Best TV Tuner ??

[Ziptar]

If you are going to do any capturing to VCD consider the Hauppauge Win-TV PVR. Has hardware MPEG encoding built in. Excellent TV picture and is solid, stable, and smooth under XP.

 

[LarryJoe]

Hauppauge Win-TV PVR is nice, but overpriced at $200. You could probaby network an actual TIVO player to your PC for the same money.

 

[aka1nas]

Larry Joe, Have you decided which digital camcorder yuo are getting? Are you getting a Digital 8 or a miniDV? If you go D8, then every model but the lowest one(that would mean the TRV-240 and above) will playback your old tapes as well as offer you the ability to transfer the old tapes to your PC via firewire. The IQ of D8 isn't quite as good as MiniDV, but the backwards compatability is a nice feature. Also, keep in mind that while MiniDV is techinically a better quality media, most DV camcorders are stuck with a .4 Megapixel sensor or less, which is about the same as the Sony D8 lineup, so their picture quality won't be much different in real life. Only JVC and Sony Dvs have at least a .6 megapixel sensor on all their standard models. As far as other brands go, I would avoid Sharp as their sensors seem to come out rather flat, with blues and reds bleeding out a bit. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

 

[LarryJoe]

Nice! Thanks for the tip, I did not know that. It would be great to get away from the composite transfer via my tuner. I will definitely take you up on your offer to PM you with questions. I hope to do some shopping this weekend at the BestBuy's and CircutCity's. I'll seek your advice before pulling the trigger.

 

[LarryJoe]

FYI - the Avermedia TV Studio is reviewed in the latest MaximumPC. It recieved an 8 and points out that there is nothing in it's price class that performs timeshifting so well.

 

[idfubar]

OK, I know I'm risking a total flaming, but here goes:

Most TV Tuner cards have the same underlying hardware: Bt8xx chipset.

As such, you should consider a "roll-your-own" approach. I picked up a Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro - FM Tuner, Stereo TV Tuner. Included software sucks, but does the job... (PS: The information in this message is a distillation of the ~300 or so messages posted in the Hot Deals forum with regards to this specific card, but apply to the chipset and most TV tuner cards in general).

Now here's the thing - add a little elbow grease, and you have a VERY effective solution. This tip applies to 2000/XP:

(1) Use the open-source WDM drivers found on SourceForge for the chipset (you can use these drivers with any Bt8xx chipset based card).
(2) Use another open-souce marvel, DScaler, for TV-viewing. They've added some really nice filters that increase the quality over typical software found in-box with most cards.
(3) If you want DVR/PVR/Tivo-like functionality, invest $15 in PowerVCR II. It'll take care of all your time-shifting needs. You can pick up a license from EBay "on-the-cheap".

Happy Viewing,
Rishi

 

[The Dancing Peacock]

So I went to Fry's again on Friday. I wasn't going to get anything, but I ended up leaving with a new Epox 8kta3+ and the AverTV Studio. The board seems solid, I like the raid option. The TV Studio didn't fry my mobo this time . Installed the wdm drivers from the included CD for XP, prompted that they weren't signed, but I ignored that. I rebooted, plugged the coax in, installed Dscaler. I'm getting reception just like the rest of the house, poopy. (cable modem has been bad for cable reception) I thought I had some problems with DScaler or the Card b/c I wasn't getting any audio. I forgot XP mutes your Line In balance. Getting good sound and video from the card. I have Power VCR, but I haven't tried it out yet.