TV Capture Card...

[RiCh]

Hey can anyone help. I am looking to buy a TV capture card, so i can record programs from my TV on my computer (my PC or Laptop (preferably)).
Is it possible to record from SKY onto your PC?
Im in the UK so if anyone has any links i could check out it would be handy. (PC World or somin)

Thanks

 

[sandys]

I'd recommend this one from these guys, its a Digital Terrestrial card (freeview) so its only drawback is the require ment of a good antenna/

http://www.nebula-electronics.com/

 

[RiCh]

Will it work with Sky Digital?

 

[Cruzz563]

If you want it to werk on your laptop get the external one, if you want your PC to do the werk then go internal...if you receive SKY thru cable/sat then it should werk with anything, I believe SKY is a cable channel, right? That's same one Vuk is buying

 

[rhegedus]

If you want to record from Sky, then you don't need a tuner built in to the card.

You need to decide if you want to use your PC or laptop to capture to because it will effect the method used. Because a laptop only has one drive (even if partitioned) that usually runs slower than desktop hard drives and the OS is always running, dropped frames may be a problem if you capture to DV (the best for editing). Capturing straight to mpeg on a laptop should be OK because the bitrates aren't so high but mpeg is a sod to edit.

Also, a lot of the laptop equipment is quite flakey - Hauppauge PVR USB springs to mind: audio sync issue abound!

If you are serious about capturing, then I'd get a decent capture card for your PC - either an All In Wonder based card or a DV capture equivalent. See www.vcdhelp.com for more details.

If it's just for the occasional capture that you want to watch on TV later, then I'd just but a DVD recorder and cut out the computer. You can always rip to HD and edit if needs be.