the absolute BEST capture card?

Here's a tip. Obey the forum rules, specifically rule 12, third clause.

wow this forum have really change, unfortanly to the worse.. we use to get positiv feedback fast, now i get this reply by a moderator..it's sad! now, "Do not ask "what's best" because this question cannot be answered objectively. Each and everyone has their own view about what's best in a certain area. The best is what works best for you! " i guess you're pointing out to that "rule", I were looking for tips.. so i can decide myself which solotion that's best for me, i didn't want a "this is best, not that" flaming thread which i don't think the ppl on this forum will start anyway

Sigh. A question for you :"The absolute BEST car?" . Get the point? IMO, you could also change your title to something meaningfull, like "DVB card wich with the best picture quality" or similar. And when asking such questions you MUST give more infos. What PC do you have (hardware decoding or software decoding DVB card!), what do you want to do with it etc. So, even if someone has tested all DVB cards (unlikely), with such a vague (to be correct, very vague) question he cannot give you a correct answer. Cheers, Mijo.

Well, the purest way is to capture the direct digital stream using Tivo or UltimateTV. There are methods described on the internet for doing such things.

1. DVB cards are not capture cards. They simply copy exactly, bit by bit, the digital stream to the hard disk. 2. All real DVB cards such as Technotrend, Siemens, Nexus, Skystar are identical : the same dsp, the same mpeg2 decoder, they work with the same software.

i'm not completely sure what you're saying, but you might want to read up on Directivo and UltimateTV. Those units record the direct digital stream from the satellite receivers. A regular Tivo connected to a satellite receiver records the analog signal, but not Directivo. At least that is my understanding. Getting the encrypted videos off the units' hard drives is the tricky part. i don't think that UltimateTV has been hacked in that capacity yet. Check out the following comparison chart: also, i know nothing about the DVB cards, but in the US you need access cards to receive DirecTV or DISH. Do the DVB cards have slots for these access cards?

DVB cards don't have any slots, but they have CI options :D. Also, DVB cards won't work with DirecTV because DirecTV signal is not DVB compatible. _Might_ work with DISH.

>No way, this isn't a DVB standard Of course this is, if you want screenshots I can make some. Be careful, I said KB(capital B), kbytes, that is. (a byte==8 bits; 500 KB==4 Mbps.) >The lowest bitrate I've ever seen was avg of 1,5 Mbps That would be 192 KB. Encoding artifacts are extremely visible if you know what you're looking for, ringing being the worst offender, IMO. Then follow: -color banding -macroblocks visible in fast motion scenes -blurriness. Also several stations broadcast with joint stereo. This is important because mp2 only supports IS not M/S.