TV tuner options?

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:18 pm

Hi all,

this may be in the wrong forum, so feel free to move it if it is..

Anyway, a TV card has been on my list for some time, even more so now we don't have a video recorder. I've just started looking into what's available and I'm utterly bewildered by the choice! I've heard Hauppage are good, but I'm pretty ignorant about the rest.

Budget'll be at most $100 US equivalent and I'll be recording from a Sky box and playing back on my TV (I guess with an S-video lead from my graphics card?).

Any advice would be much appreciated!

cheers
matt

Bob_the_lost · Post by **Bob_the_lost** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:33 pm

Hauppage make good hardware, but their software is bloody horrific. Download a 3rd party (there are freeware ones out there) software system for it before you even try using the crap they bundle with it. Also log into thier forums so you can find out how the hell to get it to install at all.

I will not be buying another hauppage card again, too much hastle for the benifit.

Whoa! You'll be using a sky box to convert to an analoge signal? That means you can go for a much cheaper card than the current generation, which are almost all DVB tuners...

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:49 pm

thanks Bob - any ideas for analogue cards with hardware encoding/ decoding? Would it be worth going for a digital card anyway, in case I need it in the future?

Shame about Hauppage, they were the only ones I could find decent info for

dddibley · Post by **dddibley** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:51 pm

I have the Hauppauge PVR-250 and use it most every day. Very good third party support. I've never had a problem with the main programs (WinTV2000+Scheduler).. the rest is crap.

The PVR-150 (newer model) should be in your price range. Would recommend the PCI version.. USB can be a bear to keep installed. Here's the definitive site for the PVR. Check out the forums.. they're a valuable resource if you own one.

http://www.shspvr.com/

ddd

mb2 · Post by **mb2** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:00 pm

just fyi, i dont know about Nz but here digital telly is broadcast in mpeg2, so if u get a digital card then it doesn't have to do any encoding, just saves it straight as in mpeg2. of course its not as space-efficient as mpeg4, div-X etc.. but u'd struggle to find anything with hardware encoding of anything better than mpeg2 IIRC.

u'd get better quality with a digital card, but (it certainly used to be the case that) getting pay channels is fairly impossible.. and of course u'll be able to connect vcr, etc etc with an analogue card which u cant with a digital one.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:16 pm

crumbs, I'm getting more confused the more I read

thanks for the link dibley, checking it out right now. Definately going PCI - I've enough cables at the back of my PC without adding more than neccessary!

mb2 - thanks for the info. I'm more after a hardware encoder/ decoder to avoid maxing out my CPU if any en/decoding's needed. I'll be recording off a Sky box (free TV here is pretty crap) so I don't know if that'll be neccessary. If I get a digital card would that prevent me from hooking up a VCR to it? Didn't know that.

yours confusedly

dddibley · Post by **dddibley** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:39 pm

Saving MPEG2 input directly would be sweet. I have the digital box connected to the Svideo input on the PVR.. so effectively I'm capturing MPEG2 content back to MPEG2. Can notice the difference in quality on poor channel signals, but luckily the movie channels are fine

ddd

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:58 pm

What kind of hardware do you have right now?

I have a Powercolor Theater Pro 550 PCI-Express 1x. I'm using it with ATI's MMC, but it should work with beyond TV and the like. It's fully Windows media center compatible.

There are other cheaper Theater 550 cards for the PCI bus as well.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:31 pm

dddibley - so does that mean I can skip the more expensive hardware-encoding cards and get a cheaper, more basic card? I'll be doing very little video capture from anything other than the Sky box so I'm getting the feeling I'll be paying for something I don't need if I get a WinTV 150 or equivalent.

Sizzle - Skt A Sempron 2400 on NF7-S, 120GB HDD and other bits and bobs, not exactly bleeding edge hardware though it's currently more than enough for now. I have seen Theater 550 cards, though there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of info on them - it'll need to be for the PCI bus too, no PCI-E sadly.

dddibley · Post by **dddibley** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:47 pm

I was refering to mb2 and Bob_the_lost's claim that the signal can be saved as a MPEG2 stream with a DVB tuner? I'd be all over that if it was available with the digital service here. It would be like camcorder DV video through a Firewire port. No compression needed.. it's a simple file transfer.

Was going to comment on the PVR (standard) tuner.. only channels 2 through 54 are available out of 150 here. As mentioned, I use the digital cable box to Svideo (and Composite to the VIVO card) to get all the channels. The MMC works OK.. but the disadvantage is it has macrovision built into the drivers. The PVR will bypass that. (at least the 250 model does anyway

)

ddd

Bob_the_lost · Post by **Bob_the_lost** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:58 pm

You can record mpeg 2 with the DVB-T tuners in the UK, although it's not normal mpeg2, it needs to be transcoded slightly for the most part (or you do with my card).