TV Tuner card and DVD's

[Kelsenellenelvian]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...Tpk=msi%20tuner

This is what I am looking at buying.

What my questions are:

I see I can record and capture TV through my VCR\Cable line.

How do I make a DVD out of say a weeks shows of a soap opera for my wife?

Also how do I record and make DVD's outta my home (VHS) tapes?

Also I really like MSI products (My current mobo and vid card are MSI) BUT I am not stuck on that capture card yet so $50-70 USD cards in the same range are welcome if you have one to suggest.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Kelsenellenelvian

[CoffeeFiend]

This is what I am looking at buying.

I haven't tried this particular card, but when it comes to analog capturing which card you pick makes a world of difference. Better white/black points, better color calibration, better sharpness and deinterlacing options, better comb filters, better ADC and so on. Also, it seems like this card doesn't do hardware mpeg2 encoding, so your CPU would have to handle that in software too, resulting in much higher CPU usage. Not totally sure if it works with MCE either.

As for digital broadcasts, where things like white and black points don't matter (you're not doing analog capture), there are still things that matter, like which modulations are supported, and mainly the tuner sensitivity (varies from a card to another). A good antenna is a good investment too for ATSC feeds (you can build a good quality antenna yourself too, for cheap), assuming there are any feeds in your area (you're in the USA, so that's likely a yes) -- free high bitrate high def TV, gotta love that.

The bundled software (and which software is compatible with it) also varies quite a bit. And like for any hardware, the drivers aren't always perfect (and sometimes 64 bit drivers aren't available at all)

I see I can record and capture TV through my VCR\Cable line.

If you mean the RF lead coax, yes, you can. But do you want to? Probably not, as it offers the worst quality of all capturing methods (the upside is, you don't need a set top box, nor to setup an IR blaster to control it, nor to schedule the STB to change channels)

As for archiving it to DVDs, I don't make any, so I'll let others chime in on the editing software (BTW, some editors can auto-cut ads) and authoring software. There's probably some all-in-one solutions for this these days though.

As for VHS tapes, just connect the output to the input of your card, play the tape, and record at the same time. Very easy. The bad part is, the magnetic tape isn't perfect, and sometimes your VCR's output will be missing certain "clock" pulses (e.g. vsync) and you'll get dropped frames, which can mess up A/V sync and the like.

Anyhow. I'd look for some good quality reviews before you buy one. Search/ask on avsforum or the like, and avoid being stuck with a card that sucks and cost 95% as much as a great card (can't say I'm exactly a fan of MSI personally). I almost bought this card a couple days ago, but I wanted to look for some reviews first (haven't had time), but it looks alright. There's better cards from Hauppauge, but for a lot more $$$ unfortunately.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

I like that card you posted a link to. Looks pretty imressive.