I'm lost. So what specific tv tuner would you guys recommend?
Has anyone tried playing a console on any Hauppauge WinTV? Whether it's the PVR 150, 250, 350, or 500?
Has anyone tried playing a console on any Hauppauge WinTV? Whether it's the PVR 150, 250, 350, or 500?
I did recommend you one (two, actually) - and yes, I do play console games through my LifeView card regularly. The key here is keeping the lag low - with a PCI card, you do that by turning all CPU driven image enhancing off, letting the TV card pump the raw original video stream straight through to the graphics card.
Gillbot
Lifer
- Jan 11, 2001
- 28,830
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other than the fact I have no idea what I'm looking at or for.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815100129
that looks like my kind of price though.
TV tuners depend highly on the underlying software/drivers, seems more so than any other piece of hardware to produce a quality image.
Hauppauge cards are the best.
Exceptional drivers for all cards, and exceptional stable software. Integrated Dscaler (best deinterlacing software available) algorithms greatly increase image quality, without needing a specific hardware chip.. or having to use the horribly unintuitive Dscaler software on another random brand.
Just get the well supported Hauppauge lineup and thank me in another life. Theyve been around for years and dont just make one card like that Leadtek (meaning support will be less).
They supported XP from Day 1 of its release.. they will be supporting Vista as well even for their old cards.. who knows about those brands that dont make tv tuners their core market.
Hauppauge cards are the best.
Exceptional drivers for all cards, and exceptional stable software. Integrated Dscaler (best deinterlacing software available) algorithms greatly increase image quality, without needing a specific hardware chip.. or having to use the horribly unintuitive Dscaler software on another random brand.
Just get the well supported Hauppauge lineup and thank me in another life. Theyve been around for years and dont just make one card like that Leadtek (meaning support will be less).
They supported XP from Day 1 of its release.. they will be supporting Vista as well even for their old cards.. who knows about those brands that dont make tv tuners their core market.
Here's someone with a narrow world view ... Hauppauge software, to this day, is plagued with detail problems that have been around forever and which they don't bother fix - just try running them in Overlay mode on an integrated-graphics mainboard. Leadtek doesn't "just make one card", and at least they still do care about their product after they took your money. Pinnacle is doing even worse than Hauppauge in this regard.
Deinterlacers are always software - Leadtek's and LifeView's software do have them as well, and you can also use 3rd party applications like DScaler or ChrisTV.
And besides, none of the aforementioned TV card makers even has alpha versions of 64-bit drivers.
Deinterlacers are always software - Leadtek's and LifeView's software do have them as well, and you can also use 3rd party applications like DScaler or ChrisTV.
And besides, none of the aforementioned TV card makers even has alpha versions of 64-bit drivers.
Yes. You will want a tuner with hardware MPEG2. It is the difference between dropped frames and no dropped frames or 70% CPU vs. 15% CPU usage.
I have the Hauppauge PVR 350. I did have initial capture issues because of the Intel HyperThreading issue. If you have a P4 with HT, you'll have to disable it in the BIOS in order to keep the software from locking up. WinXP SP2 is supposed to solve the problem and, so far, I haven't had a lockup YET. I am also afraid to try it out since I don't want to risk missing my recordings. I'll try it out during the rerun season. :lol
You MUST also follow the installation instructions to a T. The software MUST be installed in a specific order and their removal tool MUST be used when upgrading from previous versions.
I JUST ordered a VisionTek Theater 550 Pro card for $85 minus $20 MIR. It too has hardware MPEG2 and is bundled with BeyondTV ( since ATi's software suite sucks ).
If I can still find this thread this weekend, I'll give my impressions of this tuner in comparison to the Hauppauge cards.
Someone asked about the Hauppauge 150/250/350/500 cards. They ALL have hardware MPEG2. Hauppauge recently revamped their lineup so be careful when buying these cards as you MIGHT get an older version that is missing features of the newer cards. I think the 250 is being discontinued as these features ( video input ) have been added to the 150. The 150 does not have the FM radio tuner. The 350 has the FM radio tuner plus a different remote. The 500 is just two 150s slapped together for dual-tuning.
I'm looking into buying a TV tuner. I have no idea on these except I read the review recently posted here. I will be using it to watch and record TV and my source is cable analog. Also, I might use it connect game consoles to it. . From the review, it seems like the one with Theater 550 chips gives the best image when using analog?
Peter: I don't get this, could you explain more please? Also, you noted that Philips chips give better contrast? So does that mean they have better contrast than the Theater 550 chips? Also, how do the lifeview cards compare?
Peter and jevans64, or any others that are knowledgable in TV tuners,
would you guys mind picking out a couple TV tuners for me from here
Please list the best one in there and the best one under 100, thanks!
Peter: I don't get this, could you explain more please? Also, you noted that Philips chips give better contrast? So does that mean they have better contrast than the Theater 550 chips? Also, how do the lifeview cards compare?
Peter and jevans64, or any others that are knowledgable in TV tuners,
would you guys mind picking out a couple TV tuners for me from here
Please list the best one in there and the best one under 100, thanks!
The Philips chip gives better contrast than the old Conexant 878 which is the usual suspect in that price range. Newer chips from Conexant and others are up to par with the Philips.
The silicon tuner is universal, all-norms, what's there to explain? The video processor chip is and has ever been multinorm anyway.
The Lifeview cards? Which one? The current ones have Philips main chip and silicon tuner too, the old ones use "tin can" single-norm tuner. The FlyTV Platinum is how I found out about the drastic difference in image quality from not using an 878 main chip. They're hard to get in retail, unless you spot one of the zillion OEM badge jobs that actually are Lifeview cards, or pay the price they're asking in their own retail online shop.
The silicon tuner is universal, all-norms, what's there to explain? The video processor chip is and has ever been multinorm anyway.
The Lifeview cards? Which one? The current ones have Philips main chip and silicon tuner too, the old ones use "tin can" single-norm tuner. The FlyTV Platinum is how I found out about the drastic difference in image quality from not using an 878 main chip. They're hard to get in retail, unless you spot one of the zillion OEM badge jobs that actually are Lifeview cards, or pay the price they're asking in their own retail online shop.
sorry about the silicon tuner thing, I didn't know anything about TV tuners when I posted that. So it just means you can use it anywhere in the world right?
I looked at Lifeview's site, but couldn't find out what chip the FlyDVB-T Duo uses? Do you know if it uses the SAA7135 chip?
I looked at Lifeview's site, but couldn't find out what chip the FlyDVB-T Duo uses? Do you know if it uses the SAA7135 chip?
nevermind that, I emailed their support although you can still answer if you know =)
I wonder how will the SAA7135 chip compare to the theater 550 though?
Since I'm in Canada, I can only find cards with the theater 550. However, I have a friend going to Taiwan for Christmas, I can get her to get Lifeview card for me. I'm just wondering if it's worth the wait.
I wonder how will the SAA7135 chip compare to the theater 550 though?
Since I'm in Canada, I can only find cards with the theater 550. However, I have a friend going to Taiwan for Christmas, I can get her to get Lifeview card for me. I'm just wondering if it's worth the wait.
Yes, you can use that TV tuner card for analog TV anywhere in the world and get the complete picture, w/ color, stereo audio and all.
The Theater-550 chip, from reviews, appears to have very good outgoing image quality. So if you can get those easily, why not try. Finding alternate software (or Linux support if that matters to you) for that ATi chip will be hard, whereas the Philips stuff is well known and supported by now.
The Theater-550 chip, from reviews, appears to have very good outgoing image quality. So if you can get those easily, why not try. Finding alternate software (or Linux support if that matters to you) for that ATi chip will be hard, whereas the Philips stuff is well known and supported by now.
I have another noob question,
if I get a card like FlyDVB-T Duo, will I be able to watch digital TV without the stb?
if I get a card like FlyDVB-T Duo, will I be able to watch digital TV without the stb?
Guys Guys Guys! He says he wants to play a PS2 on his computer also. Any tuner card with a built in mpeg encoder will not work because there's a slight delay. I've tried it and it's annoying. Imagine pressing attack in Tekken but not actually seeing the attack till a second later.
TenEgg,
For ur quest, this may help!
3 TV tuner cards comparision
But if you don't want to use the card as a PVR for recording, and just want to see TV and connect your PS2 to the monitor, i would recommend Kworld External LCD box. It is on sale in buy.com for around $55. I used it for a while and kind of liked it. It comes with a Remote, u can have S-video,RCA and PC monitor input and VGA output. No hassels with Software encoding/decoding. Also resolution is far high. the image quality is great! But it doesn't have FM though!
I bought it and returned it because, i wanted it for my laptop too. But it was hard for me to send it back! I loved it ! It supports all PAL,NTSC etc. i tested them.. My camcorder is PAL and i can see color on the monitor.
For ur quest, this may help!
3 TV tuner cards comparision
But if you don't want to use the card as a PVR for recording, and just want to see TV and connect your PS2 to the monitor, i would recommend Kworld External LCD box. It is on sale in buy.com for around $55. I used it for a while and kind of liked it. It comes with a Remote, u can have S-video,RCA and PC monitor input and VGA output. No hassels with Software encoding/decoding. Also resolution is far high. the image quality is great! But it doesn't have FM though!
I bought it and returned it because, i wanted it for my laptop too. But it was hard for me to send it back! I loved it ! It supports all PAL,NTSC etc. i tested them.. My camcorder is PAL and i can see color on the monitor.
External boxes are pre-compressing, and that means lag hell. Not good for gaming. Get a PCI thing - PCMCIA if it's a laptop, because that too is PCI.
Peter,
I donno whether you r talking abt usb 2.0 externals. But i m talking abt hardware externals.
One of the reasons i thought i would go for an external box is that, it doesn't involve any CPU/memory cycles and doesn't degard w.r.t to the performance of CPU/memory. and sampling will be real-time.
Do you mean to say, as it is sampling there could be some lag? even in that case software based conversions(I mean to say PC based conversions) taking CPU cycles off, will suck isn't it? rather than hardware based solutions?
Another benefit you get with external boxes is that, you don't need to switch on CPU at all.. the CPU noise from the fans can be cutoff.
You could be right, but i m trying to find out which would be efficient in case of conversions(ADC&DAC)!
The other thing about this kworld external tuner is, even if you had switched off the tuner and you have connected VGA in, signal passes through VGA out, which means, it by passes the conversion process!
I donno whether you r talking abt usb 2.0 externals. But i m talking abt hardware externals.
One of the reasons i thought i would go for an external box is that, it doesn't involve any CPU/memory cycles and doesn't degard w.r.t to the performance of CPU/memory. and sampling will be real-time.
Do you mean to say, as it is sampling there could be some lag? even in that case software based conversions(I mean to say PC based conversions) taking CPU cycles off, will suck isn't it? rather than hardware based solutions?
Another benefit you get with external boxes is that, you don't need to switch on CPU at all.. the CPU noise from the fans can be cutoff.
You could be right, but i m trying to find out which would be efficient in case of conversions(ADC&DAC)!
The other thing about this kworld external tuner is, even if you had switched off the tuner and you have connected VGA in, signal passes through VGA out, which means, it by passes the conversion process!
Try eBay. I doubt any shop in the US will stock them, though Froogle did turn this up:
http://www.mobileplanet.com/product.asp?code=117162&partner=IMFRO
The Duo has been available from various LifeView importers here in Germany, e.g. www.tv4pc.de or the BitServices24 people who sell through ebay.de ... the latter have recently added the Trio, and also carry the DVB-S and notebook (cardbus) cards.
Some of them are also available on retail shelves like mediamarkt, and rebadged as KYE Genius, Typhoon, or Gericom also on Amazon, through Aldi, or included with off-the-shelf PCs and notebooks.
Like I said: No problem over here
You mean standalone tuners that connect directly to a monitor? These work exactly like your normal TV. The drawbacks in those are, you can't record using the computer, and the computer's own output is looped through, making it blurrier than it'd have to be.
Does anyone know if the FlyDVB products receive regular old analog FM radio broadcasts? I don't see it on their spec list.
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