VLC makes a great Video Player, no need to think and everything will be done for you.
However when you try and use a capture card as the source you had better know what you are doing because the assistance drops away.
Using directshow with the default settings will cause VLC to open your directshow interface at 320x200 with a 300ms lag time which is quite unhelpful when your using the line function of your sound card i should also note that adjusting the buffer value has absoloutley no effect on the buffer size that VLC uses.
If you force 720x576 (analog PAL interlaced signal) and you force colour space YUY2 then you will be able to watch you analog input without any buffer (as i suspect that VLC internal buffing cannot 'contain' YUY2). But you will not be able to select any deinterlacing filters as VLC 'cannot'(or wont, or doesnt know how) convert the colour depth and when you try selecting any deinterlacing filter VLC will drop video output totally.
So i'll make my plea for help now.
Please Please!
Id like to see more VLC support for buffer lengths/colour depth conversions/DeInterlacing.