Thread: Need help with hardware choice

I have a Dell Dimension 4550, Pent. 4 2.5, 80 gig hd, 1024 ram, running win xp. I would like to connect my vcr to my computer. I have home movies on tape that I would like to burn to dvd. I have looked at the. Hauppauge wintv pvr250mce. Would this be a good choice? Is it hard to install? What would be a good software choice for this. I like the idea that I can record TV with this product also. Thanks for any help. glacierview1@msn.com

Hi, firstly welcome to the forum and thanks your post.

Your PC spec is fine for the product you mentioned, your will need a spare PCI slot for the WinTV card, i think the Dell you have comes with 3 PCI slots so that shouldnt be a problem.
The product your talking about does seem to get good reviews from what ive seen, have to be honest and say i havent used the product myself, but from what i can see it will do the job your after.
It comes with its own software to capture etc, im lead to believe you cant use any third party editing packages like Adobe though
Installation should be a case of inserting the PCI card into your PC and then installing the software.

If TV recording isnt that important you could look at products like pinnacle AV/DV which would be better for capturing your Home movies and editing them before exporting them to DVD, this also come with a full editing package too for adding some nice effects and titles too.

It really depends on what your hoping to do with your home movies, if you want to edit them, cut clips, and titles etc then something like the pinnacle system may be better, if you just want to dump your VHS to DVD as it is then the Hauppuage product will be fine.

Hope this helps you in your choice, anymore questions then drop me a post

I have tried numerous input devives and come up with two really good and simple units. The first and maybe my choice is Turtel Beach's "Video Advantage" Which is a PCI card and input and output Frount and rear panel. very "cool" device and then the unit from ADS which is a firewie input and has most all inputs and outputs. Cost on this side of the pond is about the same $160.00
Regards john R

dreamfinder@verizon.net

Tech Master,
Thank you for your input. I have heard about Pinnacle. Although I am not fimilair with any of the products out ther. The one thought that came to mind is recording TV shows also. I have a DVR (digital video recorder). I was hoping to burn some of my favorite shows from the DVR to DVD. Dose Pinnacle offer a TV tuner? I clicked the link and it is dead. Thanks again.

Hi,

Firstly sorry about the link above, my fault, typo error!!!
Yes pinnacle do a range of TV tuner products which you may find of interest,
here is the link to the product range.

I have looked at Pinnacle Studio 9. Looks like a great product for video capture, but I would like to have a tv tuner also. I am a novice at this, and become overwelmed at ther site. Do they make a product that will do both?
Thank you, Dan
glacierview1@msn.com

Hi,

I know what you mean, there are so many products about it can be overwhelming, can we just recap on what you would like to acheive.

You would like to convert your VHS to DVD, would you like to edit any of this VHS footage (add titles, effects etc) before you burn to DVD or are you just looking to copy straight to DVD without altering the original footage?

You would like a TV tuner to be able to watch TV/record programmes on your PC?

What kind of budget are you looking at spending?

If you could answer those questions and add anything else you would like to do with the product i can find the most suitable product for you!

Yes I would like to edit as some are old 8mm silent movies that have been transfered to vhs. The budget is around $200.00 US.

Hi

ok , time to look at a hauppage pvr , either pci or usb2 again i think , which is a tuner , with analogue inputs and captures footage as mpeg2 streams.
there is some nice software out there to edit it with , free , and all you need then is dvd writer plus dvd creation software.

After a bit more research it seems the hauppage pvr has an advantage over the pinnacle equivalent in that a lot of the processing data is done on the PCI card, so its dosent use up your CPU resources.

i hope this has helped you