What video card do I need? How much?

I recently got a RAID 0 configuration in my machine and have 50 gigs of free space. I hear this is a good setup for video capture.

Is the quality that much lower and harder then DVD conversions?

@ audi2honda,

Yes.

If your source is: VHS/Cable/Attenna/Satellite, then yes, quality is not
as good as DVD source.

As for Satellite, quality will VARY from tv program to tv program, as well
as from Sat Provider to Sat providers too, as well as the Source Quality
being aired, to Source Quality being aired. Some channels are better than
others in terms of quality. And, some soure types ie, Movies come in a
better quality. It will just depend FIRSTLY on your provider ie, I hear that
DishNetwork is louzier than DirecTV (I have DirecTV, and lots of things are
in pretty good quality, bot NOT great quality as I once believed)

As always, Analog Captures will look great when you view them inside apps
like vdub and so forth, but once encoded, is another beast, because they
are unstable ie, IVTC, Interlaced, Screwed up IVTC etc etc. and you'll soon
learn this all out, if you can beaf it out as you go along.

Video Capturing is a FUN endeavor. I've ben doing it for many years.
I stick to my opinion, that there's nothing better than an Analog Capture
vs DV. with Analog, you have many options which leads quality further,
ie, uncompressed = lossless wearas, DV is lossy, due to its' compression.
BUT, there are some DV devices that do an excellent job at capturing,
aka Transfer via Firewire.
For example, I have the ADVC-100 device. It's the best device out there
for what you want to do, and w/ ZERO framedrops, audio sync etc etc.

My recommendations are thus...
If you want 100% trouble-free Video Endeavors, go get a ~$300 ADVC-100,
else regret, and start out w/ an Analog Capture card. I've ben there, and
done it all. I've got so many capture devices, the list is too long, even those
that I bouhght and quickly returned.
I tell this, if you go w/ an Analog capture device, you'll have issues that
will sway you from your fun, but if you heed my advice (wisdom) go w/
the ADVC-100 !! Leave the Analog to those who experienced it for a long
time, like myself I got all the headaches for you, if you can handle
them

With my ADVC-100, I can dup a DVD exactly, but thats because the source
is in very good quality to begin with. But, it was exciting to see how the
quality would compare to DVD rip. It another alternative to your OWNED
dvd movies. It's amazing what this device can do, and w/out any hitch of
heacheachs !!

But, the choice, of course, is your But do give it some thought, as you
plan your options/goals out !!

GD luck,
-vhelp

I "STRONGLY" suggest a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250
All the reviews are just great. The card captures directly to MPEG-1/2, so no need to use HuffYUV. You can capture 720x480 at an extremely high bitrate, and you'll save way more space than if you capture to AVI. Search this forum for user: "Dano", and you'll see some of his posts related to this card. Not to mention that the card barely consumes CPU, because of the on-board hardware encoder chip. So you can browse the web, even encode something with tmpeg at the same you're capturing and you won't drop frames
That's something you just can't do with a regular capture card, specially at 720x480

-kwag

Do you prefer the board or usb models? I'm thinking about replacing my WinTVGO 90. Also, which drivers do you use with a PVR 250?

Never get a USB capture device
You will drop frames. Until USB 2.0 devices start to appear, stick to PCI boards. The ones supplied by the manufacturer. Remember, it's a "Hardware encoder" that captures directly to MPEG-1/2, and not a capture card that saves as AVI, which needs either WFW of WDM drivers.
Check this site, which is related to PVR 250: http://www.shspvr.com/

-kwag

Thanks for the site. I notice that the 350 has a mpeg2 hardware encoder rather than a software encoder like the 250. Is this a worthwhile advantage?

The 250 and the 350 are both "Hardware encoders". Here are the differences: http://www.hauppauge.com/html/pvr250faq.htm#diff

-kwag

One last question. What is the model number of your 250 (8920?)? I have found one for about $120 on the net and want to confirm that it is the exact model.

Last question
Why last question

From the back of the box:
WinTV-PVR-250
Model 980

I paid ~139.95 for mine at OfficeMax.

-kwag

You really know in your "heart of hearts" that it is never the real last question. I think I'll go ahead and order the thing. I've read a couple reviews that say that it is very hard to install on XPhome, but I went through the same difficulties installing the wintvgo 90 I have now. I do wonder about one review that says that you have to have a cable box for it to work. I have Time Warner basic cable without a box. TW is really analog for the basic channels anyway, although they say differently.

The review also said 90% of the software with the card and the remote won't work without a cable box. Do you know anything about this? With the present card, I use virtualvcr instead of the card's software. I suppose to utilize the hardware encoder I'll have to use its software. I really intend to use it only for captures to mpeg2 for DVD2AVI use - same as a DVD. Do you forsee any difficulties in this?

No I don't! Yes, you must use the software supplied. But I wouldn't worry, because I've been told by users who use the card, that they can do many things in the computer at the same time they are capturing, because of the hardware chip in the card. It consumes very little processor usage, so you can even be encoding something in TMPEG while at the same time capturing real time at 720x480 with the card . Not at all
Just capture at the highest bitrate, I believe it's ~12Mbps, and then run your mpeg file through DVD2AVI to make your .d2v, and encode your KVCDs

-kwag