Video Capture Card to replace Hauppauge PVR150 MCE (1 Viewer)

[waveslam]

Hi
As you may have seen from my earlier posts, I am currently using a Hauppauge PVR 150 MCE analog capture card and I am pretty underwhelmed with it. It has 2 main problems:
1. Contrast/brightness is a problem, with glaring whites offset by murky darker areas. No amount of tinkering with the settings and with the Hauppauge Tweaker Tool has had any real effect.
2. Bigger issue is lack of smoothness in fast moving scenes. When watching rugby for instance, ghosting of players is very noticeable eg. looks like I am almost seeing multiple frames overlaid on each other. I dont know what the exact term is but it almost looks like the card is capturing at a much lower framerate than it should. Playing DVD or video files doesn't seem to have the same problem, so I am pretty certain its a video capture thing only.

So, I am looking for recomendations for a replacement, bearing in mind that all my TV will be coming in via S-Video from my digital satellite reciever ie,. I dont need a TV tuner at all. Does anybody have any particular recomendations please? I would prefer a PCI/internal card just to keep clutter to a minimum, but would certainly consider USB2 if anybody was raving about one. I will be outputting via a Geforce FX5200 DVI-to-HDMI to a LCD TV at 1024 x 768 if it makes a difference. Price-wise I want to spend about the same as the MCE150 (~NZ$180) but will spend more for better results.

Thanks heaps in advance
Cheers
Brett
PS: Anybody want to buy a PVR 150 MCE? They are a GREAT little card... ;-)

 

[Pom]

Hi,

I have the same card and am quite impressed with the video quality. However it was a bit rubbish until i went in to the graphics card settings ('Catalyst' for the Sapphire Radeon cards) and checked the box under Video settings that says 'Let the Application Decide'.

What happens now is when i start MP, the screen goes black for a couple of seconds (while MP adjusts the video card settings) then the TV quality is A LOT better.

I guess what i'm trying to say is could it have anything to do with your video card settings? Also i use the Composite input not the Tuner input. I can't comment on the quality of the tuner.