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Best TV Tuner Card

W

willbemcse

Senior member
Hi
I am thinking of building a pc which also record tv (like a tivo) shows in a good quality . Whats the maximum resolution these cards support. I was looking into ATI TV WONDER PRO. I also want card to have a inputs to capture analog video . Any sugestions on the card, quality of recording on them.

Thanks
 
Originally posted by: willbemcse
Hi
I am thinking of building a pc which also record tv (like a tivo) shows in a good quality . Whats the maximum resolution these cards support. I was looking into ATI TV WONDER PRO. I also want card to have a inputs to capture analog video . Any sugestions on the card, quality of recording on them.

Thanks
Click to expand...


NONONOJNONOJONONONO!
Just say NO! To TV Wonder Pro.
Trust me.

Get an Hauppauge PVR 250 or an AIW solution.
 
Hi
Do you have Hauppauge PVR 250 , how is the quality of the recorded tv shows. Can you change the location where you want it to go , I know in ATI you cann't change the location. Any links for it's reviews.
 
i really cringe at the all in wonders. its not very realistic if you ever want to upgrade the graphics performance,you loose your TV ability. its nice to keep it apart, also coax converts tend to make a lot of heat, newer all in wonders have cut back the coax features so it doesn't make too much heat for the rest of the card, i think it no longer supports stereo sound,etc.

as for capture cards,they all tend to use the same chipsets but they all offer different levels of inputs and outputs as well as software quality. i'd look up reviews. hardware encoding cards are also another nice choice.
 
Originally posted by: willbemcse
Hi

Do you have Hauppauge PVR 250 , how is the quality of the recorded tv shows. Can you change the location where you want it to go , I know in ATI you cann't change the location. Any links for it's reviews.
Click to expand...

Check my post here on the PVR 250 that might help. Hauppauge's PVR cards have some very good hardware; their drivers are another story. They're finally getting them right, but they were a bit shaky for awhile. Still some bugs to iron out, but they're improving.
 
PVR 250 has Media Center support.

If you want to sleep at night, do yourself a favour and never look at Media Center 2004 😉
 
Hi
I am looking to record shows once in a while . I never heard of either of the companies mentioned here , has anyone else used Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Deluxe . Jeff are you still having drivers problems with Hauppauge PVR 250. Whats the resolution it records the shows at ??
 
I have a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 Expert (is a better model than the Deluxe) and it works great. Had an Hauppage WinTV-D and the quality was pretty poor (at least on regular cable). I would recommend the TV2K Expert if you're on a lower budget, or a WinTV 250-350 if you've got more to spend. The latter two cards have hardware encoding which will help the quality and recording (lowers CPU useage when recording).

As for HDTV cards, IMO, they're not worth it yet. They are expensive and generally lack a really good compatibility with software such as SageTV (not sure about how good of drivers they have). With the new graphics cards coming out both ATi and nVidia will be increasing the features of PVR/TV tuner cards, the 6800 Ultra can actually function as an HDTV PVR if it gets software to do it. I've also seen some reports about how ATi will be releasing dedicated HDTV AIW cards sometime this summer I believe (this year). Then there's the fact that HDTV hasn't quite taken off fully yet.
 
Originally posted by: htmlmasterdave
What's the best 3rd party software for TV Cards? I have an ATI Wonder Pro and I don't like the included software (it seems buggy)
Click to expand...
DScaler.
 
Originally posted by: willbemcse
Hi

Do you have Hauppauge PVR 250 , how is the quality of the recorded tv shows. Can you change the location where you want it to go , I know in ATI you cann't change the location. Any links for it's reviews.
Click to expand...

I have a tv wonder ve and I can change the save directory for recorded shows... is this what you mean?
 
I tried DScaler and didn't like it. It worked pretty well, but sent my CPU utilization to 100% the whole time it would run (thats without recording). I can't recommend that unless you have a very fast processor (at least 3.0C I would say).

Beyond TV and I think Sage TV are two popular ones that supposedly work very well. Depending on what card you get you'll have to check compatibility.
 
Originally posted by: htmlmasterdave
What's the best 3rd party software for TV Cards? I have an ATI Wonder Pro and I don't like the included software (it seems buggy)
Click to expand...

exactly, and the tv quality sucks ass too...
 
As for HDTV cards, IMO, they're not worth it yet. They are expensive and generally lack a really good compatibility with software such as SageTV (not sure about how good of drivers they have). With the new graphics cards coming out both ATi and nVidia will be increasing the features of PVR/TV tuner cards, the 6800 Ultra can actually function as an HDTV PVR if it gets software to do it. I've also seen some reports about how ATi will be releasing dedicated HDTV AIW cards sometime this summer I believe (this year). Then there's the fact that HDTV hasn't quite taken off fully yet.
Click to expand...

eh they are down to 200, and for what they can do, they are cheap. esp since one shouldn't wait too long. i 2005 i think they are going to start forcing em to make only cards that can obey the copy protection flags.. no pvr or limited pvr capability for those😛
 
Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
http://www.mythtv.org/ is probably the best software if you can set it up. I use a pvr-250 and am really happy with the quallity but don't have anything to compare it too.
Click to expand...

Is that for Windows? If so how do I get it to install on Windows since the extension is unfamiliar to me...
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: willbemcse
Hi

Do you have Hauppauge PVR 250 , how is the quality of the recorded tv shows. Can you change the location where you want it to go , I know in ATI you cann't change the location. Any links for it's reviews.
Click to expand...

Check my post here on the PVR 250 that might help. Hauppauge's PVR cards have some very good hardware; their drivers are another story. They're finally getting them right, but they were a bit shaky for awhile. Still some bugs to iron out, but they're improving.
Click to expand...
...but contact them if things aren't working right. IME, back in NT4 getting one of their cards to workright, they bent over backwards to get it running, constant email contact, daily driver updates to try, etc..
Haven't had any problems since then, but doubt they'd change all that overnight.
Also IME, their real-time picture quality is crap, but capture is great for the hardware encoder cards.
 
I read that the Hauppage PVR350 is really good over at byopvr.com

I'm just getting into this because I have about $200 in best buy reward zone bucks and can't find anything to buy. I already got it all, and can't stand to their prices for anything!! 😀 😀

So can anyone tell me what's the best way to get into a home made Tivo like thing from things they sell at Best Buy only?? I have an old P3@ 500 box I could load linux or win on, or if it came to it, I could use my main rig with a Barton 2500.



Remember, I only have best buy moeny to spend, and I have to do it in the next 2 weeks!! :shocked:


edit: is this any good?:

ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 9600 Graphics Card 100-714116 $200
or this ATI TV WONDER PRO PCI TV Tuner with Remote, Model: 100-703147 $100

and what software would I pair it with? will I need anything else?

Thanks
 
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