Leadtek Expert burden cpu?

BBC454

Member
Nov 3, 2003
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I am looking at video capture cards and I am not sure on which to get. The main two I am looking at are the Leadtek Expert and the Hauppauge PVR 350. The computer I am building will have either an Athlon 64 3400 or 3700/3800 with a gig of pc3200. The main question is, will I be able to surf the internet or even play fps video games when recording a show with the Leadtek? I would prefer not to spend the extra $120 on the pvr-350 if I do not have to. Also, will a 160gb hd be big enough not to have to worry about running out of space? I plan on only running a single hard drive. I will be recording maybe 5 hrs of tv a week.

Thanks.
 

prvteye2003

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
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I don't know about being able to record and play games at the same time but with a 160gb hdd, I believe you can record about 200 hours with that much space (depending on the format in which the video is saved of course). I may be wrong but I think that that would be 200 hours of dvd quality video. But, I'm no expert either.:)

edit: Of course, the 200 hours will drop when you start adding games and programs to your system because of the lost space to save the video. The only reason I say 200 hours is because I have a dvr with an 80gb hdd and supposedly I can record up to 100 hours of video on it. So, 160gb should be 200 hours.
 

JBT

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
12,094
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I don't have a Expert but I do have a Deluxe (10bit vs 8bit for recording). I will try running CS or Desert Combat while recording when I get home tonight. I am gonna doubt it will work very well though.
 

BBC454

Member
Nov 3, 2003
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I'm just not sure even with a powerful processor how much the Leadtek will require. Most shows I will be recording only if I am not home, but some I will be; I just want to be able to use the computer when I am recording. I usually play a lot of games or run a handful of programs at once when I am on my computer (I am at college). I like the idea of the PVR-350 since it is a hardware encoder, but not the price. If it is truely worth the money or needed I will buy the PVR-350.

If it matters, the hard drive I am going to get is the Seagate 160gb 7200.7 SATA; of which I wish they made a bigger one. Also, once the fluid bearing 36gb Raptors come around I will probably buy one, will that help since most of my programs will be on that hard drive, which leaves the 160gb for recording and other crap? I would rather spend the $120 difference in the cards on a Raptor if it makes running the Leadtek much smoother.
 

JBT

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
12,094
1
81
HMmm just tryed playing CS while recorder in VCD mode didn't work to well The game was pretty laggy. Though if u have a CPU with HT it may be a bit better no sure though.
 

jdogg707

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: BBC454
I'm just not sure even with a powerful processor how much the Leadtek will require. Most shows I will be recording only if I am not home, but some I will be; I just want to be able to use the computer when I am recording. I usually play a lot of games or run a handful of programs at once when I am on my computer (I am at college). I like the idea of the PVR-350 since it is a hardware encoder, but not the price. If it is truely worth the money or needed I will buy the PVR-350.

If it matters, the hard drive I am going to get is the Seagate 160gb 7200.7 SATA; of which I wish they made a bigger one. Also, once the fluid bearing 36gb Raptors come around I will probably buy one, will that help since most of my programs will be on that hard drive, which leaves the 160gb for recording and other crap? I would rather spend the $120 difference in the cards on a Raptor if it makes running the Leadtek much smoother.


If you like the 350, why don't you try the 250, it is cheaper, but lacks the FM radio support of the 350, other than that it is completely the same. I got the Expert and have had no problems with it and while recording it usually takes about 15 CPU cycles or so, I have a 3200+ @ 2.21GHZ.
 

IPLaw

Member
Mar 23, 2002
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Using the expert on my AXP 2800+ to record optimal quality MPEG2 video at 640x480 requires about 60% CPU usage. If I do anything too CPU or HDD intensive, then the AV becomes desynced. If you're serious about recording, buy the PVR-250, which can be found for around $100 if you watch the deals (CompUSA had one a few weeks ago). Even then, taxing the HDD you are recording to can cause frames to be dropped. The only surefire method is a hardware mpeg encoder like the PVR-250, writing to a separate HDD. There are also several PVR websites that have cropped up which contain a wealth of information on the topic.