Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

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RE: VCR to PC

Posted by Bubba on August 12, 2007 at 21:23:04:
There's a few options:
1) Separate TV/video tuner box that converts directly to VGA compatible, goes in between the computer and monitor. Usually has a remote, and you don't need to run the computer to watch TV. Won't capture video.
2) PCI tuner or capture card. (Some have built-in MPEG encoding hardware, which can be helpful for PVR or capturing, although I've read that capturing to a minimally compressed format like DV makes for better quality, and cleaner editing.) Hauppauge is a well-supported brand of tuner card. There's capture cards that don't have TV tuners; you can find older bundles of video editing software that come with PCI capture cards on eBay for reasonable prices (Pinnacle Studio PCI for example).
3) USB or Firewire capture devices. I haven't tried any of these, but obviously installation should be easier since you don't need to open the case, and there's no wrestling with IRQ settings which can be an issue with some PCI capture cards. Some early models may only be USB 1.x compatible, and will be severely limited in resolution and frame rate.

Some tuner cards and USB dongles are compatible with digital TV (ATSC), which should allow you to use your computer as an HDTV PVR and capture TV in uncompromised broadcast quality hi-def. I'd consider one of those if you live someplace where you can get over-the-air HDTV, or if the difference in price isn't substantial.