally found some other threads relating to these devices and, to say they seem to have a pretty low opinion on these boards is something of an understatement.

I guess I'll keep looking into other modern analog capture methods as well as investigate professional capture to lossless avi.

[sanlyn]

Other than the legacy ATI All In Wonder line (they are still around, often in the marketplace area of this forum), more recent capture devices optimized for analog source capture are USB models that are far more accomplished than the EZ-Cao/EasyCrap ripoffs. Tested and often recommended are the ATI 600 USB (hard to find), Hauppauge's USB-Live2, and the Diamond Multimedia VC500. If you're looking for any quality at all, of course, the player and associated tbc are equally important, as is lossless capture for the most accurate archive quality.

[bfollowell]

sanlyn, thanks for your response. Of the three USB devices you listed, do they just digitize the video feed? They do not perform any sort of compression upon capture, correct? Also, I know all three mentioned coming with software. Do you have any idea if I would be able to use VirtualDub to capture using these devices?

Thanks.

[sanlyn]

The above products have been recommended specifically in dozens of forum threads here and elsewhere for VirtualDub lossless capture using lossless compression codecs like huffyuv or Lagarith. You are still required to install the device's capture drivers, just as with all capture devices, but you use Virtualdub for capture instead of the product's software. Some of the suggested products have software similar to the EZ-Cap/EasyCrap products, but those software packages are in common supply everywhere from many sellers. Use Virtualduib or AmarecTV for capture.

[lordsmurf]

To add: EZcap/Easycap don't even have their own drivers. They use a generic Empia driver, which is also used on other Empia chipsets. But again, the chipset doesn't entirely make the card/recorder. Bad devices with good chipsets exist. So it's really important to match a known-good chipset with a known-good device.

The ATI 600 USB is by far my favorite, for USB devices. (I still have an extra one available, PM me if interested.)