Capture cards for Charity

[ZidaneTribal]

For the past couple of years I have been working with a charity gaming marathon group (I am unsure about putting the name here since it may count as solicitation, but if I find out it is ok later I shall provide a link) to help raise money for a number of charities. A new run is coming up in June and I finally have a computer capable of handling a stream from my gamecube, PS2, or hopefully even my PS3 should I need to run it later. The only problem is that along with my Dell XPS 1330 I have been primarily running these marathons using a Sabernet AVCPT capture device. Sufficed to say it has been difficult, to the point that my last run of Windwaker made me physically ill at the 8 hour mark and I had to stop.

So now to accompany my new computer, I would like to look into a new capture card that won't cause me so much headache (or nausia).

I am currenlty running a http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A89GTD_PROUSB3/ with a geforce installed, so sadly PCI avalabiltiy is a slight issue. I would prefer an internal device, but a better USB device will do in a pinch.

[Arc'xer]

Not sure what your budget is but I seem to run into a lot of console gamer posts suggesting the blackmagic or hauppage capture cards.

But again there's a ****load of other capture card/software around so it becomes a matter of reading reviews and finding the one you want or should I say need.

[ZidaneTribal]

Ahhh the good ol' days. I don't think people will want to sit and watch shakeycam gaming for 8 hours straight though. Thinking the AVErTV would work, mainly cause, well it fits. A bit higher than I want to pay, but if it helps draw people in long-term (and keeps me from puking on my monitor) might be worth it.

I considered the Hauppage but everywhere I looked the reviews were pretty poor till about the 100 dollar mark anyways

[ZidaneTribal]

Ohhhhh, no. I was talkin about back when you had to actually point the camera at the TV and get a really bad grainy shakeycam recording on a VHS...

I feel old now.

[Hak Foo]

You might consider a pure analogue card, like the old cards with the BT878 chipset.  It does no pre-processing to ease conversion to MPEG, so there's frequently no delay (with the right software).  A lot of fancier cards will attempt to process the video down, and then you get lag on screen.  Playing PS2 games with a three-second lag doesn't work.

[HaveANiceDay]

What you want is the Blackmagic Intensity. Available as internal or external(usb3).
You get up to 1080i capture. 1080p is not possible because of HDCP.