What exactly do I need to do this?

[NakaNaka]

Right now I have a P4 1.3 with 256 megs of RAM and a Geforce2.

I want to do basiclly what an All in Wonder does, hook my comp up to my TV hit a button on my comp and everything on the screen gets recorded to my computer.

Besdies needing more HD space what do I need? Is there anything else out there besides getting an All in Wonder becuase I already have a Gfx card.

Thanks

-phil

 

[Yzzim]

You'll need an AIW if you want to record TV to your computer.
You can play TV on your computer if you have a Video In port on your video card and a Line In port (for audio) on your sound card. Don't think you'll be able to record it though.
I've got an ATI Radeon (non-AIW) and I can record TV shows, but I cannot pause live tv and record at a specific time. Pretty much everything else though.

 

[ObiDon]

How about something like the ATI TV Wonder, or one of these Hauppage boards?

It's kind of nice having video capture as a seperate add-in card because you don't have to replace it when you upgrade your 2D/3D card

 

[NakaNaka]

hey yzzim what kind of cables do I need to do that??

note: i have a tv, cable box, dvd player and an xbox.

and what kind do i need for the ati tv wonder ... that looks like exactly what i need

 

[Yzzim]

You need to plug the TV/VCR Video Out into the Video In on the AIW/Radeon (a standard RCA Composite Cable, yellow plug). Then you need to hook up the Left/Right Channel Out into the Line In of the sound card. You'll need a cable that turns the Left/Right RCA Cable into a standard 1/8" pluggin for the sound card.
Once you've got it all hooked up, ATI bundles a program that allows you to watch and record TV on your computer.

One of those Hauppage boards would work as well...though it's just a standalone TV card and isn't a video card like the AIW/Radeon is.

 

[NakaNaka]

Well what if I don't want to watch TV on my comp i still want to watch TV on my TV? is that possible??

 

[ObiDon]

My TV wonder is maybe a year or two old so I don't know what's included in the packaging these days. Mine came with everything I needed to set it all up. It even came with an adapter so you could plug in your red/white "RCA" cables into the 1/8" jack on the back of the card! I was surprised at how many cables and extras came with it. I think I picked mine up for around $80. There's a TV-Wonder VE as well which is probably $20-$30 cheaper. I don't know how many differences there are between the two models, but I think the VE doesn't have a stereo TV tuner. I'm not sure if it still can capture in stereo though.

 

[NakaNaka]

that didnt really answer my question if i still want to watch TV on my TV and just record but w/e

How bout this from Nvidia, will it do the trick??

 

[smp]

Okay.. you will need a cable splitter if you want to have coax cable going into your TV wonder (forget about replacing your vid card w/ the AIW) so that you can have a cable going into your comp, and one into your tv. You can also hook up your VCR to it too. Yes, you can watch TV on your TV still.

 

[ObiDon]

I didn't know they sold the personal cinema as a seperate piece! I just keep seeing those MX400 personal cinema cards. Ugh!

As far as watching tv and capturing tv...you mean watch broadcast tv on your tv but capture from your vcr at the same time?

 

[ObiDon]

Hmmm...maybe the personal cinema isn't available as an add-on. The board connected to the breakout box looks like a dual-head MX400 in the picture.

 

[NakaNaka]

its not a VCR it's a DVD ...

and obi no just make it so that whatever is on my tv screen (xbox, cable or dvd) can be recorded

ok fine so thats solved (about the split) next question

a) i have no room on the back of my TV for anything really

b) image quality??

Thanks a lot for all the help guys I just want to make sure I've got it down before I go out and buy it.

 

[smp]

I'm _guessing_ here that the ATI tv wonder uses the same hardware to capture TV as the AIW (which I have) and yes, if that is the case, then your TV quality will be really good, a monitor is much nicer than a TV as far as resolution is concerned.

a) i have no room on the back of my TV for anything really

I don't think I'm understanding you here... I'm not sure you would need any room behind your TV. I'm _guessing_ (again) that the tv wonder comes with a (breakout box?) that will just sit wherever you put it. It's small and purple, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Here there is RCA in, S video in and hifi RCA in.. so you should be okay as far as space is concerned. Anyway, I think that the TV wonder comes with this little gizmo, I don't see why not. I imagine that the TV wonder is just the AIW part as an add on. I don't see why they would use different hardware.

 

[NakaNaka]

no i get the breakout box part but ok you have the card from yoru comp run to your breakout box. Then you have a cable from your cablebox run to your breakout box. Is that all you need? What other actual cables run and from where to where.

 

[ObiDon]

You might get jacked trying to capture from a set-top DVD player because of MacroVision. My old TV-wonder is unaffected by it. However, they could have changed that in newer models.

When it comes to recording whatever isshowing on your TV, the DVD player makes things a little tough. Unless you're the luckiest guy in the world or have a REALLY old vcr, you can't run the DVD player through the vcr because MacroVision will mess your picture up.

Hooking up the VCR/X-Box would be easy though.

 

[smp]

Hmmm.. it looks like I was mistaken. The AIW radeon has these connectors listed (this is the [breakout box?])

"
<B>Connectors
</B>

• 
  <LI>PC monitor: 15-pin VGA
  
  <LI>DVI-I output (VGA monitors connect through DVI-I to VGA adapter - AGP version only)
  
  <LI>Stereo audio, S-video and composite video inputs
  
  <LI>S-video and composite video outputs
  
  <LI>External stereo audio connection to sound card's line input
  
  <LI>Dolby® Digital stereo audio output (S/PDIF)
  "[/i}

The TV wonder does not. I guess it's only good for TV, not video in (which is what you would use to capture from your DVD player via RCA connectors).

 

[smp]

Obi: are you saying that the TV wonder has the breakout box (is that what it's called?) ??? The purple deal with all the connectors? I'm confused now.

 

[smp]

no i get the breakout box part but ok you have the card from yoru comp run to your breakout box. Then you have a cable from your cablebox run to your breakout box. Is that all you need? What other actual cables run and from where to where.

Um.. you wouldn't run your cable from your cable box (you could, but you'd be missing out on the tuner feature on the card)... you'd use a splitter, run one cable to your cable box to watch on your tely, and the other should go right into the back of the card. The breakout box AFAIK is used for video (from vcr/dvd whatever) RCA and stereo hook ups.

edit: so you'd use the splitter before your cable box.

ie;

_________wall_____
..................|
..............splitter
..............|........|
cable box .......TV wonder

see

 

[ObiDon]

The breakout box I was referring to earlier was for the Personal Cinema. The TV-wonder should have all the necessary jacks on the backplate of the card like the one in the picture. Most of the stuff they included with the card was various cables.

 

[NakaNaka]

ok forget the dvd player for now ...

I use the splitter send one cable to the back of my TV and one to the card in my comp. Voila?? I can record? If so that's all I want. The DVD part isn't the most important part.

Now here is a little thing. I have somethign called D-TV (it's cable but its digital) .... So I have like 400 something channels. I see these things are only set up for 125. So can I not do anything with channel 126 on??

 

[smp]

Oh.. okay. I see. So the TV wonder does have a RCA in for the video right? Or is it only a TV tuner? My AIW card has the breakout box and it has RCA in (yellow), RCA in (red + white) and S-video in. So does the TV wonder do video capture too? I mean, from a VCR via RCA cables? Or would you have to use a coax from the VCR?

 

[smp]

I have somethign called D-TV (it's cable but its digital)

Man I don't live in the sticks eh! I mean, just cause I'm Canadian.. we have D-TV here too, we also have this thing called 'satellite'... it's a dish you install on your house and then you watch TV from space. It's pretty neat, you get like four hundred, twenty three thousand, two hundred and eighteen channels.

 

[ObiDon]

smp,

Yep, video capture from coax, RCA, or S-Video. Your choice


Naka Naka,

You could connect your D-TV box and your X-Box to your VCR using RCA cables and the Video 1 and Video 2 inputs on your VCR. Then you could run coax from your VCR to your TV and connect the RCA Video out from your VCR to the TV-Wonder. Then whatever is on your tv should be captureable

 

[smp]

True...

 

[NakaNaka]

I think I'll just run the card to the cable box test that and if that works can go from there

Alright now I am going to find a good place to buy this.

Thanks/.