hardware recommendation for tv/fm tuner and video capture

[apol]

Hi,

I would like to make analog and digital capture and tv/fm tuning. I will
start using Windows but would like to switch to Linux later.

Concerning the compatibility with Linux, are there cards that should be
preferred/avoided?

I am tended to buy a tv/fm tuner and analog capture card plus a firewire
card. For the first card I am considering Pinnacle PCTV Pro or Hauppauge
WinTV-Radio. Do you have a positive/negative Linux experience with
these or similar cards? Do you suggest another one? Is hardware encoding
likely to avoid or add problems for the usage with Linux?

Thanks in advance,
apol

[SaSi]

I have tried both the Pinnacle PCTV-USB2 and the Hauupauge WinTV USB2 under Windows.

My recommendation is to avoid the Pinnacle device altogether. It doesn't work properly.

With Hauppauge, I've had some bad experience 3 years ago with the WinTV-FM Tuner-Capture card. The drivers were poor and the whole thing unstable.

I have recently replaced the Pinnacle (that died) with a Hauppauge USB device. It's working very well, the turer quality is much better than the Pinnacle (almost as good as my Panasonic VCR's tuner). The radio is very sensitive and very good in audio quality and discrimination (much better than my 15 years old deck Pioneer digital tuner).

Your initial decision should be whether to go for an internal or for an external device. Of course, since you want to move to Linux, check driver availability for that as well.

[pchan]

I had a Hauppauge Win-TV FM PCI card. The card is OK but the Windows driver does not support S3 standy mode. So, I choose another TV card instead.

Hauppauge does have Linux support.
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_wcst.htm

Please go here and there are many reviews on tv cards.
http://www.tv-cards.com/

[BlkPoohba]

My WinTV USB2 works fine with S-Video but audio does not. When trying to use with Intervideo WinDVD Creator 2 it freezes and I don't know if its the drivers or the software. If I switch to have audio not thru WinTV but thru the system audio it works but its choppy video. Anyone else with this problem? How do I get the radio to work?

I have tried both the Pinnacle PCTV-USB2 and the Hauupauge WinTV USB2 under Windows.

My recommendation is to avoid the Pinnacle device altogether. It doesn't work properly.

With Hauppauge, I've had some bad experience 3 years ago with the WinTV-FM Tuner-Capture card. The drivers were poor and the whole thing unstable.

I have recently replaced the Pinnacle (that died) with a Hauppauge USB device. It's working very well, the turer quality is much better than the Pinnacle (almost as good as my Panasonic VCR's tuner). The radio is very sensitive and very good in audio quality and discrimination (much better than my 15 years old deck Pioneer digital tuner).

Your initial decision should be whether to go for an internal or for an external device. Of course, since you want to move to Linux, check driver availability for that as well.

[wmcbrine]

Regular Hauppauge WinTV cards (vs. PVR, etc.) actually work rather better in Linux than in Windows. My last two distros have detected the cards and installed support automatically.

[BlkPoohba]

Yes. My WinTV Go card works but the WinTV USB2 does not.