Looking to capture from my Philips Direct TV box

[dj4monie]

Alright, I just joined Schneider National and I won't be home alot to watch the stuff I like to watch (mostly Cartoon Network, now that the racing season is effectively over for the moment).

I've been looking to buy a capture or tv tuner card with capture options since I broke up with my ex and she took off with the AIW Rage Pro card that was in the Pent 200Mhz PC we shared.

I've looked at most of the reviews and suggestions around the web site here and narrowed it down to a couple of products, but I have a few questions before I list the cards I'm looking at.

Do I need a straight PCI capture card or TV Tuner/Capture Card?

I don't see the point of having a Tuner if I'm not going to use it, but the FM tuner built into say the Winfast 2000XP could be very useful. It would be great to record some of the local DJ mix shows on Friday and Saturday Night.

I guess I just answered my own question... lol

Alright here's what I was looking at. Questions, Comments and Concerns are welcome.

In NO ORDER:

1) Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Dlx

2) KWorld KW-878RF Pro

3)ATI AIW 9600*

The ATI is the ideal replacement for the GeForce 4 MX 64MB that came with this Dell 5150. But I can't afford to spend $200+ at the moment. Its gotten good reviews so I think that is the card I want in the very NEAR future.

But in the meantime, I want to capture...

Is the Leadtek worth the extra $25 or should I get the KWorld and call it a day?

Thanks....

[bottle-necked]

I don't use the TV tuner that's built into my ATI AIW, but I can still capture from my DirectTV box through either the A/V or S/Video inputs.

To schedule captures you will need to setup your satellite box and also your capture program for each show/time/channel you want to record. AIW will do this and it's pretty easy to setup. So is your sat box. For me I would just select my desired input port instead of tuner.

I recommend you buy ATI AIW if you are going to buy a card. I've got a new ATI AIW 9800 Pro card ordered now. It should be here any day. That is going to be the best card I can recommend you to get.

But, I think the cheapest and easiest way to record cartoons on a scheduled basis is to just buy a cheap VCR. lol

Good luck.

[dj4monie]

Yeah but she took my VCR too (borrowed it, never gave it back!) and I have yet to replace it and besides my anime that's on VHS tapes, there is a Stereo VCR I can use to just upload the content on the tapes and put them on SVCD's (no DVD-R yet).

I know Lord Smurf is the cartoon capture expert around here I've had good luck with ATI products, but I really want to capture and I can't afford any of the AIW series cards now (still getting training pay). Once I get my regular paycheck there's going to be wholesale changes to the Dell, but until then, I wanted to capture and achive my shows for playback later.

The AIW 9600 has an FM tuner in it and it will run all the current DX9 games, even though the ONLY one I will purchase in the near future is maybe NFS:Underground.

I can afford to get either one of the capture/tuner cards I listed. I know I can set the DTV box to switch channels and use the free S video output and RCA audio from the box that isn't being use with the TV I'm using.

I guess either will do the job, but I was looking at using SnapStream and it works with the Leadtek card, not sure about the KWorld.

Thanks for the input though...