But did you get a good one?

The VC500 has production changes, known AGC issues on the latter versions. sanlyn used to get great captures with his VC500, but I could never locate a unit without the AGC problem (and eventually gave up, wasted too much $$$ trying). At this late date, it seems bad VC500 outnumber the good. :(

Diamond was always just a rebadger, and recycled model names/numbers for different cards. They were an ATI 600 USB rebadger as well, though they actually kept all ATI brandings, and only the driver/software CD varied slightly (two revisions, actually).

FYI, for the OP, AGC = brightness randomly changes in middle of video scene, not due to tape content.

The new one appears to behave the same as the old one. But I don't have a repeatable process to verify.

-- merged --

I captured both sides of the Video Essentials Laserdisc using the VC500 if you'd like to take a look. The lossless captures are 10 and 11 GB.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
But did you get a good one?

Is there any way to see before one buys such a card, (VC500) if it's a good, or bad one ?
That would be the only good advice to give.
Most of the time the answers are about what not to buy, that way it looks like there's not any good hardware to capture analog video with a computer/laptop setup…..

- PM me for my email.
- Email me link to a download location, using quality services (Dropbox, Google, AWS, etc), not crap (Mega, sites with countdown timers, slow speeds, etc).
- Wait. I'm busy, but I will look at it in time.

Nope. You have to gamble, crack it open to see components, and then test to further verify. And then you can begin to capture. (This is a hassle, and is why I started to provide hardware in the marketplace. Known working items, quality items, not flawed or bad units/models.)

traal here has run tests, trying to verify.
I've seen way to many people claim cards were "good", but samples showed all kinds of problems. With the VC500 card, aggressive AGC is just awful.

This is because most questions are asking what to buy new in stores, at Amazon, etc. Specified or not. So this idea that you can buy a shiny new card for $50 must be shot down immediately. This is a 2000s task, and it's now the 2020s. What you see new in stores is all Chinese-made crap, or HD cards (awful for SD work, aka VHS/etc).

The easy suggestion is always ATI AIW cards, AGP safe, PCIe gets screwy, avoid PCI/USB unless you know what you're getting (mostly bad models, some good). Certain Osprey cards may be the same.

If you insist on USB cards, and don't want to play the good/bad lottery, and refuse to buy gear from me, then you can subsist on the not-great/not-awful Dazzle cards. Again, not great, but not awful. However, better than Chinese junk from Amazon/eBay (or even Best Buy, aka Roxio/etc rebadges), better than that Youtube idiot "little weird" HDMI converter. But Dazzle just not quality, still some messing with values. But better than many alternatives. (For PAL, the GV-USB is a recent popular option, for an old USB card, so proceed carefully, test, verify.)

Essentially, you're late to the party, wandering around trying to see if anybody left pretzels in their bowl, maybe find a warm beer in the pantry. Everybody is now in the hot tub, maybe passed out on a couch. You're just late. You don't go to a New Year's party at 5am on Jan 1, and expect everything to still be there.

Same goes for TBCs, VCRs, SDI converters, etc.

These days, condition matters as well, not just chips, drivers, etc. Both tech and non-tech aspects.

PM'd with the link, I hope that's ok.