Question about tv capture

[Salvador]

I'm wondering how tv capture would work with an ATI AIW card. You would record the file to the hard drive of course, but could you possibly burn the file to something that I could burn to a dvd and then watch with a tv that has a dvd player attached? Or.. Do you have to have the card hooked up to the tv via tv out in order to watch the recorded tv program?

Also, how good is the video that is captured from an AIW card? Is it as good as if you were to tape it with a VHS tape on a regular tv?

TIA,

Sal

 

[rbV5]

The MMC software has VCD/SVCD and DVD capture presets, the Pinnacle Studio Editing software supports Burn to DVD and with the AIW 9600, you can burn directly from the MMC library applet.

Also, how good is the video that is captured from an AIW card? Is it as good as if you were to tape it with a VHS tape on a regular tv?

The captured video depends on the quality of the source. With a good source, the captured video exceeds VHS quality by a fair margin.

 

[Salvador]

Ok.. So if I were to tape a few of my favorite shows with the AIW, then I could burn a file to a dvd and then watch it with a regular dvd player? I just want to be sure.

As long as it's as good of quality as if I were to tape a show on a VHS tape, that would be great.

Also. How does this recording thing work? You say that it works like a Tivo, but do you have to subscribe to any service to get the Tivo like features?

Believe it or not, I'm leaning towards the 9800PRO AIW again. I'm not going to bother any of you any more with the questions about the two. I just need to know if the AIW card (any of them) is going to give me exactly what I'm after.

Thanks so much again. I'm learning a ton here.

Sal

 

[rbV5]

Ok.. So if I were to tape a few of my favorite shows with the AIW, then I could burn a file to a dvd and then watch it with a regular dvd player? I just want to be sure.

Thats what they say anyway. I've had my DVD burner for a very short time(less than a couple weeks), and haven't burned any of my captures yet (its been tied up with DVDshrink). Maybe I'll go ahead and try one with a DVDRW just to see if it works OK.

Also. How does this recording thing work? You say that it works like a Tivo, but do you have to subscribe to any service to get the Tivo like features?

I never said it worked like a TIVO actually, but it does have some nice PVR features, you don't have to subsrcribe to anything for the PVR features. It has an internet based EPG that works pretty good with the analog channels you can receive (basically, if you can get the channels below 125 without a STB, you can get them with the AIW) You can pick a channel to watch, see the listings, or schedule a recording from there. The settings it uses to record you set in the PVR setup in MMC. You can also hook up an analog source(camcorder/VCR/STB) to the s-video or composite inputs and record from there (except macrovision protected content).

You can timeshift using the TV applet from MMC, basically pause the TV up to the amount of hardrive space you allocate. The video formats are setup by you when you configure MMC. Recording with the PVR gives you the options of several presets/codecs/resolutions/filters, bitrates and file sizes. Basically MPEG 1/2/4, ATI's VCR, AVI and Windows Media file types. The files are stored in the folder(s) you choose, and then you can edit them in the Pinnacle Studio software and encode or burn to your final.

It uses Direct Show drivers, so you can use third party softwares that support direct show, and most that supprt VFW through the direct show wrapper. All the software you "need" is included however.

It doesn't hurt to be informed before you spend real money on your hardware. Seriously, if I minded the questions, I'd simply stay out of thread So don't hesitate to ask away, I'll answer them if I can.
UPDATE:
I just did a quick TV capture with the Default DVD preset in MMC. Imported into Pinnacle Studio(could have just captured it here too) and Burned it to a simple DVD using a DVD+RW disc. Works fine in my PC and my standalone DVD players. It definately works OK, and the quality is pretty good. Although not outstanding, its plenty watchable. Its definately better than the VCR, which is pretty unwatchable on the big screen. The sound is much better also. I'm sure I could get alot better by tweaking the settings, but its pretty good out of the box.

 

[Salvador]

I just did a quick TV capture with the Default DVD preset in MMC. Imported into Pinnacle Studio(could have just captured it here too) and Burned it to a simple DVD using a DVD+RW disc. Works fine in my PC and my standalone DVD players. It definately works OK, and the quality is pretty good. Although not outstanding, its plenty watchable. Its definately better than the VCR, which is pretty unwatchable on the big screen. The sound is much better also. I'm sure I could get alot better by tweaking the settings, but its pretty good out of the box.

So, it looks as good or better than a VHS tape recording of a show? If so, that's great. I can't see watching all the shows on that computer that I'd record. This is probably the primary use of the AIW TV Tuner features.

People are saying that they use the AIW like a cheap Tivo. That's why I asked about it. Can you schedule shows that you want to tape ahead of time like a Tivo?

I wouldn't need the AIW for analog capture. Most of the stuff on tape is copywrited by Macrovision. I don't think I'd want to digitize a VHS tape anyway. I do have some home movies from my old VHS-C camera, but my Sony TRV-22 has an option to capture analog video to the camera, so that's how I could capture video. I don't have a whole lot of VHS-C tape anyway. I could probably digitize my whole library in a weekend and that would provide plenty of beer breaks.

Now.. You had mentioned that the AIW card had support to help editing analog. Or I thought you said this. Would the editing features just be for analog capture or would it help at all if I wanted to edit a tv show that I captured?

I know that I keep bouncing around with this, but what would the AIW card do for me that a separate tuner card like the Leadtek wouldn't do? Would the AIW only be better if I wanted to do analog capture? If I can record programs just like the AIW and then burn them to a dvd to watch on a standalone dvd player, what would I need the AIW for?

Thanks again!

Sal

 

[rbV5]

Can you schedule shows that you want to tape ahead of time like a Tivo?

It has an internet based EPG that works pretty good with the analog channels you can receive (basically, if you can get the channels below 125 without a STB, you can get them with the AIW) You can pick a channel to watch, see the listings, or schedule a recording from there

You would definately use the iLink with the sony dv cam

Would the editing features just be for analog capture or would it help at all if I wanted to edit a tv show that I captured?

The TV show would also be an analog capture.

I know that I keep bouncing around with this, but what would the AIW card do for me that a separate tuner card like the Leadtek wouldn't do? Would the AIW only be better if I wanted to do analog capture? If I can record programs just like the AIW and then burn them to a dvd to watch on a standalone dvd player, what would I need the AIW for?

I'm not so sure you would. Best bet would to be to see if folks were happy with using their Leadtek card how you want to use it.

 

[thedarkwolf]

The Hauppauge PVR-250 with a hardware encoder is suppost capture better then the software based cards.

http://www.freytechnologies.com/
Check out that software.