Hi there, welcome to the site.
The JVC SR-V10U is a great VCR. We have at least 3-4 ourselves.
The TBC-1000 is a good one, too. Again, we have several TBC-100/TBC-1000 units here for our work.
ATI All In Wonder cards (AIW) are PCI, AGP and PCI express (PCIE).
I forget what ATI 600/650 cards are (PCI? PCI-E?), but they have both internal and external (USB2) models.
All of these cards are fine.
AVI is software capture anyway -- there is no AVI hardware capture cards from anybody.
I honestly don't remember why the 550 was crappy. It's literally been years. I do know the ATI 600 USB cards are fine.
There's one on my desk, to make guides this month.
There's no need for anything beyond a TBC-1000, unless its a TBC with an advanced proc amp. (i.e. not like the AVT-8710)
I find the best capture systems are the ATI AIW ones, only older P4 hardware, using Windows XP. So that's what I would do. It's what I've done. To me, the capture cards is the most important, and I build the computer around it. I don't build a computer, and then try to find a capture card.
In addition to anything you find on eBay, be sure to check out
Amazon, too.
Hope that answers your questions.