[mythtv-users] Best Analog Capture (maybe not mpeg2?)

[Jean Connelly]

Hi,

I'm finally getting around to finalizing my PVR setup and my next part
of the project is to pick the best analog capture option out of the
hardware I already have available.  I figured I'd try to capture
similar material with each option and then review the results. 
However, I thought I'd throw a note out first to see if anybody has
already done the work for me :-) .  I've looked around in the archive,
but I couldn't find answers to the types of questions I have.

My goal is to do analog captures of various programs to be archived.

I noticed that everybody seems to be using mpeg2 cards these days for
analog capture, but isn't that a big quality cut?  especially for
material that should really be run through an inverse telecine filter
before encoding?

If I'll be using a card without mpeg2 hardware compression, is there
any card that really has a better Y/C filter than my good ol' JVC VCR?
 Also, since I'll be capping from a cable box for the time being, has
anybody evaluated the Y/C filter on the motorola 6200 boxes?  That has
an S-Video out.  The firewire output of the 6200 on analog stations
seems to be pretty ugly (all kinds of block artifacts).

I've just got a really big matrix of things to check out in the
equipment I already own:

Capture Cards:
   Mjpeg Hardware : 
      G400-TV 
      G400 + RR
      Iomega Buz
   No Hardware Compression
      saa7133 based card
      cx88 based card on hd-3000

Cable Video Source path
   RF in from cable box
   Composite from cable box
   S-Vid from cable box
   Composite from VCR
   S-Vid from VCR

Thanks for any suggestions,
Jean