*Sigh* Which TV Tuner has best image quality?

[KDOG]

The image quality from my ATI TV Wonder VE is just crap. I mean its watchable, but thats' it. I just don't get why TV tuners have such piss-poor image quality. I've been looking at a few from Hauppage and Avermedia. I hear the PVR-250 is nice. I am mainly looking for best image quality. I'm running a Radeon 9500PRO and a XP2500@3200 with a gig of Corsair XMS. Any recommendations?

 

[Matthias99]

I had a TV Wonder VE, and it looked fine... you sure you've got it hooked up right? Keep in mind that SD video is 640x480 interlaced, which looks *horrible* if blown up to fill a high-res computer monitor.

The PVR150 (which is the new model replacing the 250, oddly) seems just as good, maybe slightly better at capturing/encoding MPEG2 (and of course the CPU load is like 1/10th as much). The TV Wonder VE looked pretty damn good capturing uncompressed AVI, but that's not exactly feasable for PVR use.

 

[Crusty]

Hauppauge hands down. I have a PVR-250 and love it. I would get a PVR-150 though, smaller cheaper and same exact functionality.

 

[wexsmith]

IMHO, the two key elements of capturing good quality TV:

1. Hardware encoding tuner card
2. A good codec for software decoding

The hardware encoding will allow you to do things like timeshift and watch live tv while recording, all at the highest recording quality. If you use software decoding for your recordings, like many people, then you'll need a good codec. Two of the best are the NVDVD and Sonic decoders.

Beyond those two things some minor software tuning may be needed. Also, if you have a partition for the shows you're recording make sure you format it with NTFS and 64KB block size. That'll help with decoding large file sizes, like movies and/or sports.

I recommend Hauppauge too.

 

[Daniel]

I think the first poster is on. I thought I had a bad decoder, then I bought another one and had the same results. I was also trying to view it at 1280x1024, once I had it output to a normal tv it looked fine.

 

[Mutilator]

I'm thinking about getting a Compro Videomate Ultra from Newegg.
Review
Vid Cap samples for several cards.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: wexsmith
IMHO, the two key elements of capturing good quality TV:

1. Hardware encoding tuner card
2. A good codec for software decoding

Good, but you left out:

0. A GOOD FEED TO THE TUNER.

No matter what kind of hardware you've got, if your feed is shyte, your signal will reflect that.

- M4H

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: wexsmith
IMHO, the two key elements of capturing good quality TV:

1. Hardware encoding tuner card
2. A good codec for software decoding

Good, but you left out:

0. A GOOD FEED TO THE TUNER.

No matter what kind of hardware you've got, if your feed is shyte, your signal will reflect that.

- M4H

Also, "hardware" encoding is not necessary for good quality (it's highly recommended, though, for ease of use and low CPU load). In fact, the very best results are usually obtained with *software* encoding -- if you have a real fast CPU and the right codecs. As long as the capture hardware is giving you a clean image, you can use filtering software (such as DScaler and ffdshow) combined with a good codec to clean up the raw image even better than current hardware encoders can.

 

[KDOG]

Thanks guys. I'look into the Hauppage PVR150 and that Compro Videomate Ultra...

 

[ribbon13]

Indeed! High-quality cables for the feed are important.

VideoMate TV Ultra

Great video feed. Platinum RG6 Crimp connectors on Carol Command RG6 coax == the best for RF connection.

 

[KDOG]

I'm gonna go for the Compro VideoMate TV Ultra. I get paid Thursday. Whats' the best software to use with it, or is the included software just fine?

 

[Brian23]

I agree with the OP. I own a Radeon All in wonder and a Leadtek WinTV 2000XP and both of them look crapy. Even when I hook up a dvd player with an S-Video cable, they still look crappy. I hope the HDTV tuners that are coming out are gonna be better.

 

[KDOG]

Well, the Compro VideoMate Ultra is on its way. Can't wait to get my grubby paws on it....

 

[Zucarita9000]

ATI Theater 550

 

[airfoil]

This one's easy. Get the PVR 150 from Hauppauge. If you're running XP MCE, get the PVR 150 MCE (does not include a remote, will work off the MCE remote). Don't get misled by the model number - the 150 is among newer cards from the Hauppauge stable and is better than the 250 & 350. If you want to record a channel while you watch another, get the PVR500, its got 2 tuners built in.

Steer clear of the PVR250/350 - these have issues with the driver set.

 

[bovinda]

I've also been really happy with the Hauppauge 150 (I'm using the MCE version). Let us know how the VideoMate works for you though.

 

[Mutilator]

Originally posted by: KDOG
Well, the Compro VideoMate Ultra is on its way. Can't wait to get my grubby paws on it....

Did you get it yet?

 

[KDOG]

Yup, I started another thread about it somewhere. Its fantastic.... picture quality is excellent.

 

[cubby1223]

Agree with all, I've tried out an ATi TV Wonder VE, TV Wonder PCI, & 2 AIW Radeon 9000 Pros. All were terrible. Very grainy display, and on one of the AIWs, the brightness & volume would constantly pulsate.

Been using a PVR250 for video recording now, and couldn't be happier.

 

[Mutilator]

Originally posted by: KDOG
Yup, I started another thread about it somewhere. Its fantastic.... picture quality is excellent.

You started it here.
You just forgot about us.

 

[B00ne]

I just bought a Hauuppauge winTV PVR-150 and found this thread when searching in something to improve picture quality.

Before (still) I had a simple WIntv PCI go ( no hardware mpeg encoder)

Well I am new to hardware encoder cards but I have to say if you want picture quality go with a cheap tuner card with no hardware encoding. My old wintv PCI has a far better picture quality (using dscaler3 as TV program - much better than the hauppauge software) than the PVR150 (Wintv2k or beyondTV)

Well actually i almost think the hardware encoding card have to have a worse picture quality, as there is no way to acces the raw TV data - just the mpeg stream and mpreg after all is a (lossy) compression.

Summary picture quality on hardware mpeg card is ok but looks very washed out when compared side by side with the result of a simple TV card with dscaler3

 

[oogabooga]

I have a PVR-250 and i think the picture quality is fine. I don't record off a digital cable/satellite feed so the quality i see on my comp is about the same quality i see on my tv.
Granted i'm not the most picky when it comes to quality, but i can sit in a recliner 10 feet away and watch tv just fine off a 17in crt (well.. until the glare hits >< damn windows).

Plus : i never really notice when my computer is recording. I generally try to avoid intense application when TV recording, but a couple of times i forget and am still playing CS:S only to find an episode of something or other had been recorded. *shrugs*
I wasn't able to get my tv and cs:s to run together on a dual monitor setup though =\ but i guess i can't have everything.

 

[0roo0roo]

think tomshardware.com had a comparison

 

[jones377]

I have the PVR-150 and I think the image quality is pretty good. It's better than the ASUS card I had before.

But I can't watch sports with them. Ice Hockey or Football, all looks blurry and crappy. Anyone else have this problem with these cards? Movies work just fine but sports is crap. Is there any way to fix this?

 

[OhHenry]

Is it me or my AIW tv tuner is crap? Also, I'm using cable internet so I have to use a splitter to watch tv and use the internet and it looks like the picture got worst (more grainy) anybody with similar problem? Too be honest, I think it might be the cables. Might need to take a trip to radioshack but wait, I know someone at Fry's.