3 cards I am looking at...which ones or any suggestions...

[yoda21000]

WinTV 250 model. don't need tv out for tv they offer with the 350
Compro Videomate Tv Gold Plus
WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe

Here is what I want to do....

I want to record some college footabll games on my computer. These games are around 4 hours long minus given some editing of taking out commercials. I want to take my captures and put them onto DVD disc so I can later play them on my DVD player.

Right now I'm on regular cable and I want to use it for my capturing. Later I'll have digital but not right now.

Which of these three of any other card you can think of would be a good one to get?

[FulciLives]

If you want to capture direct to MPEG-2 DVD format then the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 is the way to go since it has a hardware MPEG encoder built-in to it.

You will need something like Womble MPEG-VCR for editing. I think Womble also has a another "newer" program for MPEG editing that you might want to look into.

I admit I've never heard of the Compro Videomate Tv Gold Plus and I'm pretty much "up" on capture devices so I'm suggesting that if I haven't heard of it then it is either very new or some utter POS.

The WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe is a nice cheap capture card but really isn't all that well suited for doing direct-to-MPEG2 captures since it is all done with software encoding.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda21000]

the only bad thing I've heard is that the Happauge recording is not good. Not sure how true that is.

Is there anything that also is comparable to the 250?

[FulciLives]

the only bad thing I've heard is that the Happauge recording is not good. Not sure how true that is.

Is there anything that also is comparable to the 250?

The WinTV PVR-250 actually has outstanding picture quality. The only reservation is that some people experience audio sync problems when editing the capture.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda21000]

of course that just depends on what kind of software they are using in combination with processing speed.

I used to have a WinTV card back in '99. But it had mono only sound. Picture quality was great. Just now I'd like to capture games or etc on tv that I don't get a chance to watch when I'm not home.

One recording software that looks good is MythTV.

[yoda21000]

I meant capture video not games. It's late heh.

[FulciLives]

I don't have a WinTV PVR-250 but I've seen people post captured images and the quality is definately there.

However I think (not sure) that you have to use the supplied software for capture. I think I recall that this was the case because of the fact that it is a hardware based MPEG encoder.

After capture though you can use whatever software you want of course.

For more info you might want to check out this website:

http://www.shspvr.com/

It's a good resource ... I've read through a lot of stuff there in the past.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SatStorm]

I don't like hardware mpeg 2 solutions. I prefer software realtime mpeg 2 captures. Overall that way cost more, but I prefer the results.
It is a matter of taste I guess....

[yoda21000]

IS CTpvr the best schedule recording software or is there another that's free. SageTV looks ok but the 79.95 for the entire package seems a bit much.

[aurgathor]

the only bad thing I've heard is that the Happauge recording is not good. Not sure how true that is.

Is there anything that also is comparable to the 250?

The WinTV PVR-250 actually has outstanding picture quality. The only reservation is that some people experience audio sync problems when editing the capture.

I have a PVR-350 which for the purpose of this discussion is identical to the 250. While the quality of capture is very good most of the time, sometimes the encoder goes haywire and puts in some very irritating artifacts.

I still have the snippets to back up my claim; unfortunately, I don't have a web or ftp site, but if someone got an ftp site I can transfer them for viewing.

Note: I cannot email them because they are too big to be attached.

[SHS]

There lot option when coming to WinTV-PVR 250/350

Windows
SageTV & SageTV Recoder
SnapStream BeyondTV
JovePlayer
GB-PVR
CTpvr
ShowShifter
GotTV PVR
And there NoN GUI stuff like WinTVCap
There other thing to.

Linux
KnoppMyth
MythTV
Freevo
IvyTV a Linux iTVC15-16 and CX23415-16 Driver
(WinTV-PVR 250/350, AVerMedia M179, Yuan MPG160/MPG600, etc)

OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation
EmperoarTV

Nobody know why just a few people experiencing audio sync after editing the capture even know the clips them self are fine.
aurgathor the new 250 are not identical to 350 how ever some first 250 know as rec1 where identical to the 350
aurgathor if liike fell free to upload them to my ftp.

yoda21000 as for SageTV it not really that much when take in count what can do and it best when come to WindowsOS and fact you get 2 week EPG which is much eazy then some other way like XMLTV which only may give you 5 to 7 days at best yes MythTV is the best overall package but it also biggest pain in neck to get runing.
As the old saying gose you have take good and the bad.

[yoda21000]

what would be the point of it having hardware mpeg if the issue of audio de-sync issues appearing? Kinda useless to take out commercials etc if you can't edit the video without losing the audio sync in the process.

[vcdforme]

Editing mpegs are excercises in frustration.
If you really want to avoid audio sync problems go DV.
either Canopus ADVC 100, ADS Pyro AV link, or Datavideo.