I'm sure there will be a number of opinions on this. Perhaps what I've just
switched to might be overkill for what you intend to do, but its' great for
me.
Hauppauge's WinTV PVR2 USB2 ($200.00 US)
S-Video / Composite Video with Audio RCA / 75 Ohm Cable TV and FM connectors
(optional FM antenna included).
It's an external Analog video capture, CATV / FM ready tuner with builtin
hardware MPEG 2 encoding / decoding. Conncets via either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0
though USB 2.0 is necessary if you wish to have DVD MPEG2 recording. With
USB 1.1, only MPEG1 can be used.
(When I went to purchase this recorder, Circuit City also had a $100 device
which attacheds to your television. A standard RJ45 connector to a home
network or PC's 10/100 Ethernet card enables you to watch any MPG files
stored on the PC or home network. Due to a available rebates, I got both
for $200).
The CD includes WinTV2000 for capturing the video, A free program TV guide
(Internet Based) which integrates with the capture software. Single-click
scheduling of unattended recording of TV shows (customizable for any viewing
area) from the Website listing. and Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 2 for editing.
Includes infrared remote control. I haven't bothered with the remote yet
and am still trying to master the DVD Movie Factory 2 software. I'm not
sure if it will replace MM2 yet.
I've had several analog TV capture cards over the past decade. The last
card was a $50 basic PCI card. The hardware / software combination just
didn't provide the quality I was looking for.
Although I've only been working with this external recorder for a month now,
the quality options are excellent, just choose and pick.
DVD sp/lp/slp; SVCD sp/lp/slp; MPEG1 VCD; MPEG2 2mbps/12mbps
sp standard play; lp long play; slp extra long play
I haven't established yet which options are best for storing onto DVD's.
Since you do have a laptop, you'll be restricted to an external device.
With my experience with the Hauppauge's WinTV PVR2 USB2, from my
perspective, I find the external to be far better than any internal card
I've used. Since my Dell Dimension 4400 only had USB 1.1 ports, I added a
PCI card with 4 USB 2.0 ports.
Initial install problems? YES
(1) With a clean install of Windows XP Pro, I had to re-download / install
all of Microsofts patches to resolve USB limits / problems. Initially, the
external USB 2.0 device wasn't recognized / installable.
USB technology has been evolving hence the need for the latest updates.
There is a warning in the documentation regarding the use of USB hubs. I
wasn't sure if the PCI card was classified as a hub. Since it now works
great, I assume an internal card isn't the same as an external hub or that
perhaps the problem mentioned in the documentation may have been fixed by a
more recent Microsoft XP update release..
(2) The recording software defaults to a lesser quality recording format.
When I changed the preferences to DVD standard, the quality was quite
excellent.
Laptop issue: Editing of video can be quite time consuming. I hope you
have spare batteries or an available power supply.
Regardless of what you choose, builtin hardware MPEG2 encoding / decoding is
a must for any system. I've tried several others and it's like comparing a
turtle to a rabbit. Slow vs. very fast. The builtin encoder enables you to
record to any of the better quality formats. Without, you'll suffer
quality.
So, two things I consider a must: USB 2.0 and MPEG2 builtin encoding.
