• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

tv tuner cards, who has one? and which ones are good?

V

Vinfinite

Golden Member
Well i'm thinking about getting a TV tuner card for my pc, i was just wondering if anyone have any first hand experience with one if so what kind and is it good? basic questions like that. I'm Basically looking for personal reviews instead of just solely relying on the reviews on the net. Doesnt really need to be an indept review, just:

What card do you have?
How would you rate it?
Any recommendations?
what kind of features does it have?

you don't really have to answer all of those questions, they're just basically what i'm looking to know. Thanks guys.

again, any info would be great! thank you in advance
 
There are several good TV cards in the market of all kinds. What is your primary use do you think?

I recommend you figure out how you want to use your card, find out what kind of software will work for what you want to use it for....then buy the hardware that is supported and reported to work well in that software.

I have several TV cards myself, and all work very well, but all also have their particular strengths and weaknesses.
 
I am not using a card but I have (4) Hauppauge USB 2 PVRS teamed up with Sage TV on my multimedia system.


Ausm
 
I'm using a Hauppauge Win PVR-500 MCE edition board. It's a great card. Two TV tuners and an FM tuner in one. I recommend it.

I've also read good things about the higher end ATI tuners.
 
The ATI HDTVWonder is the one I am interested in. Anyone have any experiences with it?
 
Have the Hauppauge PVR-250 and it works great. Also run Sage TV with the setup which is far superior to winTV or anything in its class in my opinion.
 
Originally posted by: Tick
Originally posted by: Todd33
I own the PVR-250, great card. I think the 150 is cheaper and as good.
Click to expand...

I also own one. Agreed.
Click to expand...

Hardware encoding and great picture quality.

I dont think you can fault the PVR-250 or the newer and cheaper PVR-150. Software isnt that great but its sufficient.
 
i have tha hauppauge pvr-150, its basically the 250 but newer ( i don't know why they labeled it the 150, that threw me off when i was buying it since bigger numbers are always better). It came with beyond TV 3.5 which is awsome and a firefly remote. it has hardware encoding as well
 
I bought a couple of Hauppauge WinTV-GOs to go with MythTV. They're just basic tuners with no hardware compression or decompression, so they use a bit of CPU. The picture quality isn't top notch; I don't know if that's a cabling problem or EMI inside the computer, or just a poorly made card. They also don't do picture-in-picture very well.
The 250s are supposedly better in all respects. I've also heard good things about the ATI TV-Wonders (but NOT the All-in-Wonders).
 
I've been using the Hauppauge pvr-150 for one month and am very happy with it. I imagine there are better cards out there that cost alot more, but I have yet to find one that does as good a job for under 100 bucks. The picture quality is excellent. If you are looking for a low cost solution to convert vhs tapes to dvd, or record from a cable connection, look no further than this card, this is the real deal.
 
I couldn't find the post but I only recorded the model name KWORLD 7131 which someone said was a good buy because of the good decoder chip. I have no idea how the quality compares to the Hauppage 150 or oft recommended Leadtek.
 
Originally posted by: cabroker
I've been using the Hauppauge pvr-150 for one month and am very happy with it. I imagine there are better cards out there that cost alot more, but I have yet to find one that does as good a job for under 100 bucks. The picture quality is excellent. If you are looking for a low cost solution to convert vhs tapes to dvd, or record from a cable connection, look no further than this card, this is the real deal.
Click to expand...


I have the same card and think the picture quality is terrible. Am I doing something wrong? What are you doing to get excellent picture quality?
 
Originally posted by: govtcheez75
Originally posted by: cabroker
I've been using the Hauppauge pvr-150 for one month and am very happy with it. I imagine there are better cards out there that cost alot more, but I have yet to find one that does as good a job for under 100 bucks. The picture quality is excellent. If you are looking for a low cost solution to convert vhs tapes to dvd, or record from a cable connection, look no further than this card, this is the real deal.
Click to expand...


I have the same card and think the picture quality is terrible. Am I doing something wrong? What are you doing to get excellent picture quality?
Click to expand...

Govtcheez, I simply used the software & drivers that came with it. Perhaps you should try reinstalling the drivers. Also, read the reviews.


 
If you are using Win Xp MCE, I'd recommend the Sapphire Theater 550pro. This card has a digital tuner, unlike the Happuage's everyone is linking. This ATi card has a digital tuner, it provides superior picture quality as well a smaller profile for >$100.

The only con this card has is if you don't use MCE, the provided software blows for any kind of PVR duty.
 
Originally posted by: govtcheez75
Originally posted by: cabroker
I've been using the Hauppauge pvr-150 for one month and am very happy with it. I imagine there are better cards out there that cost alot more, but I have yet to find one that does as good a job for under 100 bucks. The picture quality is excellent. If you are looking for a low cost solution to convert vhs tapes to dvd, or record from a cable connection, look no further than this card, this is the real deal.
Click to expand...


I have the same card and think the picture quality is terrible. Am I doing something wrong? What are you doing to get excellent picture quality?
Click to expand...



that is odd. i'm not jsut saying that because i own the pvr-150 and want to hype it. I think the picture quality on it is great. i havn't used a lot of TV cards but i'm certain that it is much nicer than the win tv usb card i used. www.snapstream.com offers some updates drivers for the wintv-pvr-150 that may help you
 
Separate is better since you can upgrade your video card or tv-tuner by itself. And a Tuner+video card is always going to be a more expensive solution.
 
I never had much interest in having a combined vid card/tuner. Doesn't make any more sense to me than building the sound card into the dvd rom drive.
 
I have a kWorld card and the USB2 PVR Haupauge card. I prefer the internal just for the fact that it is internal, but the usb is nicer if your trying to hook up other devices, like vhs. The Kworld card does not work with my new mb & cpu, I think they have a problem with Nivida chipsets.
 
Originally posted by: Markbnj
The ATI HDTVWonder is the one I am interested in. Anyone have any experiences with it?
Click to expand...

I use an HDTV Wonder. I think its excellent in MCE 2005. Nice seemless integration with the EPG, and nice PQ.

Its best paired with a decent DX9 class graphics card. I've used it with an AIW9700pro, 6800, X800XL and Xpress 200. All but the Xpress 200 onboard graphics worked well with AMD 3000+, the onboard needs a bit more CPU to be viable, the others could be fine on less CPU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top