Is there anyway to record tv shows in the background?

[anvil82]

Is there any program that will record tv shows in the background that I can schedule?

I use powervcr II now, but when it records it shows the video on the screen, as well as I hear the tv show in my speakers. I just want it to record in the background without bothering me.

Is there any program that does this?

Thanks.

[vhelp]

hi anvil83,

In all honesty, I think that it's best to allow the application (app) to record
while in full view (focused) as they need as much sys resources for compressing
the video to MPEG and then writing it to your hd.

Those other apps that you feel might do it, are basically doing the same
thing, except that they do it while you are away from your PC (ie, in bed or
at school/work) and you aren't there to start running other apps and things
that would boug down the TV Recoding process

These schedulers are resource hungry.., just so you understand.
-vhelp

[andkiich]

Yeah, it's called TIVO!

[FOO]

A few of the capture systems have hardware encoding
which allows you to use your computer while capturing.
The ones that don't mess up the capture if you do
anything while it's recording.

Hauppage is supposed to have hardware encoding.

[thayne]

I use a Hauppage win-pvr-250 with SageRecorder software. The card does real-time hardware encoding upto 720X480 @12MBps Works great

[vhelp]

@ FOO..

Hauppauge...
Interesting how you brought that one up. I was just a CC, and found that
there latest PVR is the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-usb2, Model #941
is USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 compatible. It looks veritually identicle to my pre
USB model, only, this lates #941 is suppoes to MUCH better in terms of
performance and quality. I was VERY tempted to get it ($149/$199) but I
remembered that I do not have USB 2.0

Anyways.. I'd like to know what others are claiming,
-vhelp

[FOO]

Ok Thayne,
What does it take to mess up a capture ?
Can you sit around and web surf, do email, etc. while capturing ?

[mickle]

I'm actually capturing while reading and replying on here. Surfing and mail don't affect my captures, no drops at all.

I'm using an old Avermedia capture 98 with tweaked bt848 drivers and VirtualVCR.