Question about PVR/TV-Tuner!!!!!!

[SpeedFreak03]

I currently have a Pinnacle PCTV (not pro) PCI tuner card. This card is alright, but it has mono sound, and the picture quality isn't that good, but on my TV right next to it the quality is MUCH better. I've tried swapping cables, hooking my TV up to that line, and the quality is always the same. Since I only paid $30 for this card (after MIR), I want to get a new one. But I really need this to be able to "capture" (can it automatically compress to MPEG2, cause when I capture with this card, 1 hour of TV is like 20GBs!), and I think its called PVR card or something. Would that Leadtek card (shown here) work good for this, or do I need an actual PVR card? Thanks for all your help, Josh.

 

[ViRGE]

Yes, the Leadtek will do PVR. Its built in viewing/recording application supports a multitude of compression formats(including WMV, MPEG2 included, along with any other encoder you have installed), and has all the scheduling features of a real PVR device. The only way that you'd be dissapointed is that the image quality isn't great(at least in my experience), but as long as your head isn't right next to the monitor, it's not an issue.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I believe you about it's PVR capibilities, but then why do people buy the more expensive PVR cards? Also, how is the sound on this thing? Is it stereo? Thanks for all your help, Josh.

 

[ViRGE]

The reason people buy more expensive cards is because the Leadtek is simply a standard TV tuner card, with its features coming from its software. More expensive cards have a hardware-based MPEG2 encoder, whereas the Leadtek's software does a software-based MPEG2 encode, which eats up a significant amount of CPU time(nothing a current machine can't handle, but a pre-XP Athlon or pre Northwood P4 may have issues). Most people don't have a problem with the CPU time(they're gone when it's recording anyhow), but for those that do, that's why they buy the full featured PVR cards.

As for sound, it's stereo; just make sure to grab the latest drivers and PVR application(ver. 3.1 I believe) so that it takes care of the SAP-Stereo issue.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

So basically on PVR cards there is another "processor" used for doing PVR, but this card use's the computer's CPU, right? I will probably go with this card then, after I read a few more reviews. But from what I read, it seems like it's a really good card!

 

[ViRGE]

Bingo. It's not the fanciest card, but it's a heck of a deal for $46.