Watching TV on computer

[bX510]

I have a Radeon 9800 AIW, I was wondering if NVIDIA would be better or ATI.

 

[destrekor]

neither will be as good as a dedicated tv tuner card. the hauppauge pvr-150 performs better, although the best from hauppauge would be the pvr-250 or pvr-350. im assuming you are using windows, so the hd-3000 wouldn't work since there are no windows drivers, and is specialized for high-def.
i'd say ATi's capture cards are better than nVidia's, but that's just from word of mouth. I have never had direct contact with either company's capture card models.

 

[justlnluck]

I enjoy watching HDTV with my Fusion5 card.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: destrekor
neither will be as good as a dedicated tv tuner card. the hauppauge pvr-150 performs better, although the best from hauppauge would be the pvr-250 or pvr-350. im assuming you are using windows, so the hd-3000 wouldn't work since there are no windows drivers, and is specialized for high-def.
i'd say ATi's capture cards are better than nVidia's, but that's just from word of mouth. I have never had direct contact with either company's capture card models.

ATI's capture cards (The AIW) are better than Nvidia's capture cards.

However, you have the hauppauge cards mixed up. The 150 replaced the 250. The 350 is the higher end model of the 150. If you need an HD card, well, you could look at the HD-Wonder from ATI, but i have heard it is buggy.

-Kevin

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: destrekor
neither will be as good as a dedicated tv tuner card. the hauppauge pvr-150 performs better, although the best from hauppauge would be the pvr-250 or pvr-350. im assuming you are using windows, so the hd-3000 wouldn't work since there are no windows drivers, and is specialized for high-def.
i'd say ATi's capture cards are better than nVidia's, but that's just from word of mouth. I have never had direct contact with either company's capture card models.

ATI's capture cards (The AIW) are better than Nvidia's capture cards.

However, you have the hauppauge cards mixed up. The 150 replaced the 250. The 350 is the higher end model of the 150. If you need an HD card, well, you could look at the HD-Wonder from ATI, but i have heard it is buggy.

-Kevin

i thought the 250 was a nuked version of the 350 and the 150 was a newer version of the 250... i have heard that the 150 has quite a bit of issues and that the 350 still trumps everything with few to no issues.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

nvidia have capture cards?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
nvidia have capture cards?

Yeah, they weren't very good though.

There was an announcement on the front page (the news part over to the right) about them making new ones. It was a messed up article as it made it sound like nVidia was the first company to come up with a dual tuner card, and that they just now did it (even though they had one for about a year before that and Hauppage makes one).

Not sure about the PVR-150/250/350. I justk now that the 150 was basically a smaller version of the 250 as far as features go, and that the 350 was better (although not quite sure how). The 500 was the dual-tuner one based on the 250, or maybe the 150 I believe.

 

[rbV5]

*AIW9800 has very good PQ for watching TV.

*Most recent ATI or Nvidia cards work perfectly fine for watching TV with an additional Tuner card. The newest cards feature Purevideo and AVIVO have advanced video decoder features.

*VIVO cards from either ATI or Nvidia will allow you to hook up your cable box, analog cable feed, sat dish ect to watch TV on your PC.

*TV Tuners come from a variety of vendors both hardware and software encoders.

*The Hauppage 150/250/350 are essentially the same, the 150 is newer and cheaper, the 350 features a nearly useless hardware decoder TV output otherwise is the same as the others. The 500 features dual analog tuners. All work best w/ a decent software like SageTV/BTV or with MCE 2005.

*Nvidia TV tuners; hardware: NVTV has single and dual tuner models; software: personal cinema was discontinued after the 5700 model.

*ATI software tuners: AIW = best all purpose single card solution, TV Wonder....mostly craptastic. Hardware; eHome Wonder uses same hardware encoder as hauppage 150/250/350 but less software support. great for SageTV and MCE 2005, discontinued. Theater 550 cards are excellent, arguably the best analog hardware encoder cards. Best for MCE 2005 and other PVR softwares.

Then there are a variety of excellent solutions worth researching. Leadtek makes popular software tuners that are perfectly good for watching TV, I see Peter recommend Lifeview often as well.

Hardware encoder cards are more suited for PVR duties than simply watching, although they are fine for watching as well, just probably overkill. They really offer not much over software encoder for just watching, and are generally poor for console input because of the output delay.

 

[bX510]

Okay, So i am using my computer to watch cable. I am using composite for the cable connection. Why is it so fuzzy?

EDIT: Is it because i am doing it wrong? I have it set to All-In-Wonder, then i add channels.

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: destrekor
[

i thought the 250 was a nuked version of the 350 and the 150 was a newer version of the 250... i have heard that the 150 has quite a bit of issues and that the 350 still trumps everything with few to no issues.

The 250 was the single tuner high end model, the 150 is the cheaper model with more issues. The 350 has video out and issues with that. The 500 is the dual tuner 150, agiain the image quality is less than the 250 which was their best card but cost the most to make.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: bX510
Okay, So i am using my computer to watch cable. I am using composite for the cable connection. Why is it so fuzzy?

EDIT: Is it because i am doing it wrong? I have it set to All-In-Wonder, then i add channels.

If it is fuzzy then that seems to be a problem with the cable line running into your house. You would have to call your cable company.

The 250 was the single tuner high end model, the 150 is the cheaper model with more issues. The 350 has video out and issues with that. The 500 is the dual tuner 150, agiain the image quality is less than the 250 which was their best card but cost the most to make.

No. The 150 and 250 IIRC were identical. The only differences being an improved chipset, and a smaller manufacturing process for the 150 (Which resulted in a cheaper MSRP). The 350 was the dual tuner version of the 150.

-Kevin

 

[bX510]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: bX510
Okay, So i am using my computer to watch cable. I am using composite for the cable connection. Why is it so fuzzy?

EDIT: Is it because i am doing it wrong? I have it set to All-In-Wonder, then i add channels.

If it is fuzzy then that seems to be a problem with the cable line running into your house. You would have to call your cable company.

The 250 was the single tuner high end model, the 150 is the cheaper model with more issues. The 350 has video out and issues with that. The 500 is the dual tuner 150, agiain the image quality is less than the 250 which was their best card but cost the most to make.

No. The 150 and 250 IIRC were identical. The only differences being an improved chipset, and a smaller manufacturing process for the 150 (Which resulted in a cheaper MSRP). The 350 was the dual tuner version of the 150.

-Kevin

Are you sure? It works perfectly on the other T.V.s

 

[justlnluck]

Bx510, SD programming will always look fuzzy on a computer monitor (including CRT and LCD). This is because you sit closer to the screen and the superior picture accuracy of the monitor reveal all of the defects in an analog broadcast. That is why I recommend getting the Fusion5. I watch all the local channels in HD on my monitor and wouldn't be able to tolerate watching anything less. I am accustomed to seeing everything crystal clear on my monitor. Television viewing should be no different.

 

[mikeford]

I have an OLD AIW Radeon and watching TV is fine, only trouble I have is sometimes the software would crash or hang.

My picture quality using the coax direct cable input and tuning the first 100ish channel that are still analog is very sharp, but I have seen herringbone patterns at times.

If the picture is fuzzy, most likely your are doing something basic wrong.

BTW excellent picture quality on a computer has been around a LONG time, I used to watch tv on my Mac II 16 years ago (the trick was the video never left the card, just got overlayed on the normal video or some such).