What capture device that is still in stock the most ideal choice?
 

Greetings, first time posting here.

I've been thinking of getting a new capture device for my VHS capture setup after having heard specific devices might actually be better compared to what I have right now, here on this forum.

My current setup is as follows.

SHARP DV-NC72 using composite output --> Hauppauge HVR 1290 PCI --> VirtualDub2 (Lagarith for video encode and PCM uncompressed for audio) (timing settings set to resample audio speed to keep AV synch (yes am poor and have no TBC))

I used to use the Elgato Video Capture device in the past but after comparing it with the Hauppauge devices I switched (colors looked washed out and harsh contrast).

I have also the Hauppauge HVR 950Q which I did use for a time but stopped after noticing a weird grid pattern on the captures I'd use it in. It did in my experience perform better with the more unstable signals.

Here I'll compare what the Hauppauge devices output looked like. I don't know if this is a revision issue but the grid never goes away on the HVR 950Q.

HVR 1290: Attachment 18553

HVR 950Q: Attachment 18554

My understanding is that the most IDEAL device is the ATI TV Wonder 600 USB. Specifically I think the explanation that LordSmurf gave was that the chipsets in the USB variant were from Texas Instruments and that the ones in the PCI version were made by AMD themselves. And thus the PCI variant are not equivalent in the quality of the picture it produces.

Thing is I cannot for the love of me find a ATI TV Wonder 600 USB for sale on ebay or any site. There is one listing on Ebay but it seems they switched the real 600 USB for a generic tv usb tuner. Listing here

But I do conveniently have the PCI variant. Purchased it for the ATSC tv tuner it comes with but never used it (I ended up only using three Hauppauge devices in my HDTV capture PC). It's stitting around and I haven't given it a try.

Photos for what the card looks like:

Attachment 18555

Attachment 18556

I suspect this card is also trash as the chips are all labeled "AMD" and thus not the desired TI chips. Either way it is an option of which I haven't given a try yet. (It says "REV 90" on the PCI bracket if the photos don't identify that by the way).

Was going to to buy the USB Live 2 from Hauppauge since I'm already familiar with the brand from the fun I have with digital tv recording and archival. But I'm hearing here on the forum that's not really any good either?

I also heard mention of using the Pinnacle 710. Although only in one thread about the USB Live 2 I think. Link here for that thread.

I know it's already bad that I'm not using a VCR with an S video output. But it's the machine I have for now.

In all what are the recommendations y'all have? Any device that any one of y'all prefer? Are my selection satisfactory or should I get a device I didn't name yet?

There are some users here that really like the Live-2, but I think it needs a pretty stable incoming signal and is probably fine as long as your VCR has a line TBC, though the Sharp VCR you name there doesn't which you can kind of tell based on your screenshots (the extreme edges with black bars of each captured horizontal line don't line up perfectly vertically).

From one users' YouTube videos, they suggest that the ATI600 has a sort of line-TBC-like-effect all of its own which could benefit you in this situation and in their testing, doing MiniDV capture either with a DV camcorder or ADVC-110 accomplished the same thing. Downside with DV is that it isn't lossless and color accuracy may be a bit off, but I've always found it quite decent personally. Advantages to DV is that you'll never have an audio sync issue and most of the converter chips tend to have line TBC effects built in

Your other option is just to add a DMR-ES10 or 15 which will give the line TBC-like effect, though possibly at a slight cost of some quality loss which is termed here as "posterization", though odds are that the picture improvement will be more than any passthrough losses in this situation.

Your samples above seem to have either significant chroma noise and tearing/flagging (gradual, the top of the image is shifted left as you can see by the lack of straight vertical black bars on either side) for the first one and that second one has a fine checkerboard patterning, but less chroma noise and less horizontal alignment issues (though still not perfect).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRoGgJZbwc

Yeah I believe the DV camcorders would output a MPEG1 video stream and not lossless. Although I think the MPEG1 stream is still a gargantuan 30MBPS so not bad at the least.

In terms of the VCR I think I might keep it as is but purchase a DMR-ES10 as you mention. As well as keeping a look out for that ATI 600 USB. Perhaps both at the same time can stabilize the signal coming in enough to prevent inserted/dropped frames. Would really like to have captured tapes be transcodable while keeping synch. (And to turn off the resample audio for AV synch).

Thanks for the explanation for the samples I provided. Didn't know the actual terms to describe the artifacts on my output of either Hauppauge device. Chroma noise being the faint rainbow artifacts on the HVR 1290 and the checkerboard pattering on the HVR 950Q.