Need suggestions for a t.v tuner card

[Thetech]

Hi, I need a little advice about getting a Tv tuner/ recorder card. I'll only be recording analog tv signals through a DirecTV reciever. I was thinking about getting a Happauge 350 capture card since it has a hardware encoding chip on it.

My question though is would I be able to use my computer (play Battle Field 2 etc) while recording using said card? I can record Tv using my Geforce7800GT but it seems to use software encoding and if I try to use the computer while recording with it the video I've recorded ends up out of sync with the audio.

Here's my spec's

Processor: Amd Atholon XP 3700+ (San Diego core)
Ram: OCZ Dual Platinum PC3200 Ram (2gigs)
Motherboard: Asus A8N-Sli premium
Video: Evga Geforce 7800GT
Audio: Soundblaster X-fi xtrememusic
Hard drives: 1 Seagate 7800.2 120GB hard drive 2second drive 160GB Seagate 7800.8 (both 7200 Rpms) The first drive has windows X.P on it and my apps(web browser etc.) and the temp and swap files (in a separate partition)
The second drive has my games(one partition) and the space where I store video to (another partition) when I record I record to the first physical disk.
OS: Windows X.P home.

 

[mikeford]

Do you need a tuner (that picks channels out) or just video input and a way to tell the DirectTV to change channels?

I don't really know how a Direct TV works, but a tuner just to hook up using channel 3 would be pointless and lower picture quality than video.

Encoding standard definiton TV isn't a big job, even my ancient ATi AIW does ok, but the issue is what happens in a worst case conflict, does the PC crash, just miss some frames, hang just long enough for your 6 month of char leveling is toast as a flea slowly kills your frozen self?

Do some searches on PVR or HTPC at places like the avsforum.com to see all the details and speedbumps.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: mikeford
Do you need a tuner (that picks channels out) or just video input and a way to tell the DirectTV to change channels?

I don't really know how a Direct TV works, but a tuner just to hook up using channel 3 would be pointless and lower picture quality than video.

Encoding standard definiton TV isn't a big job, even my ancient ATi AIW does ok, but the issue is what happens in a worst case conflict, does the PC crash, just miss some frames, hang just long enough for your 6 month of char leveling is toast as a flea slowly kills your frozen self?

Do some searches on PVR or HTPC at places like the avsforum.com to see all the details and speedbumps.

I don't know about future needs, but for now I just need the video input, I might need the ability to change channels from the card in the future but for now I don't. I'm not sure how that would integrate though, what I mean by that is being pick up the t.v tuner remote and pause live t.v,etc.

My Geforce doesn't seem to do hardware encoding. The worst case conflict is that the PC crashes when I'm recording and Playing TrackMania Sunrise, or If I play BattleField 2 or do pretty much anything else the recorded video lags, and sometimes the audio is out of sync with the video. And yes a flea does slowly kill me while I'm playing because of the lag

Thanks Mikeford.

 

[mikeford]

Skip the tuner, as analog broadcast only has like 2 more years, and just get a video input card that does hardware encoding and works well.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26 is the place to look. I have used some older All in Wonder ATi boards, but while I got them to work OK on a 1 ghz athlon, it was a bit quirky and I think I may have had issues with the microsoft media stuff and ATi drivers.

NOTHING at any price on PC works as smooth as a DVR from your provider, I have a SA 8300HD from timewarner, and for $10 month a pretty seamless and just works. Records two channels at the same time it can play back something already recorded (or watch one of the things being record from the start etc), and does HD if I want.

I do plan to continue using my AIW, but I haven't messed with it since I brought the DVR home 6 months ago. DVR has two weak points, all content is RC5 encrypted to your specific box, so if the box breaks or you stop service everything on the drive is lost, and second point is about the drive too, HD fills 160 Gb in 20 hrs, and the eSata expansion only halfway works so far. With a PVR I can record on the DVR, then dump in analog to the PVR and make a DVD or just keep things on my on drive, plus I could potentially record a analog channel on the PVR at the same time I was recording two other channels on the DVR. Messy, gonna take some time to setup, which is why I haven't yet.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: mikeford
Skip the tuner, as analog broadcast only has like 2 more years, and just get a video input card that does hardware encoding and works well.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26 is the place to look. I have used some older All in Wonder ATi boards, but while I got them to work OK on a 1 ghz athlon, it was a bit quirky and I think I may have had issues with the microsoft media stuff and ATi drivers.

NOTHING at any price on PC works as smooth as a DVR from your provider, I have a SA 8300HD from timewarner, and for $10 month a pretty seamless and just works. Records two channels at the same time it can play back something already recorded (or watch one of the things being record from the start etc), and does HD if I want.

I do plan to continue using my AIW, but I haven't messed with it since I brought the DVR home 6 months ago. DVR has two weak points, all content is RC5 encrypted to your specific box, so if the box breaks or you stop service everything on the drive is lost, and second point is about the drive too, HD fills 160 Gb in 20 hrs, and the eSata expansion only halfway works so far. With a PVR I can record on the DVR, then dump in analog to the PVR and make a DVD or just keep things on my on drive, plus I could potentially record a analog channel on the PVR at the same time I was recording two other channels on the DVR. Messy, gonna take some time to setup, which is why I haven't yet.

I can understand how a DVR would be a smoother experience but, I don't like all of the restrictions and control the service provider has over the equipment, plus the fact that I have to "rent" it. I wish they would make standalone DVR's I could connect to a computer and didn't have to pay a monthly fee or "lifetime" fee to use.

And I'm somewhat knowledgeable about the move from analog to digital broadcast, but how would that effect a T.V tuner card? I'm not going to use an antennae to get over the air signals. (Meaning Cable and Satellite are digital already)

-Thank You

 

[Thetech]

Bump

 

[Thetech]

Bump, Does any else have any good/bad experiences with T.V tuners?

 

[mikeford]

If you want good input you will have to go to avsforum.com.

Heh, same for the DVR, its going to be the gateway device for premium content.

Restrictions? Ho ho ho, Wait til you see what is coming with HDCP and Vista, essentially nothing in HD quality gets past the last box that the content provider has FULL control over.

 

[v8envy]

Hauppage PVR-150MCE is a really good bang for the buck card with an excellent tuner. It does hardware mpeg2 encoding. And is $60-ish at various etailers, without rebates.

It can't do HD, but if all you have is analog cable it's the cat's meow. I've got two of these in my DVR, and the final 720x480 recordings it makes look BETTER than what my tv can do with the native tuner. In fact, watching live TV on the dvr and flipping to 'previous' mode on the TV to see native you can see a big picture quality difference. The through-DVR picture is clearer. I can crank it down to record in TIVO-like quality, but never need to -- big disks are cheap.

A dedicated DVR is good in that you can view the recordings anywhere. Use the web interface even when you're not in front of the TV. Export saved shows to your notebook to watch on a plane/bus/whatever. I wouldn't give my DVR up for the world. The provided-with-cable service ones may be cheaper, but they also do less.

And yeah, this all changes once we have DRMed digital content. Until the DRM is circumvented, we'll have to do exactly what the content providers want us to, and no more.


edit: the 350 series is nearly identical to the 150, but also provides hardware accelerated video out. You get that with just about any video card past a GF4MX, so that really isn't a big deal. Unless there's a reason not to have a video card in your DVR, go for the 150. The 250 is an older version of the 150 with a slightly infereor tuner. MCE versions don't come with any windows-based DVR apps, and MCE only drivers and no remote. Not an issue if you roll your own DVR, but you may wish to get a non-MCE version if you don't have DVR software at the moment.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Hauppage PVR-150MCE is a really good bang for the buck card with an excellent tuner. It does hardware mpeg2 encoding. And is $60-ish at various etailers, without rebates.

It can't do HD, but if all you have is analog cable it's the cat's meow. I've got two of these in my DVR, and the final 720x480 recordings it makes look BETTER than what my tv can do with the native tuner. In fact, watching live TV on the dvr and flipping to 'previous' mode on the TV to see native you can see a big picture quality difference. The through-DVR picture is clearer. I can crank it down to record in TIVO-like quality, but never need to -- big disks are cheap.

A dedicated DVR is good in that you can view the recordings anywhere. Use the web interface even when you're not in front of the TV. Export saved shows to your notebook to watch on a plane/bus/whatever. I wouldn't give my DVR up for the world. The provided-with-cable service ones may be cheaper, but they also do less.

And yeah, this all changes once we have DRMed digital content. Until the DRM is circumvented, we'll have to do exactly what the content providers want us to, and no more.


edit: the 350 series is nearly identical to the 150, but also provides hardware accelerated video out. You get that with just about any video card past a GF4MX, so that really isn't a big deal. Unless there's a reason not to have a video card in your DVR, go for the 150. The 250 is an older version of the 150 with a slightly infereor tuner. MCE versions don't come with any windows-based DVR apps, and MCE only drivers and no remote. Not an issue if you roll your own DVR, but you may wish to get a non-MCE version if you don't have DVR software at the moment.

I might have to get the 350, for me the big question is will I be able to record and use my computer at the same time

And if it will work with DirecTV, will the change to digital effect anything? I only plan on recording analog t.v by the way.

I'll try posting at that site too mike.