SmartCapture Lite - Real-time H.264 Video Capture for $99

Whatever you need to digitalize analog video source to your computer, the recording is naturally in real-time, but the resulted file oftentimes end up in MPEG-2 that isn't very web-friendly - another way of saying large file size. Most people usually just fire up another piece of software that again transcodes the content into H.264. Though, unless you have a Quad Core, that could be another hour of conversion time for every hour of video. SmartCapture wants to help out with its onboard H.264 AVC hardware accelerator; it accepts solely composite input so don't expect stellar image quality.

The new $99 Lite version is particularly interesting as the original model priced at $250 isn't exactly what we call consumer friendly. Comparing the two, the Lite remains largely unchanged except for a few video output settings, Linux/Mac support and Live Streaming; other than that, you won't miss much.