Post your home theater/capture/TV cards and software you use

[archcommus]

Hey everybody,

If you use ANY sort of card/peripheral with your PC that gives it any sort of living room/TV/other kind of home theater/media functionality, post it here, what you do with it, and what software you use with it. I'm interested in hearing what can be done and what I may like to do.

Right now I'm just thinking of getting some sort of tuner card and using SageTV and outputting to a regular DVI LCD.

 

[mooncancook]

Hardware: ATI TV Wonder Elite
Software: GBPVR (free)
Usage: watch tv on my pc occasionally; record from my camcorder

 

[Schadenfroh]

hauppauge pvr250

I use the hauppauge schedule tools, I look up show times and tell it when and for how long to record it.

 

[jgs007]

hauppauge pvr-150
beyond media / beyondtv
geforce 420 something or other with svideo out to my tv.

 

[eelw]

ATI AIW 8500DV w/ ATI MMC SW
Twinhan 1020a DVB-S w/ MyTheatre SW

 

[IceBreakerG]

TV Tuner: ATI HDTV Wonder
Sound: Audigy 2 Platinum (not using the audigy drive)
Software: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Works great (you gotta use cracked drivers for the dual tuners to work in MCE though. Thanks ATI).

 

[Rock Hydra]

Video Input: GeForce FX 5900 Ultra VIVO
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live!
Recording Software: NeroVision

 

[archcommus]

I'm waiting to see if common TV viewing software emerges.

 

[Peter]

On the mainbox, LifeView FlyTV Platinum FM, Linux kernel video drivers, TVtime application (sometimes KDETV instead).

On the notebook, Avermedia Cardbus Hybrid (DVB-T plus analog TV), with its proprietary software, on Windows.

 

[rise]

sapphire theater 550 in my sons room makes his rig double as his tv. he never records and only uses the software that came with it. power cinema i think its called..

diamond pvr550 in my main rig for recording with beyondtv, editing out commercials with videoredo and sometimes encoding/burning to dvd.

 

[professor1942]

I have a Leadtek TV2000 Expert installed that I never actually use. TV sucks! So I guess for software, I'll have to say "none".

 

[HomeyFoos]

I have a Hauppage PVR-150, Happuage Silver 43-button remote, Hauppage IRBlaster, and Beyond TV 4 powered by SLi'd 7600GTs. I also have a DVICO HDTVGold USB and portable hi-def antennae. Beyond TV is really cool! Works great.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

Just a semi-offtopic quick question... I've heard alot of good things about TheaterTek DVD software for dvd playback. Any opinions on that?

 

[archcommus]

Haven't seen any SageTV users yet. What's the best all-around capture/record/TV software package?

 

[archcommus]

Well I'm about to purchase a PCI-E Theater 550 Pro-based tuner card, what software should I get from the get-go for the best features and interface? I want something that really makes it feel like a home theater/TiVo-like experience.

 

[SynthDude2001]

I use a MyHD MDP-130 HDTV tuner w/ DVI daughtercard, with its own included software. The interface is rather basic, but it gets the job done - and I don't think there's any third-party MCE-like software that supports unencrypted digital/HD cable channels anyway (which is how I get all my channels). I just do basic watching/timeshifting/recording...have had it for over a year now, very happy with it overall. (Edit: If it matters, I use my 2005FPW as the display and my X-530's for speakers...)

 

[Icepick]

Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U w/ InterVideo WinDVD and ULEAD Video Studio 8. I use this mainly to capture video from VHS and VHS-C tapes and then burn it to DVD. Works great for this purpose. It can capture video from any source and encode it in MPEG-2, MPEG4 or DivX in hardware. See my thread in the for sale/for trade forum .

 

[EndGame]

I use a Hauppaugge PVR 500 dual tuner with Beyond TV and a USB Uirt to tune my Dish network receivers. Works great! I can record two seperate shows at the same time or watch while recording another in MPEG 2/4/DIVX. The hardware encoding on the Hauppaugge make it much smoother IMHO as I owned the ATI and Win Fast products prior to going back to and staying with Hauppagge. I record on this system in my den and then use S-Video + Audio to send the recorded shows to my 57" screen in the family room or any of the kids' rooms.

It also has a FM Tuner but I rarely use it.

 

[justlnluck]

I use the Fusion5 to watch HDTV on my computer.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: EndGame
I use a Hauppaugge PVR 500 dual tuner with Beyond TV and a USB Uirt to tune my Dish network receivers. Works great! I can record two seperate shows at the same time or watch while recording another in MPEG 2/4/DIVX. The hardware encoding on the Hauppaugge make it much smoother IMHO as I owned the ATI and Win Fast products prior to going back to and staying with Hauppagge. I record on this system in my den and then use S-Video + Audio to send the recorded shows to my 57" screen in the family room or any of the kids' rooms.

It also has a FM Tuner but I rarely use it.

I believe the latest ATI chipset has hardware encoding, as well, does it not? How large of a file is an average 30 minute or 60 minute show?

 

[archcommus]

Bump.

 

[tomt4535]

Ive got 3 tuners in my htpc. The first one is a PVR-250, second a Visiontek theater 550 card, and third an Avermedia A180. All three work together well in Media Center 2005. Im upgrading my motherboard this week, and its going to be a microATX board, so Im going to pick up a PCI-E version of a theater 550 card. I like Media Center's interface, Although it is difficult with drivers and such. Once you get it set up, it wont bother you, its just a pain in the arse to get it there. I hear good things about GBPVR, although I havent tried it.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: tomt4535
Ive got 3 tuners in my htpc. The first one is a PVR-250, second a Visiontek theater 550 card, and third an Avermedia A180. All three work together well in Media Center 2005. Im upgrading my motherboard this week, and its going to be a microATX board, so Im going to pick up a PCI-E version of a theater 550 card. I like Media Center's interface, Although it is difficult with drivers and such. Once you get it set up, it wont bother you, its just a pain in the arse to get it there. I hear good things about GBPVR, although I havent tried it.

So you're also searching for a PCI-E Theater 550 Pro-based card. The only one I've really found is a PowerColor, and it's only on a couple sites I don't normally shop at, like eWiz and Directron. Where are you getting yours?

 

[tomt4535]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: tomt4535
Ive got 3 tuners in my htpc. The first one is a PVR-250, second a Visiontek theater 550 card, and third an Avermedia A180. All three work together well in Media Center 2005. Im upgrading my motherboard this week, and its going to be a microATX board, so Im going to pick up a PCI-E version of a theater 550 card. I like Media Center's interface, Although it is difficult with drivers and such. Once you get it set up, it wont bother you, its just a pain in the arse to get it there. I hear good things about GBPVR, although I havent tried it.

So you're also searching for a PCI-E Theater 550 Pro-based card. The only one I've really found is a PowerColor, and it's only on a couple sites I don't normally shop at, like eWiz and Directron. Where are you getting yours?

I would get it from either one, Pretty much wherever its available. Ive used eWiz and Directron before several times without problems. Whichever one has the cheapest price, is where Ill prob end up getting it

 

[xtknight]

Samsung SIR-T451 ATSC 8VSB Terrestrial/QAM HDTV Tuner [VGA out to VP930b] (it's screaming now to be let out of its cage and hooked up to a NEC 20WMGX2 widescreen via YPbPr)
ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 (Theater 2xx) [coax,S-Video,component]

As for capture programs:
ATI MultiMedia Center (annoying, I can't disable TV-on-demand)
I was also working on one of my own TV capture programs in C++ that was going well. Since ATI MMC is slow now (can't disable TV-on-demand), I may continue it.

SageTV and BeyondTV both lack support for my card (the last versions I tried). GB-PVR also lacks support but I got it to sort of work by editing config files (but not consistently).

I just want something simple I can watch+capture TV with and schedule something once in a blue moon, I don't need/want all the other stuff. So I have been using ATI MMC. But they have neutered that with mandatory TV-on-demand so I don't know what I'll do now. The USB doesn't bother me at all. It's nice to have less EMI with the tuner in a separate box and the ability to hook it up to a notebook.

For maximum TV tuner quality I would be going with a tuner based off the Conexant Fusion 878A chipset.

ATI Theatre 550 Pro vs. Conexant Fusion 878A/typical chipsets found in capture cards

Round 2: ATI Theatre 550 Pro vs. Conexant Fusion 878A/see how they fair against eachother in NOISE FILTERING CAPABILITY