Difference in PCI and USB capturecards...

[The_Other_One]

I'm doing this because some people don't understand how much better PCI capture cards are then USB. But also, I kind of enjoy doing this kind of thing. Hope someone finds it worth while :lol:

I currently have 3 capturecards to compare, and may be getting another in the near future... Anyway, for the test, I used a very short, high motion clip from Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast.

The cards in the test...
1. Winnov Videum VO(PCI)
2. Max I.C. 3600(PCI)
3. AME Corp. S160A(USB)(identical to some Dazzle card)

On each test, I capture at the highest resolution the cards can handle, then convert down to 320x240. All are set to capture at 30FPS. Well, here's the first, and hopfully I can get the other 2 down tommarow... And

So, first test...the Winnov Videum. This has a winnov onboard compressor. The picture was stunning when left in the origanal compression, but I had to convert it so people could download it :)
Capture settings: 640x480x30FPS
Dropped frames: 0

http://64.53.95.207:30/PCI1.mpg

[eviltechie]

hey NES

could you read this
http://www.techwarelabs.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2362

and help me out please?
my friend and i just need a software to watch
not neccessary save onto the hard drive

[The_Other_One]

NEXT TEST! I'll just skip on over to USB. Why? becuase I'm really tired today, and it's extremly easy to put it on any computer :)

Anyway, as I said this is a generic capture card(but my dad owns the idtentical Dazzle version.) This card has no form of true onboard compression, so I left if uncompressed. Not sure if this would be an advantage or disadadvantage. I'm sure it helped the computer some, but it was about 150M for about 10seconds :o I will give it some creadit...it did better then I remembered, but then again, I wasnt using a compresser. Also, watch very carfully in this clip. I thought this would kill the card, but it handled this portion quite well. The only major lags you can see is when Sonic tops the loop. I may post where he's off the building...it looks pretty bad...

Capture settings: 320x240x30FPS
Dropped frames: 157

http://64.53.95.207:30/USB1.mpg