What would be a choice for USB2 TV card?

[ro22ko22]

I have a notebook and I want to buy a TV USB2 external card, mostly for recording from TV in MPEG1, MPEG2 formats mostly in NTSI (but maybe sometime in PAL).
What I found with affordable prices and looking good by discriptions are:
1/PCTV USB2 (approx. $90)
2/WinTV USB2 (approx.$140)
3/AverMedia UltraTV USB2 (approx. $90)
What would you recommend, guys?
Thakks for your suggestions in advance.

[paulw]

I'll leave the fine details up to the experts. But what ever you buy make sure it is USB2 and that the video and audio go thru the same feed to the PC not video via USB and audio to the sound card.

[snafu099]

make sure it is USB2 and that the video and audio go thru the same feed to the PC not video via USB and audio to the sound card.

I bought the Compro VideoMate usb live just before the Olympics started from Newegg for $162 inc ship/tax

Extemley happy with device.
Excellent quality
Worked out of the box
audio + video via usb
remote control
Have scheduled 12 hr/day captures


specs say lpcm audio but clip properties show mpg1 layer2

[SaSi]

I don't know if the PCTV USB2 you mention is a Pinnacle. If so, avoid it. Mine had severe problems (read the forum for this device) and then it died after a few months. When it worked, quality was excellent but unless I tweaked the settings and put a 12cm fan on top of the opened case, it would lock up after 30 or 40 min. One good feature of the Pinnacle was that it encoded MPEG2 at up to 15Mbps.

I replaced this with a Hauppauge WinTV/PVR2. I was disappointed that the max encoding bitrate mentioned was 12Mbps, however when I went into the settings dialogs and selected 18Mbps CBR, it was accepted and the video produced was 18Mbps video.

Picture quality is good (and it also has a stereo FM tuner which is handy).

Also the Hauppauge device doesn't get too hot (doesn't need a fan!!!). Finally, it does work with the drivers on the packaged CD (doesn't require to download working drivers!). Comes with good editing s/w.

I would recommend it.

[Marvingj]

Hauppauge is Great!

[slebrun]

I've got a Compro Videomate Live as well. The box works really well - even when capturing 720x576 at 15Mbps (overkill I know..) I mainly bought it for VHS capturing, but the TV side of it is exceptional.

Just make sure you grab the latest drivers from the compro site first.

Scott