VideoMate PCI Video Capture Card - C500
A very old PCI 5 volt only card
(1) Texas Instruments IEEE3 interface chip
(1) Philips SAA decoder chip
(1) PLX PCI bus interface chip
The (dropouts) your seeing in the video often appear in ADC when the voltage dips below the chips ability to operate properly, or during the final heat death of a chip that is in the process of burning out.
It can also happen due to shared Interrupts in the slot in the motherboard the C500 is plugged into.. moving it to a different slot may solve your problem.
We can only generalize without being there and knowing the specifics.
Given the age and observed video problems here are a few suggestions:
1. Make sure the card is not plugged into the First or Last slot in the PC motherboard
reason: the first slot often shares Interrupts with whatever video card is installed in the system and will periodically be "switched off" very quickly by the device drivers servicing those interrupts.. during that time the card is on its own and may effectively stop digitizing.. and produce the observed "streaks". Once the video card is serviced, the card is switched back on and digitizing continues. The Syncopation can cause these events to appear in the same place or slowly strobe to differing areas of the image. The number of chips on this particular card leave little doubt that it is highly CPU and device driver dependent, there is no ram, so when its not being serviced there is no hope that it will continue to digitize for brief periods on its own. -- this is very much a low end card and really not recommended even in a fast computer with a fast CPU.
the last slot is similarly used as a slot of last resort and often consigned to the IRQ dumping ground. That is as priorities go the last to get device driver servicing priority and shares its interrupts with all of the other siblings. Its the youngest child at the far end of the table and may starve.
2. Make sure the PC is not loaded with lots of unnecessary cards when capturing.. each additional PCI slot occupied will introduce more Interrupt sharing and spawn additional delays.. and in the case with this card.. additional drop out ('streaking') opportunities
BTW: AGP slots for graphics cards, are just a fancy name for a dedicated PCI slot, so remember don't use the first and last slots for the capture card.
3. Power supply in the PC should be appropriately sized, a PC supporting a heavy duty Graphics card for first person shooter games is a vastly undesirable PC to use for video capture.. it is the exact opposite of a good PC for video capture. Heavy duty GPUs on the graphics card will draw down the voltages produced by the power supply and deliver less than desirable voltages to this capture card. It is a 5 volt only card.. it is not a Universal 5 volt and 3.3 volt card like all modern PCI video capture cards. If the 5 volt rail is over loaded, you absolutely will get streaking.
PCI cards have nibble chunks or "key slots" in the card. The one furthest from the back panel is the 5 volt key, the one closest to the back panel is the 3.3 volt key. This card does not have a 3.3 volt key, so its a 5 volt only card.
incidentally, the PCI standards committee "Warned" for many years to not design any 5 volt only cards because 3.3 was the planned preferred standard for motherboards in the future.. but were mostly ignored until they went totally 3.3 volt only motherboards in the PCI slots enforced by newer PCI chipsets on the motherboards.. ending support for 5 volt cards.. and orphaning these from modern systems. Cards that have "both" key slots 5 volt and 3.3 volt are called "Universal" cards and were the recommended standard for many years
4. Heat can ruin a capture chip, but it depends on the design of the chip, and whether it is compressing the image at the same time. This card does not appear to have any hardware compression.. so its probably not over heating.. unless the PC is stuffed with cards and has poor ventilation. An over heated PC however can also cause the Power supply to strain and that will cause the 5 volt rail to sag.. its never a good thing to let a PC run too hot.
There are many (many) alternatives to this card.. for very low cost.
You can try a few of the suggestions mentioned above.. but even then you may continue to get streaks in the capture image.
An internal card on a PC that does not have USB 2.0 is possible.. however there are quite a few USB 2.0 capture dongles and capture boxes which can do a better job.
Since you are capturing PAL, there are also firewire options which connect to IEEE1394 (OHCI) ports that can also do an adequate job.
And there are high end video capture devices and cards. Its a vast topic of constant discussion on these forums.
Budgets for new gear should be tempered with your experience level.
If you seek another capture device do not expect to pay less than $25 usd for something used, that you've read up on and know what to expect.
On the other end don't expect to pay more than $200 usd for something your well aware of its capablites, and feel fairly confident about its resale value on the open market when your done.
I don't know your local currency and assuming Euros sometimes upsets people.. so I've quoted in my own local currency.
VirtualDub is a better than average tool to use and works with many capture cards, dongles and outboard devices. But do remember it is not generally used for compressed video capture from a device that only offers compressed digital output.. so again.. know your capture device before purchasing, and know which capture tool you plan to use with it.
Also by the way, don't forget a DVD recorder with an internal hard drive can also be used as a standalone solution, even if the DVD burner no longer works. Many DVD recorder brands and models are now supported by
Isobuster. Obtaining a DVD recorder these days is more expensive and harder to do if you do not already have one. But its vastly simpler to do it that way than using a PC. - mainly experts would only go this way if they knew they did not want to perform detailed scene cuts and editing, or image repair with sophisticated software.. but would eventually reduce the final cut to the same format as a DVD recorder produces anyway for sharing and distribution. I only mention it since that part of the world tended to buy a lot more DVD recorders than this part of the world.. and it might be an option open to you.