CABLE TV RECORDING ON PC

[psebas]

Hi,

I was thinking in buying a DVD+/-r/rw for my living room ( in Portugal -were i live- they are showing again the dragon ball z saga , but it is only at 2am and i have to work in the morning ) but the cheapest that i've found ( only sony, my tv , amp and dvd player are sony ) doesn't have a harddrive so i would spend a box of dvdr in a week ( 5 episodes a week ), so i though why not by a tv tuner card since my computer is always on i could configure it to record to hard drive every day from 2 am to 2.30am and in the weekend i would put it all in one dvd.

My question is: is a Pinneacle PCTV Stereo good for that?, cause i want to record in AVI in DV resolution ( +/- 3Gb per hour ), and then i'll use studio 9 or sony arquichet to make a dvd that plays in a stand-alone dvd player, and i can´t quite understand if this card allows that ( on their site they clame that to record to dvd or mpeg 2 we must purchase that option or activate it online ).

Other question: is there any other Tv tuner card ( pci or USB ), that does what i want? or is the pctc stereo ( or a pro, but i really dont need the fm radio )? money isn't a issue ( as long it doesn't go above 150 Usd/ Eur. ), or the best is to buy a stand alone dvd recordable ( the best is with the 250gb hd but it's too expensive ).

Thanks

My machine is a P4 3.2 Ghz; 1 Gb ram; lots of hd space; Ati x800 pro; pinneacle studio dv; etc etc etc

 

[Auric]

Check out the ATI Theater 550 Pro based cards that just came out, like the Sapphire Theatrix - about $85 and has hardware MPEG-2 encoding.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: psebas
Hi,

I was thinking in buying a DVD+/-r/rw for my living room ( in Portugal -were i live- they are showing again the dragon ball z saga , but it is only at 2am and i have to work in the morning ) but the cheapest that i've found ( only sony, my tv , amp and dvd player are sony ) doesn't have a harddrive so i would spend a box of dvdr in a week ( 5 episodes a week ), so i though why not by a tv tuner card since my computer is always on i could configure it to record to hard drive every day from 2 am to 2.30am and in the weekend i would put it all in one dvd.

My question is: is a Pinneacle PCTV Stereo good for that?, cause i want to record in AVI in DV resolution ( +/- 3Gb per hour ), and then i'll use studio 9 or sony arquichet to make a dvd that plays in a stand-alone dvd player, and i can´t quite understand if this card allows that ( on their site they clame that to record to dvd or mpeg 2 we must purchase that option or activate it online ).

Other question: is there any other Tv tuner card ( pci or USB ), that does what i want? or is the pctc stereo ( or a pro, but i really dont need the fm radio )? money isn't a issue ( as long it doesn't go above 150 Usd/ Eur. ), or the best is to buy a stand alone dvd recordable ( the best is with the 250gb hd but it's too expensive ).

Thanks

My machine is a P4 3.2 Ghz; 1 Gb ram; lots of hd space; Ati x800 pro; pinneacle studio dv; etc etc etc

Do you have to record in AVI format (I'm unclear on why you would want to if you are going to burn to DVD, since DVDs use MPEG2?) Most (if not all) of the decent hardware encoder cards out there record to MPEG2. The Hauppauge "PVR" line is pretty good in this regard (the 150 being the newest and cheapest model, but I have no clue about availability in Europe). Just about any software encoding card will produce similar results (ie, pretty good, but eats up a ton of CPU while in use), and will generally let you record to any format you have codecs for (including uncompressed AVI).

You might want to check out www.doom9.org for more information on encoding and DVD authoring.

 

[pilgrim2u]

I have a Hauppauge PVR 250...100 bucks.......records the cable to the HD.....plays with WMP
Its great

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: pilgrim2u
I have a Hauppauge PVR 250...100 bucks.......records the cable to the HD.....plays with WMP
Its great

Totally agree! I have the PVR 250 MCE version and it is GREAT! I'm pretty picky when it come to video quality, but the Hauppauge PVR 250 does a GREAT job of recording Cable/Satellite broadcasts. I usually record a show, quickly edit the commercials out, and burn it to DVD. I record using High quality MPEG2 settings, so editing and burning is very easy.

I HIGHLY recommend this tuner.

Oh yeah, if you get the 250, get a copy of BeyondTV. They work beautifully together.

 

[scooter1]

Why don't you use RW discs with the DVD recorder and then rip the shows to your hard drive?
Also I don't understand why you would use an entire box of DVD-R's for 5 episodes. You don't have to finalize the disc after each episode.

 

[saxophonoia]

Originally posted by: pilgrim2u
I have a Hauppauge PVR 250...100 bucks.......records the cable to the HD.....plays with WMP
Its great

Can this record HighDef broadcasts also?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: saxophonoia

Originally posted by: pilgrim2u
I have a Hauppauge PVR 250...100 bucks.......records the cable to the HD.....plays with WMP
Its great

Can this record HighDef broadcasts also?

No. For HD, you'll need an HDTV tuner card. ATi has one.

 

[saxophonoia]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: saxophonoia

Originally posted by: pilgrim2u
I have a Hauppauge PVR 250...100 bucks.......records the cable to the HD.....plays with WMP
Its great

Can this record HighDef broadcasts also?

No. For HD, you'll need an HDTV tuner card. ATi has one.

ahhh...alright. Thanks.

 

[psebas]

Originally posted by: scooter1
Why don't you use RW discs with the DVD recorder and then rip the shows to your hard drive?
Also I don't understand why you would use an entire box of DVD-R's for 5 episodes. You don't have to finalize the disc after each episode.

For some reason when i had a dvd recordable, unless i ended the session i could't read them in pc ( dont know why , it just happend, the same when i'de join several recordings in the same dvd , but it was a bad recordable ( a sky something ) ), and i want to edit them so i can skip the generic etc etc...

I also want to make some cool menus and everything so i'll stick with a tv tuner, the problem is i dont have anywhere to buy the Ati or the Hauppauge PVR 250 ( i dont buy anything online, i like to see what i get ), so i'm stuck with the pinneacle. The question is what card? the stereo?, the pro?, the usb2?

Thanks all of you .

 

[kurt454]

I use an ATI E-Home Wonder. It uses hardware encoding to MPEG2, and is cheaper than the Hauppauge cards.

 

[Dorsalphin]

Pilgrim2, Jack Burton, or anyone else with the pvr-250.

Where did you guys buy your cards. The lowest price I can find is $128 from Buy.com. Is there a particular site I should watch that usually has these on sale, or is this the best price I should expect to find?

Thanks.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Dorsalphin
Pilgrim2, Jack Burton, or anyone else with the pvr-250.

Where did you guys buy your cards. The lowest price I can find is $128 from Buy.com. Is there a particular site I should watch that usually has these on sale, or is this the best price I should expect to find?

Thanks.

Get the PVR-150 instead (or the 150-MCE if you don't need the remote and software). Bizarrely enough, this is actually the new model, and they have the same capabilities.

OP, sorry, don't know anything about the Pinnacle cards. Maybe try a search at www.avsforum.com, in the HTPC section?

 

[JackBurton]

Yep, I agree with Mattias99, but I'd get the 150 MCE. I got the PVR-250 MCE mainly for the MPEG2 encoding done on the card, but it looks like the 150 does it too. As I look at the specs between the two (150 vs 250), I don't see any difference between them. And you can get the 150 MCE for ~$70 at newegg. Like I said, check out BeyondTV too. It goes GREAT with either a 150 or 250 PVR card.

 

[farscapesg1]

The PVR-150 cards are great. As to using BeyondTV, I prefer SageTV.

You can also order the cards from www.pcalchemy.com and get them bundled with the PVR software (BeyondTV, SageTV, WindowsMCE 2005) of your choice.