Best TV card?

[stardust]

Hey guys, I'm looking to build a home media center pc that even my mom could use. I have all the parts to the computer but the TV card..

What is the most user friendly TV tuner card that is both easy to use and includes its own "media center program" so after it's set up, you won't have to go through windows to open aps to launch TV or DVD playing.

Right now I'm looking at the Leadtek Expert TV card. What do you guys think about that? Also, I don't want to spend more than $80 on it and I plan on keeping the computer running 24/7..

My goals:

-Works like TIVO
-Has program that allows DVD playing
-Record live TV and maybe even from other sources
-A remote control that could basically operate all the functions so a mouse won't be neccessary..


Thanks guys!

 

[AnitaPeterson]

www.videohelp.com .... go to "Capture cards" and input the characteristics you want...

 

[Schadenfroh]

leadtek at new egg, $40 or so bucks

 

[HomerSapien]

Most of the software that will come with the card is tolerable at best. I tried out hauppages about 2 weeks before i had enough of it. Sage Tv is what i use now and it works great. It had better support for my remote than hauppage had with their software, ex hauppage only used the keypad and vcr function(play pause, etc) and did not use 10 buttons. Sage does. Uses about <1% cpu while recording in system tray and <20% cpu with the window open on a 1.33ghz athlon. Hauppages software was 20-60% cpu .

Its pricey (~$80) but worth it.

Btw, i have the hauppage wintv-250pvr and it has been awesome.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: HomerSapien
Most of the software that will come with the card is tolerable at best. I tried out hauppages about 2 weeks before i had enough of it. Sage Tv is what i use now and it works great. It had better support for my remote than hauppage had with their software, ex hauppage only used the keypad and vcr function(play pause, etc) and did not use 10 buttons. Sage does. Uses about <1% cpu while recording in system tray and <20% cpu with the window open on a 1.33ghz athlon. Hauppages software was 20-60% cpu .

Its pricey (~$80) but worth it.

Btw, i have the hauppage wintv-250pvr and it has been awesome.

That's why it only uses 1%-5% of the CPU. THe normal TV tuner cards that run $40 will use a LOT more CPU time.

I suggest going to NewEgg and getting the Avermedia M150, an $80 MPEG2-encoder. Does it in hardware, works great, is fast, is compatible, and then, if you want to later, you can grab SageTV (which is a good idea) or other aftermarket programs.

Or Best Buy has a Media Center 2004 PC for $600.... P4/2.6, MPEG2 card, 4X DVD, etc, etc....