Category Archives: Hardware Reviews

High-End audio capture cards

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After the High-End video capture cards thread, here you are another one, this time about their audio counterparts.

Many think that their default audio card is good enough… but, are you sure about it?

I was sure too, that my own sound card, a SigmaTel with the CXD9872RD was pretty good… the true is, that my ears and my TV speakers are not good enough to spot the difference between what could be considered a mediocre sound card (like mine) and what IS an excellent card.

It’s time to upgrade it… so, the feautures that I’m looking for an excellent sound card, to use as analog audio capture device along with its video counterpart are:

  • variable bitrate (16/24bit)
  • variable sample frequency (44,1KHz and 48KHz mandatory)
  • high quality connection, gold-plated
  • RCA analog input/output are very welcome
  • S/PDIF digital input or output are highly appreciated
  • NO external interface box – at least only connection cables

After some days of hard web search, I found A LOT of high end cards… I picked up few of them, that could be interesting:
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High-End video capture cards

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…once upon a time, I was happy with my video capture card… it is based on the Philips SAA-713x chipset, has a 9-bit ADC, 4-line adaptive comb filter, could capture uncompressed… and it’s better than ones based on BT8X8 chipset!

Then, also thanks to this forum, I discovered that there are much better video capture cards around…

The requirements:

  • MUST capture uncompressed YUV 4:2:2 (and, if possible, HuffYUV too)
  • MUST have a REALLY good comb filter ALSO for PAL signal
  • MUST capture PAL and NTSC
  • 10-bit ADC and over preferred
  • PCI highly preferred; then PCI-E, USB 2.0, FireWire
  • Composite and S-Video input – RGB and/or Y/Pb/Pr are welcome
  • TBC will be appreciated, but absolutely not mandatory
  • VirtualDub capture really appreciated, but not mandatory
  • No TV tuner whenever is possible

During my usual internet searches, I found some interesting products – in no particular order:
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