MSI Theater 550 PRO-E tuner supports both PAL & NTSC?

[vsenapati]

I am interested to purchase this particular TV tuner card in USA and use it in India where the TV system is PAL_B. Is the MSI Theater 550 Pro-E card sold in USA support both NTSC and PAL? Unfortunately, this particular card is not available in India.

[edDV]

I don't know for that specific card but there are at least two issues here.

1. The card may or may not handle NTSC and PAL at the baseband video input (composite or S-Video)

2. Even if it does handle PAL over video inputs, the tuner section may only offer support for a limited set of PAL broadcast standards or none.

PAL broadcasting differs by RF frequencies used, channel bandwidths, audio modulation format, audio frequcies used, etc.
http://www.mastervideo.com/videospecs.htm
http://www.mastervideo.com/palbg_chart.htm

If you want the tuner to work in both places, all these details must match.

[cowgoo]

according to the msi web siteit will do both

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=Theater_550PRO&class=vga

[vsenapati]

One cannot be sure by going by what is mentioned in the website. For example, in www.pinnacle.com (USA) it is mentioned that Pinnacle PC TV 110i supports NTSC/PAL/SECAM. But, when my elder brother got one for me from USA, I found it to support only NTSC. I am basically interested to watch TV using my TV tuner card and the Card should support PAL_B which is the standard in India.
Can anyone confirm whether the MSI Theater 550 Pro-E marketed in USA support PAL_B ?
The URL of Pinnacle USA :http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+A...Specifications

[lordsmurf]

ATI AIW cards did both PAL and NTSC on composite or s-video inputs. Tuner was specific to one format, though.

[edDV]

The tuner box on the card and the software need to support the two standards you want. Talk to the manufacturer and get a guarantee.

[vsenapati]

I could not ascertain whether MSI Theater 550 Pro-E marketed in USA supports both NTSC and PAL/SECAM system of TV signal. I called up MSI India at New Delhi and asked about the availability of the particular model. They told me that it is not available in India yet. After lot of deliberations I decided to get another brand TV Tuner Card: Pixelview PlayTV@P7000. I am very happy with the resolution of video on monitor and also the quality of video captured in MPEG 2. It is a good product!