Looking to get a TV card for my PC

Genocidal

Genocidal

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I'm looking to get a TV card for my new PC, since my dorm room is way too small to fit a TV and a PC in. I'm looking to get one with an FM Tuner and Remote, and if it can record TV with decent quality, all the better, but it doesn't have to.

I've searched newegg, but there's just way too many to choose from so I figured I'd ask you guys and hope for some great opinions ;) Oh, my budget at most will be $100, but obviously anything cheaper is a plus.

Edit: I'm running Win XP Pro w/ SP2, Pent D 3.0GHz, GeForce 6800 and Audigy ZS 2 to give people a better idea of what I'm working with here.
 
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I bought the Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE Edition. It's the Windows XP Media Center Edition, but I use it fine on my Windows XP Pro. You can get the NON MCE one here for $20 more from Amazon. I believe it comes with a remote and you can't use normal audio in with it. I already have a ATI remote so I didn't need another remote and I like the audio/video plugs on the MCE edition for use with my PS2. (you can look at the pics on the website to see what I'm talking about) Both have a radio which is useless for me because my dorm has 0 reception.

Anyway, this is a Hardware encoding card. That means that it'll use very little processing power to record TV (I was playing CS once when my scheduled recording came on and I didn't even notice. The show also came out fine.). One thing about hardware encoding cards is that there IS a short delay compared to a normal software encoding card or a normal television. This is fine if you're watching it without another TV in the room, but if you have a roommate with a TV tuner too and you're both watching TV, the audio will not be in sync. That will get annoying unless you both watch on the same one or one of you mutes your audio. This isn't a problem with consoles (or VCRs, etc that you attach to the input of the card) if you use a program called DScaler. It gets a live feed from the aux input of the card. Another nice thing is that you don't need a pass-thru cable for audio.
 
[quote name='Outrager']I don't know what you really mean by "supports HD", but this card cannot display HD signals if you get an HDTV signal. You would need the ATI HD Wonder for that. The ATI HD Wonder pulls HDTV off of the airwaves using an antenna, but not the HD cable boxes.[/QUOTE]

yea of course you need a hd box, but you can play xbox/ps2/gc games in hd with compontent cables :D
 
[quote name='dreamvsps2']yea of course you need a hd box, but you can play xbox/ps2/gc games in hd with compontent cables :D[/QUOTE]
Oh, cool. I didn't even notice that. I thought it would be the same as my old ATI TV Wonder Pro, but I guess not. I wonder how much of an improvement the quality is or if they have a delay.
 
Wow, thanks for all the info Outrager! A couple questions for you:

- It sounds like you were using your old ATi remote with the card you suggested. Will the remote that comes with it work with Win XP Pro?
- What video formats does it record in, and up to what resolution?
- What's the highest resolution I can get on TV that I'm watching?

Sorry to have so many questions, I just like to make informed decisions about my purchases. :)
 
I'm using some tvbox thing made by kworld.. it's ok quality - resolution set at 1280X1024.. i mainly bought it because then you don't need to turn your computer on with this and it also has inputs for other stuff like consoles

i think its called like the kworld tvbox or something like that
 
[quote name='Genocidal']Wow, thanks for all the info Outrager! A couple questions for you:

- It sounds like you were using your old ATi remote with the card you suggested. Will the remote that comes with it work with Win XP Pro?
- What video formats does it record in, and up to what resolution?
- What's the highest resolution I can get on TV that I'm watching?

Sorry to have so many questions, I just like to make informed decisions about my purchases. :)[/QUOTE]

I own the WinTV PVR250 which is pretty much the same as the 150 except the processor chip on the 250 is slightly faster. Anyways, the remote that comes with the 150/250/500 series will work with WinXP. Video format wise it records in straight MPEG2 DVD quality. Resolution wise I've been able to watch TV at 1024x768 without any problems via Snapstream Beyond TV 3.5. :D

Oh, and speaking of which if you want the best program for recording stuff with I'd highly recommend using Snapstream Beyond TV. The interface is very clean and the quality of the program is top notch. Its normally about $70ish but they do have combo packages that do save you quite a bit of money compared to buying it seperately (in some cases at least).

Beyond TV/WinTV 150 combo pack - $159 for this package, which is a damn good deal.

Beyond TV/WinTV 500 combo pack - $249 for this package. The big feature with the 500 card is that its a dual tuner card, which will let you record two things at the same time (or record one thing while watching another).

Newegg.com For The WinTV 500 - However Newegg.com has just the 500 card for $138, which is very nice considering I paid about $120ish for my 250 over a year ago.
 
demomanTNA answered most of the questions.
Anyway, normal NTSC TV is 640x480 interlaced so TV tuners just use that and stretch the image out. Unless you're used to HDTV on a nice plasma, it isn't so bad. The good TV viewing programs, like Snapstream's BeyondTV, include a good de-interlacer to improve the image quality.
I believe the PVR150 is the successor to the PVR250, though.
Also, if you ever have 2 shows that are on at the same time, the PVR-500 might not be a bad idea.
 
Actually the 250 is the successor... well at least if I recall right it is as the 250 is the more expensive one out of the two. No matter tho, they are both great cards so you win in either case.

And yeah... that 150+Beyond TV combo is HOT. :D

Oh, and just to verify Beyond TV comes with lifetime support and upgrades. Version 4.0 is about to go into beta testing in fact, which is supposed to include a number of new features and faster interface. I'm actually on the beta test team for Beyond TV so I can't wait to get my hands on it. :D
 
The reason the 250 costs more than the 150 is because they used a newer chip that costs less to manufacture.
Alos, I hope they do make the interface better in 4.0 of BeyondTV. That's one of the complaints I have with 3.5.
Do you know if I bought 3.5, would I be upgraded to 4.0 for free?
 
I have an ATI TV wonder (internal PCI) I got for about 50.00-60.00, i think, at compusa a couple of years ago. Still works good, but don't use ATI Multimedia center. Use DScaler instead cuz the ATI software sucks real bad. ;) I was able to watch TV in stereo and hook up my ps2 (w/s-video cable) w/o a hitch. I think other cards might have better image quality though.
 
[quote name='mentos888']I have an ATI TV wonder (internal PCI) I got for about 50.00-60.00, i think, at compusa a couple of years ago. Still works good, but don't use ATI Multimedia center. Use DScaler instead cuz the ATI software sucks real bad. ;) I was able to watch TV in stereo and hook up my ps2 (w/s-video cable) w/o a hitch. I think other cards might have better image quality though.[/QUOTE]
I used to use the ATI TV Wonder too. I agree that DScaler is SO much better than the ATI Multimedia Center. The thing I didn't like was that it didn't have as much compatibility with 3rd party apps compared to the $30-$40 Hauppauge WinTV cards.
 
I've got a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 MCE that I use with Beyond TV 3.5, and it's pretty much flawless for TV. Beyond TV will handle the dual tuners transparently, so you don't even have to think about what you’re recording when until you try to schedule 3 things at once. As Outrager mentioned, these are hardware encoders so you can play games or watch DVDs without messing up your TV recordings.

In general I'd recommend any of the Hauppauge WinTV cards used with Beyond TV. It costs more, but it's worth it. Just know that a lot of the Hauppauges don't come with software, so some program is a must.

I also have a Radeon All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro, and I wouldn't recommend it for its PVR functionality. It uses a software encoder, so playing games or otherwise using any actual feature of the card will cause recordings to not happen. The video quality is not great, and quite inferior to a Hauppauge stand-alone. I also had a lot of problems with the display of TV (or pretty much anything I tried to run through the RAGE Theater). All that said, I've had the card for two years, and I used it as my tuner for Beyond TV for 6 months. It's workable, just... delicate. As others have said, ATI's software is pretty bad.

Note that the AiW 9800 Pro is the oldest of the recent crops of AiWs. The AiW 9600 Pro actually came out later and features some improvements to the Multi-media center aspects. Then again, I couldn't recommend any 9600 Pro these days as the graphics performance has just gotten outdated.
 
[quote name='Outrager']The reason the 250 costs more than the 150 is because they used a newer chip that costs less to manufacture.
Alos, I hope they do make the interface better in 4.0 of BeyondTV. That's one of the complaints I have with 3.5.
Do you know if I bought 3.5, would I be upgraded to 4.0 for free?[/QUOTE]

Yes you get free lifetime upgrades for Beyond TV. So even when version 187.6 comes out, you can still upgrade to it for free as you are still a registered owner. :applause:
 
[quote name='demomanTNA']Yes you get free lifetime upgrades for Beyond TV. So even when version 187.6 comes out, you can still upgrade to it for free as you are still a registered owner. :applause:[/QUOTE]
Damn. I shoulda bought it when they had a sale and it was discounted. I might get it when they have another sale.
 
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