Video Capture Card help

[shadoe_phantom]

Thanks for the look.
Basically I'm looking for a good capture card for around $150USD or less.
The main purpose is for capturing some TV shows I enjoy & copying some VHS tapes of family/friends.
I only need it for VCD quality making (but good quality ofcourse) 352X240 (NTSC) capture is good enough for me. I'm also on winXP pro (which is an important factor).

Anyhow, these are the cards I've been looking at & was hoping people who experience can give me their opinions:
Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro (though I understand they don't have good winXP compatiblity or support)
Elsa Erazor III Pro (someone said it was good)
Aviosys 2310
Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR
ATI-TV Wonder
AverTV Studio (by AverMedia).

Perhaps any others you might suggest. I am in a country where I can only find a few of these things, but I guess I don't mind ordering from abroad if the product is good.
So far I am leaning towards the AverTV Studio, but hopefully those with good experience can give me a helping hand here.
Thanks again.

PS
Current system is:
Athlon XP 1800+\Leadtek GF3 Ti 200 128MB video card\Maxtor D740X 40G ATA133 HDD (those are the only features worth mentioning here I think).

[Shadey]

Just a warning about the ATI TV Wonder
ATI has very crap XP support for that card - so i wouldnt go put in on your shopping list as yet - until they sort out the drivers - if they ever do. Most probably wont.

[shadoe_phantom]

ya thanks Shadey, I forgot to add that here (saw it in another board), was just hoping if someone new if they were getting better in XP support (like their radeon 8500 cards, though still a way to go, they are doing better with them).

I am thinking for the most part the top 3 choices would have to be:
AverTV Studio (by AverMedia).
Aviosys 2310
Elsa Erazor III Pro (someone said it was good)

Been checking in some other boards & not much info on these cards though lol. Ofcourse many regard the ATI cards highly & I don't think they are that good (even in win9x type OS).

[Tron]

Funny you should say that. I use a TV Wonder with XP and it works GREAT! And they do have driver support on the web page.

[shadoe_phantom]

Tron (classic movie by the way) =)
I'll check it out. Am wondering if you're using the software that comes with it or mainly use VirtualDub? 'Cause I'm pretty sure most cards can just use VirtualDub, just worried about the image quality the card dishes out, although most tend to use the same harware chip "BT 878" h**p://www.vcdhelp.com/comptvcards.htm
doesn't mean they give the same results.
Guess I'll see if any shop around here lets me try the cards out (highly unlikely though lol).

[rata999]

Try
VCD 2000 Plus which is cheper and best hold audio and video syncn up to 100 minits

[shadoe_phantom]

thanks rata999.
I've already tested that one & didn't like the results as much as the aviosys cards (it's the same as the flyway card). The aviosys & AverTV studio seem to do well at past 150min. Ofcourse it doesn't matter anymore which platform (as now have dual boot system with win98SE as second option).

[0grassman]

have win xp pro
also ati tv wonder ve
dont use the software that came with it use
showshifter if you need the key just e-mail me
also have 1 brand new in the box for sale
grassman1@tds.net

[Shadey]

_htp://www.omegacorner.com/ati.htm

Well i always said ati had crap driver support, and it happened again. Tried updating the WinXP ATI Radeon 32 DDR drivers with he ones i got from the ATI website driver support section.

The WinXP drivers dont support opengl, so they needed updating.

Supposedly the XP drivers dated Feb and March 2002 from ATI are supposed to work for the Radeon 32 DDR card. It doesnt even install, returns an error saying the drivers dont support the card i have installed. Despite having uninstalled all previous driver software and drivers, as recommended. Instead the only drivers i could install for the Radeon 32 DDR with open gl support were the ATI Omega drivers, see above link.

They work like a charm. They are optimised for gameplay.