Analogue PAL capture cards for Win7?
 

Hello all

I am updating and am now looking for a high grade video capture card.
I have Win 7 with enormous space dedicated to capturing.
Only have the one PCI slot and two PCIe x1 slots.

My VCR's are a JVC BR-S822 and a JVC HR-S8600 (very underrated machines).
I have a Panasonic DMR ES10 AND DMR ES15 (again, both produce excellent stable quality)

What would people suggest in regards to a analogue capture card for PAL capture.
I have been looking at the Viewcast Osprey 530 as it seems to be around the $600AU range.
Obviously there are the lower end All in wonder cards which are always highly regarded.
The AJA Kona's are a bit pricey but supposed to be a very good card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Win7 was the era of USB capture cards, not internal AGP/PCI/PCIe. So what you'll be looking for is a high-quality USB cards. (The idea that internal cards are better than external is nonsense. What matters is the card, not the communication method.)

Win7 also saw the rise of HD cards that "also did" (poorly) SD video. You don't want those. Afterthought feature, problems with unreported dropped/insert/dupe frames.

ES10/15 are fine. Not TBCs, have drawbacks that compromise quality, and with a fail rate. But as a very minimalist budget of TBC(ish) device, it's a budget setup, and tends to work with only SP 1st gen tapes without a true TBC in the workflow.

BR-S822 isn't underrated. Just lower on the spectrum of quality gear. There is newer, better. These can give you grief, not like tapes at times, and just overall piss you off if you have a lots of tapes to process. Not too different from the AG-1980 (or other Panasonics), in terms of being a PITA deck.

HR-S8600 is high suggested, great deck.

Aja Kona just isn't all that great of an experience for users. Lots of comments to read. And the costs, so double punishment.

That Osprey is fine, but it still costs near the high MSRP. For the cost, you can get two quality USB cards, or a quality card and save bucks towards TBCs/etc. Too many people gripe about costs, then mismanage the funds by buying overpriced (and often crappy) items. Go the opposite way, too cheap, and you end up with abused junk, Chinese junk, etc. Be smart money, good balance.

ATI AIW are not "lower end" whatsoever. But for some, XP is a no-go. (Preference, not that XP is a weakness.)

Ahhh thanks for the response.
I love your work lordsmurf :congrats:
Have always followed your advice on these forums.

As you said in the first paragraph, I always felt internal is better and not sure why I formed this basis.
I guess it stems from the belief that it's best to keep travel distances as close together as possible. I have always opted for shortest connecting cables as I can get. Avoid any possibility of synchronization delays etc. Silly way of thinking I know.

The TBC's you speak about, I put a lot of my trust in the players I buy. For example, both the SVHS players have TBC which have always done the job. I tend to find working with VHS tapes between the years 1985-1995, the HR-S8600 (always leave TBC on) and connected to my DMR ES15, the final result is excellent. And I do a lot of sporting videos with constant motion and tapes which have deteriorated. The only negative on this player is not having the ability to alter the chroma signal. But for a relatively cheaper priced JVC, it's superb.

I use to pay over $30 for sports DVDs produced by a popular company over here in Australia. They no longer exist but they pumped through thousands of old tapes through their industrial video machines and to be honest, my current setup, you would barely tell the difference, other than occasional drop outs. Their sound quality was also very good. Probably used computers to clean up a lot of videos just as most of us use avisynth today.

I just prefer to save family videos (hi8 tapes at the moment) in a different format other than DVD. Never been a fan of DVD for invaluable footage such as family tapes. MP4 produces crisp and excellent compression if set to highest quality possible.
Of course, this has led me to explore my options in finding the best capture card or USB on the market for this form of digitization.

What would be some models you would suggest?
Due to the current nature of projects I am currently working on, quality is of heightened importance so I am looking at spending if it means I can achieve high end results. Obviously if I can achieve similar results for a fraction of the cost, am doing that instead.

I ended up buying a Osprey 260e capture card and it's brilliant.
Quality is superb and seems to be perfectly setup for winxp/win7 desktop.

Very interested to hear your full/exact final setup you've been using and see some sample vids and screenshots.

Geez, it should be good for that price! :eek: