Best PCI tv/capture solution?

20th Nov 2002 14:13 #1

Member

I want something with a TV tuner in addition to standard compositie capture.. (would be nice if it works with netmeeting also). Would be using it mostly for TV watching and TV capture.

I really like the features of the current AiW cards, but dont want to lose my capturing ability when I choose to upgrade my vid card. So I need a PCI board. (Don't care about having a remote control)

Been researching for the past two days and the best I've come up with is the Hauppauge WinTV PVR. But I'm kinda iffy on it - reviews look mixed, and I really like the idea of the Guide+ feature that the AIW cards have.

Option 2 is the TV Wonder. What do you guys think of that? How does it run in XP? A friend of mine said he had bad luck with it. Does that have the Guide+ software built in?

Option 3 is one of the older ATI AiW cards, like the 128 PCI or Radeon PCI. Think those are the last two with PCI interface. How happy are those cards being the secondary video card in a system? Read somewhere (maybe here) that someone was having trouble using the TV functions when the AiW was not designated as the *primary* card in WinXP. Another potential problem is that they're old and ATI probably aint supporting them anymore with software updates, etc -- only place I've seen them for sale is on Ebay..

Help!!!!!! Please assist me in choosing the best solution..

FYI system this will be going into is (building now).... Win XP, P4-3.06, i850E mobo, 512mb 1066rambus, nvidia GF4-4400, plenty of hdd space.. Price not a big issue - under $400 would be nice tho.