Opinions on a tv card.

bretttp1

HI all

Does anyone have this tv card :

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=325502

Just wondering what people thought of it.

bretttp1

bretttp1 wrote:

HI all

Does anyone have this tv card :

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=325502

Just wondering what people thought of it.

Edit to Post:

If nobody has the above tv card, any suggestions for one, at that price point?

maceocc2

hauppauge 150 or 150 MCE are quite easy to manage. software is good. I use it for NTL digital and never had a problem. If komplett.ie dont have it you can definitely get it from elara.ie

Ghost Train

I would also say to look at the hauppauge cards, while not perfect and maybe a bit more expensive, the support and software updates are very good with the hardwares normally very good. Have had 4 hauppauge cards over the years. Hardware encoding is worth getting too, although with digital tv (dvb-t), it mightnt be such a factor these days

bretttp1

What about this one http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=320418 from Hauppauge, does it matter that I'm running XP pro as its MCE?

Tom Dunne

No, it doesn't matter. MCE runs within XP, so you will be fine.

Great price for that card. As a logn time Hauppauge user, I would have no problem recommending products from that company. Their software applications are utterly crap, though (i.e. their own software that allows you watch TV). Not a big deal really.

Ghost Train

Am I right in thinking the MCE versions come with no remote control? I think thats the differance, so if thats important you might want look for the normal version of the card

bretttp1

eolhc wrote:

Am I right in thinking the MCE versions come with no remote control? I think thats the differance, so if thats important you might want look for the normal version of the card

Good point eolhc, I never thought of that, I'll have to check that out.

J-blk

eolhc wrote:

Am I right in thinking the MCE versions come with no remote control? I think thats the differance, so if thats important you might want look for the normal version of the card

I can confirm that Eolhc is right. I've had a few Hauppauge cards over the years and the MCE version is simply the version of that card that has no IR receiver or remote bundled with since these would exist in your MCE PC anyway. To be honest, having XP MCE is better, since the remote and interface is much better than what Hauppauge offers but their hardware is some of the best out there. Just make sure you get a card with MPEG-2 hardware encoding if you want your recording to have no skips/dropped frames, regardless of what else you are doing on the PC at the same time.

MartMax

hi

sorry for a little thread hijacking. just got myself an NTL digital, now looking at the PVR150 and HVR1300 for my old pc. does it make any difference the two cards for my purpose? cheers.

marty

J-blk

Not sure why you would need the HVR (not sure about that model, I do have an HVR 900 at the moment) but the PVR 150 would be an ideal solution for NTL. You simply connect the set top box to the card and configure everything in MCE then.

Ok, looked up the HVR 1300 and it seems like overkill since we don't have DVB-T in Ireland anyway and you won't need the DVB-S either.

The analog PVR 150 should do a fine job and I'm sure there are plenty of users here with that setup that can give specific tips (I used a PVR 250, quite similar to the 150, with my NTL analog for the last 1.5 and it was brilliant). Digital NTL is slightly different in that you have to factor in the set top box as well, but it is supported in MCE.

bretttp1

What about this one: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313393

I was thinking about getting in sky digital so would this card also be compatible with sky?

maceocc2

There all compatable with sky all ye have to do is run your scart from your sky box into the composite ports or the s-video port, your sky box will be compatable as long as it has a scart output on it

bretttp1

Am I correct in thinking that DVB-T component would only be of any use on the WinTV-HVR1100 if/when Ireland moves to Digital TV?

J-blk

Yep, DVB-T will only be useful when Digital broadcasts are the norm in Ireland which might be awhile. There actually is a "test" signal in Dublin at the moment (as far as TV goes, it carries RTE 1/2, TV3 and TG4) but I have no specific info on where it's available (works for me in Blanch, but not in the city center) and as it is a test, RTE may shut it off at any point.

I believe if you're close enough to a transmitter in the North, you can pick up some of the UK channels but have no personal experience if that's true or not - maybe someone else can confirm.

As it is, unfortunately, DVB-T is not really useful in Ireland which kinda sucks, because not only is it great quality, it is much easier for your average PC to record the digital stream than an analog one...

bretttp1

Right, would getting a card with DVB-T be a bit of overkill for use in Ireland? I was looking at this instead .

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullft.asp?productcode=ECE1055175#spec


Although from a previous reply I was advised to make sure to have mpeg 2 encoding and this one has mpeg1, For the sake of an extra €20 would I be better getting the WinTV-HVR1100 DVB-T?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313393

8T8

DVB-T support is redundant unless you are within range of the test signal in Dublin.

If you are within range and want to try it out get the WinTV-HVR1100 as you have the analogue portion to fall back on don't worry about the hardware encoder stuff either.

Ghost Train

also if considering getting digital dvb-t cards for dublin, the dtt is still at the trial stage so it's always possible the final standard might be different, meaning your card might not work if things change. No need for hardware encoder with the dvb-t tuner (video already encoded) but when using the analog tuner on a dvb-t card the pc will have to do all the encoding in software. So if main use will be feeding analog into the card hardware encoding is useful