advise on a TV tuner please...

CyberGhost

which one of these to buy?

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=VID00426&productID=79344
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=17884
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=304730&cks=PRL
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307479&cks=PRL


or any from here?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/TV_Cards.html

if you own any of the above products please give feedback

Thanks!

Tom Dunne

As I have since found out, if Linux compatability is important, don't go for the external USB devices - stick to PCI.

I have the Hauppauge 250 PVR USB. I always found the Hauppauge software very dated, though it does the job. The best solution to this is to use something like Media Portal, see the other threads about this.

This model does hardware Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 encoding and has an FM radio built in (as I believe most of the Hauppauge devices do nowadays). It takes s-video, composite (i.e. the red,white and yellow RCA connectors), and co-ax if you have analogue NTL or want to plug in the rabbits ears. It also comes with a remote control. As for recording, the scheduler software allows you to record at a future date, works fine for me, though is a little cumbersome. The TV viewing software also provides PVR functionality by allowing you to pause live TV. Watch your hard-drive space dwindle quite rapidly with this.

Would I recommend it? Well, it does what it says on the tin, and it was straight forward to install. Software aesthetics aside, yes, I would.

po0k

PVR250 PCI
Accept no substitute.

CyberGhost

Thanks guys, but that card is out of my budget, 100 euro max

I think I'll go with hauppauge, I red somewhere they have pretty decent quality, and they are not that expensive

smorton

i got this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=37701&TabID=1&source=15&WorldID=&doy=10m4
€49.49 and it does me fine. its got composite video input and coax and it can record in dvd, mpeg 1/2/4, vcd, svcd, avi formats. nay probs with it. heartily recommended

beaker

I did a lot of research on this and have just picked up a PVR 150 for 120 euro.

A good choice, I think, if you budget will stretch a bit. I've read that it is newer, better and cheaper than the PVR 250.

(Of course, now I'm afraid to install the PVR 150 because I'm having the dreaded black & white TV-out problem. :mad: But I'll start another thread on that one...)

unklerosco

Ur prob outputting an ntsc signal, change it to pal n u'll be fine...

Mec-a-nic

I went with the PVR350 PCI since it ENcodes and DEcodes mpeg2 in hardware. Cheaper cards try to do everything in software (i.e. your CPU). It also came with a nice IR remote so I can use it with the TV.

I didn't do much shopping around so it cost EUR 180, but I didn't have to upgrade the old PC I installed it into.

Coupled with free PVR progs (GB-PVR this week) it just works. This lets me record one prog, while playing back another, and the 700MHz CPU usage doesn't go over 5%.

No problems with b+w/colour since it comes with it's own SCART, svideo, etc. cables.

bibibobo

Mec-a-nic wrote:

I went with the PVR350 PCI since it ENcodes and DEcodes mpeg2 in hardware. Cheaper cards try to do everything in software (i.e. your CPU). It also came with a nice IR remote so I can use it with the TV.

I didn't do much shopping around so it cost EUR 180, but I didn't have to upgrade the old PC I installed it into.

Coupled with free PVR progs (GB-PVR this week) it just works. This lets me record one prog, while playing back another, and the 700MHz CPU usage doesn't go over 5%.

No problems with b+w/colour since it comes with it's own SCART, svideo, etc. cables.

niceone, what OS are you using. Any problems with the configuration of this card for TV channels? Would you mind checking 2 settings and posting them here for me, cheers.
from start menu - hauppauge, click on primary and please tell me what setting are selected.

in the channel suite editor what are the settings? PAL-I??

thanks a mill

Infini

I'm looking for a new TV card myself but theres too many results on google to filter through for the one I want. I'm looking for one that has the yellow white and red composite input (Video/L Audio/R audio). It doesn't necessarily have to have a tuner but what i need for it is to be able to recieve BOTH NTSC and PAL as i have US stuff as well. I'd like it to be able to recieve PAL-60 as well as I want to be able to play my X-Box and PS2 on the PAL-60 settings through the PC instead of having a seperate TV for them. It must be able to recieve and display the picture instantly as I got one of those USB2 external ones once and it had a 3 second delay on it.

CyberGhost

lol that's exactly what I'm looking for too!
*the above tv tuners I want as a present, not for me*

there are 2 ways of connecting ps2/xbox to a tv tuner, the one like you mentioned - they connect to an adapter that usually comes with a tv tuner and the other end is 7 pin svideo cable - this is a "neat way"

the other one is when you connect the yellow(video) cable to a tv tuner, and the other 2 you connector to RF-to-3.5mm audio adater splitter, and that goes to audio card's line-in, this is more messy way cause, some tv tuners, have external audio out that goes into audio card's line-in, which means that it is already taken, and you can't connect the 3.5mm splitter unless you want to manual go under the table everytime you switch between tv/xbox to have a sound, some of the tv tuners have audio in - so that problem is solved since you connect xbox's sound to the tv tuner, which in turn connects to the audio card

I've made a little list of possible candidates
check this out
http://www.geocities.com/fsarea3/Book2.htm

out of those hauppauge, has an old chip so I'd leave it out, and ATI too cause it has been reported to have a bad quality - plus none of them support global video standard

there are many different opinions about ASUS, some say they are good some bad

there aren't much comments on the net about MSI

leadtek is pretty decent, and has a good price, but doesn't have global standard support

lifeview, looks the most promising, is has new philips chip, which has the best quality right now, and supports pal,ntsc,secam,... but it's doesn't have the "neat way" of connecting ps2, but luckily it has audio-in on the card so that pretty much solves the problem

I also forgot to create a table of which one of those works with DScaler

Mec-a-nic

I installed the PVR350 into an already installed Win2000 SP4. No problems configuring the card at all, I just used listings for NTL analogue cable from
http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/frequency.html

As for settings, Primary (v.3.7.2) is 'Allow Overlay'
Channel Suite has all stations in PAL (Format = I? greyed out) and video = PAL BGHIDK

NP

bibibobo wrote:

niceone, what OS are you using. Any problems with the configuration of this card for TV channels? Would you mind checking 2 settings and posting them here for me, cheers.
from start menu - hauppauge, click on primary and please tell me what setting are selected.

in the channel suite editor what are the settings? PAL-I??

thanks a mill

Infini

PAYDIRT! :cool:

http://tekgems.com/Products/et-15662-vid-vs-tv883dvr-proii.htm

$166 including shipping works out around 130 or so but it looks to be worth it considering what you get with it.

ChRoMe

Are you located in San Fran? If not and you are doing mail order. If possible have it delivered to a friend and have them repackage as a birthday present and get them to send it to your home address.

ChRoMe

po0k

PVR150 - what's *nix support like? Uses same driver as 250?