Is there a TV Tuner Card w/ a DVD Decoder?

[darkjester]

Does such a beast exist?

I'm looking to buy a TV tuner card in the near future, and I would love it if it came with a built-in DVD hardware decoder. I have a decoder right now (Creative Labs Dxr3 Decoder), but I've got issues with it, such as
1. it doesn't want to play nice with my Prophet 4500
2. the W2K drivers from Creative Labs are still betas from Nov 2000
3. Creative Labs support is suck

So I'd really like to ditch it and kill two needs at once in one card, if that's possible. If not, suggestions for a TV card that will play nice with a decoder would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Brian48]

I don't know of a single, stand alone video card that has a DVD decoder built-in. It's becoming less and less of a need to have a hardware decoder these days and I suspect most manufacturers are moving away from it.

 

[darkjester]

Is the falling need of decoder cards due to the high-speed of today's machines? Or is there another reason?

What about standalone TV tuner cards? I hear good things about a lot of different cards, most notably the ATi TV Wonder. Any idea how good this card is? How about software support?

 

[The_Lurker]

<< Is the falling need of decoder cards due to the high-speed of today's machines? Or is there another reason? >>



That's one of the reasons, also another reason is because of the good DVD playback quality of the Video cards today. A notable example would be the ATI Radeon Card. It's got the best DVD Decoding available on a 2d/3d card that is well up to par to say a Hollywood DVD Decoder Card.



<< What about standalone TV tuner cards? I hear good things about a lot of different cards, most notably the ATi TV Wonder. Any ideas how good this card is? How about software support? >>



I personally have a ATi TV Wonder VE which works exacly as the TV Wonder except for the lack of a Stereo tuner, so all sound is mono. This card has great TV quality. I've seen other card such as the Hauppage and i find that the TV Wonder produces better quality video. ALso, the software is great. ATi Just recently (well 1 - 2 months ago) released their official Win 2k software and it's great! (MMC 7.1 just fyi). It works flawlessly and allows for recording of Video in all formats (Mpeg 1, Mpeg2, Mpeg3, AVI, Divx, etc) and works exceptionally well. I definately recommend the ATI Tv Wonder.