TV Tuner card questions

[Kaijufan]

I have a few questions, some of them not about the tuner card but related. Sorry if this isn't the right fourm.
For my AP English class we need to do a final project. I talked with my teacher, and see agreed to a Red vs. Blue type of movie.
I've decided to get an external TV Capture card. I'm thinking something like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-160-024&depa=0
would work for me but I want to make sure that it will. If anyone else has used this card, or knows of a better one in the same price range ($50-60) please recommend it.

Is there any decent free video editing software? All I would need to do is cut off the top and bottom of everything, edit the clips, add in the recordings, and add cards and text (credits). I'm not going to spend $700 for a program I'm going to use once, so if there isn't anything decent I'll just borrow Premiere from a friend.

Also, anyone know of a program I would use to record people? I have the UT2k4 logitech headset, which I guess will work for a mic (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[BlueWeasel]

As far as video editing goes, I use MPEG Video Wizard and it works great, IMHO. I use my Leadtek card to capture TV shows in MPEG2 high quality format, and use the Wizard to crop out commericals. It can be used to create the clips you want and reorganize them how you want.

I think there is a 30-day trial version.

 

[Peter]

External, USB attached, will always provide inferior quality to internal cards. On the other hand, being on low-bandwidth USB forces the externals to do the MPEG compression inside the box, not on the computer's processor.

If you want best recording quality, you need to go with an internal PCI card, capture uncompressed, do your editing, and then, on the final cut, MPEG-ize. If you do the (lossy) MPEG at the first stage, you put the biggest data loss into the first step - and that's, by general rules of data processing, Not Good.

Even if I start sounding like a parrot already, consider this for a good PCI TV card for best capture quality and international all-standard TV compatibility (!):

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=15-118-105&depa=0

 

[Kaijufan]

I can't really get an internal card because my motherboard shares an IRQ assignment with the AGP slots and most of the PCI slots, and my videocard can't share IRQ assignments.
All I would use the card for besides this project would be recording TV shows I like, so it really doesn't need to be a great card.

 

[Peter]

You've fallen for support bullsh*t. Of course can any modern PCI or AGP card and their drivers share an IRQ. If something's not working, then certainly not because of THAT.

 

[Traire]

Yeah, IRQ sharing shouldnt prevent you from using PCI slots. If you do get errors or some form of incompatability, simply move it to a different PCI slot, that will usually fix things. You can also go into the motherboard bios and disable things like COM ports (almost nobody uses COM ports anymore) and Serial ports (only need this if you use a serial port printer) if your not using them, that way the system doesnt assign those devices IRQ's. I havnt had an IRQ conflict since my pre- Athlon Thunderbird days...

 

[Peter]

Even that is old news. Current systems don't use the same IRQ lines for PCI as for the legacy interfaces - so disabling COM ports and the likes does absolutely nothing.

I'll say it again: When we're talking PCI(-ish) devices, there is no such thing as an IRQ conflict. Driver bugs, yes, but the IRQ conflict as such is an urban myth.

 

[Kaijufan]

Lol, I guess the guys at Sapphire tech support had no idea what they were talking about. I wonder why the K8V SE Deluxe manual would warn about needing to get cards with drivers that can share IRQ assignments.
Now I'm going to have to look at internal cards. I still might get an external card, as I have a laptop that I might use it with.
Thanks for the help everyone. If anyone has any further comments or answers to my other questions, feel free to answer them.

 

[tkc204]

im done with tv tuners, im looking to just by a LCD monitor built in tv tuner. I had a wintv picture was okay, and the ATI HDTV tuner which is junk. With LCD prices so cheap you can get one with tv fairly cheap now a days. Sharp makes a nice Wide screen lcd monitor with built in tv tuner, but doesnt support hdtv.. but its like 350 if u look around. I am considering to buy it.

 

[Kaijufan]

Well, after a few false starts (at first I had the headset plugged in to the headphone slot. D'oh) I got logitech headset to record, so I won't have to buy a mic.
Anyone know how big that MPEG Video Wizard program is? I only have 56k, so I'll make a friend download it for me if it's too big.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Kaijufan
Lol, I guess the guys at Sapphire tech support had no idea what they were talking about. I wonder why the K8V SE Deluxe manual would warn about needing to get cards with drivers that can share IRQ assignments.

As I said, support bull. Manuals and websites are full of it. It's very effective (for the support hotline). It sounds techy enough to make the customer go away for at least a week, while he uselessly tries to "solve the IRQ conflict", screwing his system up further than it ever was. Upon next call, demand the OS be reinstalled, next round.

Unfortunately people are indoctrinated by this enough to have the "IRQ conflict" thrown in on EVERY thread wherein some piece of hardware isn't working as expected.

Heck, I've even had $10k business trips to half a world away to prove to customers on site that what they're seeing is a driver bug not an "IRQ conflict".

The mainboard manual is just covering their arse. Being capable of IRQ sharing is a MANDATORY feature of everything PCI (and family), and has been ever since PCI first showed up over 12 years ago. So if it says "PCI" or "AGP" on the box, it has to be capable. Card makers who STILL don't get that right well and truly deserve getting their stuff shoved where the sun don't shine. Without the anti-static bag.