Choosing between ATI AIW vs. other options?
 

Hello everyone.
Would like some help choosing capture device (and should I even buy it).
I recently bought S-VHS VCR Panasonic NV-HS820EE and before buying S-VHS VCR I were using for capturing PAL VHS tapes only USB device's: Pinnacle 500-USB, Dazzle DVC100, DVC130 and ADS Tech USBAV-700.
So I was thinking since I now have S-VHS VCR to buy old WinXP PC (with AGP), Panasonic DMR ES10 or ES15 and some card for capturing. But due to my region I have very few options. So help me out please.

I can buy one of these cards:
1. АТI Аll-In-Wоndеr 128 32Мb аgр with (ATI Rage Theatre chip), just card itself, nothing else, no accessories etc. This one seen better days but seller says it's working fine.
2. Matrox RTX 10, with cables.
3. Pinnacle MovieBoard Plus PCI, 'old stock' new in box full.

So I can either buy one of these cards (and WinXP PC for it) or stick to my old WinXP laptop and Pinnacle USB cards I have now.
What do you think I should go with?
Thanks! :)

PS
Got to say I'm not lookin for 100% lossless, I just want best but also quick result for my archive and my space is also pretty limited, I can't afford 30 gb per hour or something like this sadly.

Welcome. :)

Yes, upgrading your card is needed.

And yes, Dazzles are all terrible cards, not too different from the infamous Easycap (Easycrap).

Those 3 cards choices you gave are all ancient.

- AIW 128 (Pro?) is too sluggish on the graphics, really old tech (late-90s, pre-2000s)
- Matrox was good for a purpose (NLE/Premiere card), but not now.
- Pinnacle PCI is miserable to work with.

If you were forced to pick, then the AIW 128. But it's not going to give you an enjoyable easy capture experience.

Trying to compress on-the-fly will generally work very poorly, or not at all. For non-lossless capture, you need a card capable of MPEG capturing. That old AIW 128 has problems installing ATI MMC easily.

Why are you choosing from these 3 cards?

Reluctantly, that Pinnacle 500-USB may be the best choice of the lot.

I tried to find local offers for at least some of the cards mentioned here on the forum and thats what I got. In our region you can find pretty much only Pinnacles DVC100s, ezcaps, WinTv's cards and sometimes Blackmagic, so finding these options I mentioned earlier took me a day or two.

Thank you! Would Pinnacle 510/710 be any better? Should I look for something like Pinnacle MovieBox or Avid Liquid? Or Blackmagic design intensity shuttle USB 3.0 which is also appears sometimes in my view. Because I can't find much else here. And WinXP is still best option for VCR capture even if it's USB device?

What would be good for today and not very complicated in case I would want to stick to card?

Appreciate!

510/710 have versions, both good and not-good versions. So you can try, see.

Not Blackmagic.

WinXP or Win7 are the best, most stable, best driver support, for video capture cards/hardware.

What is good, not complicated? (And MPEG.) The post-128 AIW, either PCI or AGP. The PCI is rare, AGO not too hard to locate. The most important aspect is getting the correct cables. Namely the purple/domino dongle (breakout cable), and on a card that has direct DVI/VGA output. Certain cards are paperweights without the proprietary squic cable.

For AIW, don't forget the audio card, namely Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (TBSC).

Will keep an eye on it, maybe proper ATI AIW will come around soon. 128 I were able to locate didn't even had these cable (or anything else, just card alone).

So for now I'll stick to my Pinnacle 500-USB.

Thank you again! :worthy:

Ordering one 710 now. Actually there's a lot of Avermedia device's I forgot to mention which are seem available. Are they any better than Pinnacle? Any of their usb device's or internal cards? Or they have a separate box AverMedia GameCapture HD, but do I remember correct about such device's for game capture what they are no good for VHS capture right?
Cheers!