| Capture software | Pros | Cons |
| ATI Multimedia Center (ATI MMC) | Excellent quality video encodes, has a nice video clean-up filter called "VideoSoap", free software designed explicitly to work with ATI cards. ATI MMC 7.7, 8.7 and 9.02 are the most stable versions. | Only works with ATI cards, and even then, only well with "AIW" version cards. Can be difficult to install, uninstall or update. |
| VirtualDub | Often referred to as the quintessential video capture tool. Is able to capture (and encode) video using any number of free filter plug-ins and codecs. Excellent tool, excellent quality. Free. | Not the easiest tool to use, many options. Cannot capture MPEG natively, MPEG via codecs yields poor quality. Does not work with every card. |
| iuVCR | Decent tool, works well with certain BT8x8 cards known for having sync trouble. | Inversely, often known to cause sync errors on cards that otherwise act fine with VirtualVCR or VirtualDub. Limited resolution options. Can be crash-prone. |
| WinTV2000 | Excellent quality video softare, works only with Hauppauge capture cards. Sort of like ATI MMC for Hauppauge. | Only works well with the hardware MPEG encoder boards, not the cheap AVI cards. |
| VirtualVCR | Free. Decent tool, works well with several cards. Tends to keep audio sync really well. | Not as versatile and advanced as VirtualDub, does not work with every card. |
| Adobe Premiere | Directly capture to the NLE timeline | Limited options as compared to dedicated capture software, prone to crash |
| Final Cut Pro | Directly capture to the NLE timeline | Limited options as compared to dedicated capture software |
| Mediostream neoDVD | Idiot-proof | Expensive, mediocre quality, total lack of control over bit-rate and resolution, resulting in bloated files. A cheap all-in-one direct-to-DVD capture tool. |
| Intervideo WinDVD Recorder, WinDVR | None | Forces a blended de-interlace on all captures, blocky quality, any resolution below 720x480 is almost all macroblocks. Few options, in terms of settings (bitrate, res, audio, etc). |
| Cyberlink PowerVCR | Though it comes default with a forced blend deinterlace, it can be hacked to allow interlaced MPEG captures and add resolutions. Has a handful of basic video/audio options | Not super-high-quality MPEG encodes, about on par with WinDVR, requires hacks to work decent, only really works well at 720x480 res. Has chronic issues with dropped video frames (not reported) which leads to audio sync errors. |
| MainConcept 1.4 | Essentially the MPEG Encoder software in a capture mode, therefore has many options | Expensive, optimized for PAL, not NTSC. Quality of encodes is not always excellent. Will only drop video and not audio frames, causing sound sync errors. EXTREMELY DEMANDING on the CPU, even newer 2.0-3.0Ghz systems can have problems. |
| MainConcept PVR | None.
Different from the MC 1.4 encoder. | Total trash. Crashes all the time, barely works. Beta-quality software that should have never left R&D. MainConcept tech support is totally worthless. |
| Snapstream, Showshifter, BeyondTV, SageTV, GB-PVR, etc | PVR software, not really capture software. Works fine for turning a computer into a VCR with timer record functions. | Not the highest quality encoding, buggy, difficult to setup, and often works with only a few cards. For the purpose of this guide, these are not suitable software. |
| Anything not listed here | Search google.com or videohelp.com for reviews on the software in question. | Anything not on this list is typically not listed for a purpose, often because the software is an all-in-one solution, low quality, or dedicated to a certain piece of hardware. |
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