Might be needing a new TV tuner

[archcommus]

Last March I bought a Powercolor Theater 550 PRO PCI-E card and had a lot of troubles with it. I recently RMA'd it to Newegg for a replacement as I felt it might've been defective. However there is a chance Newegg will not have any more of this card and so will just refund me. If this happens, I'll be credited $89.99 to spend on another card. What would you recommend? Some specs:

Epox 9NPA+ Ultra motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB PC-3200 DDR
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB HDD

Right now I have one free PCI slot so either PCI or PCI-E is acceptable. However, if I buy a PCI TV card, I will have two PCI cards, my Audigy 2 and that. Is that a bad thing? I don't know for how much longer motherboards will continue to have at least two PCI slots.

Also, do I want a hardware MPEG2 encoder or not? Some people say yes to minimize CPU usage while using PVR. Others say no because CPU usage in minimal and you probably don't want to encode in MPEG2 anyway.

I am open to any suggestions. I just want something that looks good, is equal to or less than $90, comes with a remote, and will work well with SageTV.

Thanks.

 

[archcommus]

Lot of good and lot of bad reviews on Newegg for the PVR-150.

 

[archcommus]

Well I realize this topic comes up often. The main questions that made me make a new thread:

1) Is hardware MPEG2 encoding good or not?
2) Is PCI still a safe purchase with PCI-E x1 set to take it over?
3) What has a good balance of hardware encoding, picture quality, and driver support? Don't care about bundled software.

 

[dfuze]

I'll answer as best as I can. I have the pvr-150, media center version. I am currently using it under vista rc2 and I think the picture quality is amazing. The software on it's own seemed to be lacking, but when using MCE it was really good.

I specifically bought this card for two reasons: hardware encoding and vista drivers (got the upgrade coupon through newegg). Hardware encoding saves your cpu a lot of work and helps allow you to do other stuff at the same time.

Not sure what you mean by PCI a safe purchase, unless you mean pci-e 1x replacing it. I think that pci has quite a few years left in it and won't be fazed out any time soon.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: dph1077
I'll answer as best as I can. I have the pvr-150, media center version. I am currently using it under vista rc2 and I think the picture quality is amazing. The software on it's own seemed to be lacking, but when using MCE it was really good.

I specifically bought this card for two reasons: hardware encoding and vista drivers (got the upgrade coupon through newegg). Hardware encoding saves your cpu a lot of work and helps allow you to do other stuff at the same time.

Not sure what you mean by PCI a safe purchase, unless you mean pci-e 1x replacing it. I think that pci has quite a few years left in it and won't be fazed out any time soon.

Yeah that's what I meant. I guess you're right, I just don't know at which point motherboards will stop including them, or will only include one.

So you say the quality of the PVR-150 is good. How is the remote? And the drivers were easy to install and don't seem to cause any issues?

 

[archcommus]

Also does that card require you to run a cable for audio from the card to your sound card's line-in?

 

[archcommus]

Bump.
I'm hoping to order tomorrow.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: archcommus
Also does that card require you to run a cable for audio from the card to your sound card's line-in?

No, they just send the sound data, and it is output via your Sound Card.

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder, and in my experience with ATI's TV Tuner drivers, they are HORRENDOUS. Extremely buggy. They have a lot of good ideas, but the code is no where near where it needs to be. I must say though, the Picture Quality is very very nice.

I also have a Hauppauge PVR-150. The main thing about this card is, SOLID. I never have problems with it, Picture Quality is good (Not quite as good as the ATI card). I wish they would come out with updated drivers regardless of the lack of problems, but that is only minor.

Either card on a Hardware level is fundamentally sound. However, in software, I would choose the PVR-150 by a LONG shot. (Also, I highly recommend Snapstreams Beyond TV for recording. Very intuitive interface, and few problems anymore)

-Kevin

 

[videopho]

Get a Kworld ATSC110.
One minor issue: the BeyondTV CD keys that come with the package does not work for most buyers, be aware of it. Otherwise this card works like a dream as compared to my last little ah heck: ATI HDTV Wonder.
In fact my Kworld runs fine in the Window x64 OS.
I paid $32 (AR + GCO) right after the Xmas06 timeframe.

Old Kworld ad link

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: archcommus
Also does that card require you to run a cable for audio from the card to your sound card's line-in?

No, they just send the sound data, and it is output via your Sound Card.

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder, and in my experience with ATI's TV Tuner drivers, they are HORRENDOUS. Extremely buggy. They have a lot of good ideas, but the code is no where near where it needs to be. I must say though, the Picture Quality is very very nice.

I also have a Hauppauge PVR-150. The main thing about this card is, SOLID. I never have problems with it, Picture Quality is good (Not quite as good as the ATI card). I wish they would come out with updated drivers regardless of the lack of problems, but that is only minor.

Either card on a Hardware level is fundamentally sound. However, in software, I would choose the PVR-150 by a LONG shot. (Also, I highly recommend Snapstreams Beyond TV for recording. Very intuitive interface, and few problems anymore)

-Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. I agree with the bad ATI drivers point. I had problems with my old Theater 550 PRO PCI-E for a long time. I'm not sure if it was overheating or what, but either way, in attempting to fix the problem, I installed and reinstalled ATI's latest drivers many many times, and sometimes after doing so it would cause my system to hang for about 15 minutes at Windows login, and I had to do a "Use last known good configuration" on the F8 menu to fix it. It was really annoying.

I like that you say the PVR-150 is solid. After my experiences with my Theater 550 card "solid" is exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps this will be my choice then.

BTV is okay but I prefer SageTV myself. Six in one half dozen in another really.

Originally posted by: videopho
Get a Kworld ATSC110.
One minor issue: the BeyondTV CD keys that come with the package does not work for most buyers, be aware of it. Otherwise this card works like a dream as compared to my last little ah heck: ATI HDTV Wonder.
In fact my Kworld runs fine in the Window x64 OS.
I paid $32 (AR + GCO) right after the Xmas06 timeframe.

Old Kworld ad link

I'm pretty sure that card doesn't have a hardware encoder, which I would like. Then again, if I'll be getting a dual core CPU this year, I guess it wouldn't really matter anyway if my CPU had to use some cycles to record, would it.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: archcommus
Also does that card require you to run a cable for audio from the card to your sound card's line-in?

No, they just send the sound data, and it is output via your Sound Card.

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder, and in my experience with ATI's TV Tuner drivers, they are HORRENDOUS. Extremely buggy. They have a lot of good ideas, but the code is no where near where it needs to be. I must say though, the Picture Quality is very very nice.

I also have a Hauppauge PVR-150. The main thing about this card is, SOLID. I never have problems with it, Picture Quality is good (Not quite as good as the ATI card). I wish they would come out with updated drivers regardless of the lack of problems, but that is only minor.

Either card on a Hardware level is fundamentally sound. However, in software, I would choose the PVR-150 by a LONG shot. (Also, I highly recommend Snapstreams Beyond TV for recording. Very intuitive interface, and few problems anymore)

-Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. I agree with the bad ATI drivers point. I had problems with my old Theater 550 PRO PCI-E for a long time. I'm not sure if it was overheating or what, but either way, in attempting to fix the problem, I installed and reinstalled ATI's latest drivers many many times, and sometimes after doing so it would cause my system to hang for about 15 minutes at Windows login, and I had to do a "Use last known good configuration" on the F8 menu to fix it. It was really annoying.

I like that you say the PVR-150 is solid. After my experiences with my Theater 550 card "solid" is exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps this will be my choice then.

BTV is okay but I prefer SageTV myself. Six in one half dozen in another really.

Originally posted by: videopho
Get a Kworld ATSC110.
One minor issue: the BeyondTV CD keys that come with the package does not work for most buyers, be aware of it. Otherwise this card works like a dream as compared to my last little ah heck: ATI HDTV Wonder.
In fact my Kworld runs fine in the Window x64 OS.
I paid $32 (AR + GCO) right after the Xmas06 timeframe.

Old Kworld ad link

I'm pretty sure that card doesn't have a hardware encoder, which I would like. Then again, if I'll be getting a dual core CPU this year, I guess it wouldn't really matter anyway if my CPU had to use some cycles to record, would it.

No problem.

As for the encoder, I generally like to keep as much work as possible from my processor. If there is something else that can alleviate load, I normally opt for that. You never know when you might need those processor cycles

It's really up to you though, I like completely clean and uncluttered PC's. If you don't mind something eating a few processor cycles then you can go with the cheaper one w/o encoder.

-Kevin