prinsipe

Guys I need a little help here. I am planning to buy a TV tuner card which will be primarily used to record TV shows (so it has to be crisp and clear). I am Choosing between lifeview products and pinnacle products, but if you have other suggestions its always welcome.

With your help I want these items be answered (please......):

1. Is there a big difference in performance between an external and internal card?

2. How is the videocard gonna affect the performance of the tuner card (minimum requirements and recommended)

3. What kind of Video card do I need?

4. Proper setup so that I achieve TV-like picture quality (hardware setup which includes the soundcard, video card, and the tuner card).


I hope you can help me decide, thanks in advance.....

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Hipster Doofus

For me the issue wasn't what card to buy but the reception. I can only use mine watching video unless I want to look sideways while holding the antenna.

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Zedric

1. No idea. But I'd think no.
2. Not at all, unless it's a reealy crappy old PCI or something.
3. See above.
4. If you mean regular TV (and not HDTV) I think any sound or video card will do. The tuner card shouldn't be the entirey cheapest of course, but I'm not too well knowledged about tuner cards, so I can't really recommend any.

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LeeJend

1). Yes, but may not be an issue for you. The external may be bandwidth limited (especially USB) when trying to get really high resolution. That means more compression which means blurrier images. On the other hand you may have problems with internal cards getting interference (static, ghosting etc). The interference thing can only be checke witht he actua uit in your PC.

2). No interaction between video and tuner cards.

3). Pretty much anything will be compatible with the tuner card.

4. Sound has never been an issue for me. Decent on board or a cheap SB Live work fine. I have about given up with recorded video quality on the <$100 cards. I'm not sure if it's a reception issue picking the signal off my internal cable system, if it's the electronic noise inside the PC, or if the video is just overcompressed to fit on the HD. Tried and didn't like - an old (very) ATI All in wonder, Leadtek Winfast 2000, Avermedia.

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prinsipe

Thanks for the info, rep. added

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LeeJend

NP, been looking for an acceptable capture card for 3 years. The Winfast is ok for watching TV on the PC but the captured files look a little blurry. And considering past experience, before I shell out $100-200 for a capture card I want to see some files it made.

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prinsipe

went for lifeview, works fine.....even the recorded files looks decent.....

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desie

I bought this on Thursday night at 4:50pm, was here next day .

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=17332

It is really good! It's PCI and I have a Geforce 2 that craps out on anything 3D so graphics card is not really an issue. It's more about your processing power and ram for recording, as well as hard drive space.

This card is great, it's cheap and works will with my hi8 camcorder, game consoles and VHS player, plus it's good for TV and Radio. Records really well! Glad you bought yours though, was just saying this incase anyone else is viewing.

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jpom

1. What Lee Said

2&3. While the video card doesn't really intereact with the tuner card the same can't be said for the turner cards program. Some programs won't run or need to be run certain ways with older video cards, or ones that may not support overlay etc. Although don't know how many of them are floating around now days.

4. As for sound cards, unless you are using an external tuner you don't even need one, I used to record of one computer without a sound card and play back on another.

I've been through a Creative digital vcr, avermedia usb300, ati tv wonder remote, and a happauge pvr250.

The creative was great, software was fantastic, but resolution was low (640x480). Back then I never used anything higher then 800x600 though so it wasn't really a problem.

The avermedia was an extranel, quality was somewhat lesser then I was hoping, and software sucked.

ATI, nice features, good quality, but very finicky software. Eg. would not record if computer was locked (which is a must for me). 70% of the time the program would crash when trying to record even when the computer was unlocked.

Hauppage is the one I'm using now. The recording software was very buggy (I have a record consisting of about 30 messages each way between myself and a happauge support technician regarding this and the fact that they are aware of it). I also found the quality recorded by their program to be lacking. Finally I have tried the happauge in a media center PC, I have found MCE 2005's TV recording portion to be quite possibly the best I have used. It never misses a recording, and the quality is probably as good as I have ever seen from a TV Recording program. It's just too bad they don't offer a TV recording component for XP Pro, etc.

*edit*

Guess he already decided on one, oh well just a bit more info for people.

Kush

i tried some lifeview products, i would stay away from them, pinnacle is prbably much better

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