[mythtv-users] Good card for input from VHS tapes

[Brian Wood]

On Mar 29, 2008, at 10:31 AM, Marcus Bryner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My MythTV setup is not yet connected to cable/sat/OTA TV yet.   What  
> I would
> like to do first is copy old VHS tapes for archiving.   Some  
> commercial, some
> home movies.   Any of you have recommendations on the best input  
> card for
> this?   There are a lot of options to pick from and I'm getting  
> confused.
> The VCR only has coax and RCA jack output, no SVideo.   Just a  
> PVR-150 should
> do the trick?  The differences between the different Hauppauge cards  
> is
> confusing, and the PVR150 doesn't have a remote.   Also, will I need a
> Macrovision remover inbtwn?   Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't get a capture device solely for this purpose, most any  
device that works with Myth will work for this sort of job.

I discovered (accidently believe it or not) that the Plextor PX-TV402U  
seems to ignore Macrovision (tm) encoding, at least in some cases.

One big advantage for archiving purposes is that the Plextor can do  
hardware MPEG-4 encoding, saving space or the time of transcoding.

I've seen deals for under $50 for these devices, probably because they  
are analog only and may become less desirable after Feb. 2009.

beww