choosing a video capture card

[Greg]

I need a video cature card for two different systems, and I am cluelees. One for using my sony trv66 (ie. I think it only has s-video and rca ports, and not firewire, though I could be wrong). If it matters my video card is G400max 32mb AGP. I would like a good capture card, preferrably under $300.USD. Is this possible? I was looking at the Studio DC10 plus, Studio MP10, or maybe the Rainbow Runner??? I just started looking today, so I don't know if these are good, or if I should be looking at something else.
Please help, by giving me some advice.
Thank you,
Greg

[Rick6612]

Hi Greg,

If you already have a Matrox G-400, it seems like the Matrox Rainbow Runner G-series would be the obvious solution.

Rick

[This_Idiot]

Hi Greg,

If you have any intention of outputting back to tape forget the MP10, since it is an MPEG device using a soft codec. OK if you want to make low quality low size movies for internet or CD, not if you want full sized playback.

I guess that at the current stage of hardware development both the DC10+ and the Rainbow Runner are very close in terms of ability. The DC10+ claims to be able to capture at up to 6Mb/s (which is double the datarate of the Rainbow Runner), but the newsgroups regularly report problems with playing back such video. The RR is based on the same Zoran chipset as the DC10+ (or, for that matter the DC30+) but has had its datarate capped at a little over 3Mb/s (compression of 6.6:1 full frame/rate).

The DC10+ uses Pinnacles own Studio software for editing, which is easy to use and has plenty of basic features but can't compete with even the "lite" version of MediaStudio packaged with the G series Rainbow Runners.

My advice is to go to a decent retailer and have both DC10+ and RR demonstrated to you. Make sure that you are shown the packaged software though !

[Greg]

Thanks alot!! That was perfect. What a great site!