The most Compatible Capture Card?...

[Greyhorne]

As a relative novice to the art of capturing video, my initial card selections have apparently left me stuck in neutral, at the starting line.
My first card, apparently came packaged with a defective, video digitizer chip.
Upon returning it, I opted for another Hauppauge, but slightly newer WinTV-HVR-1600.
This card, has unfortunately resulted in chronic freeze-ups, by merely being plugged into a PCI slot.
So now, I'm contemplating a different brand, and wondering if theres a card, thats earned a reputation, for being relatively consistent off the line?
It seems no card is without learning hurdles, but I'm simply looking for a clean start.

Thanks!

[edDV]

You never described what you wanted to do. The WinTV-HVR-1600 is very new and lacks much user feedback. It grabs ATSC MPeg2-TS or compresses analog. Keep up the feedback.

If you want to go retro to analog only, the tried and true PVR-250 is an option. The PVR-150 and 500 have disappointed in the past but may be OK with recent drivers.

If you want alternative to Hauppauge, be careful. ATI can be a horror show and uncompressed capture is an art. Many here can get specific if you add detail and show determination. This capture business isn't for sissies. Just kidding.

[Greyhorne]

Actually, I realized this was gonna be a bit challenging, but when the system began locking up prior to even opening the application, I figured it was a hardware conflict, best remedied with new hardware. .Yes? No?
As for what I want to do? Record some tv clips, maybe football highlights next season, and hopefully transfer some VHS to DVD, with some basic movie editing.
I have DirectTV Satellite, that states its 100% Digital. The HVR-1600 manual, states it can't receive digital cable or digital satellite TV. I don't recall if my first card, the defective WinTV 878 could, but I actually exchanged that, to get a WinTV-PVR-150.
The company however, ran out of the 150's, during Xmas and put HVR1600's in the boxes in replace of the 150's.

So, I got the HVR-1600 installed, and connected thru to my DirectTV unit using SVideo.
While the picture was sharp, recording seemed to be choppy and dropping frames, I was streamlining system resources and attempting to defrag, when the lockups became more and more frequent. After I uninstalled, the lockups immediately ceased.
Currently I've still got the 1600, having forgotton the purchase reciept in an attempt to exchange. While there, I didn't see many alternates to select from.....

[jman98]

Greyhorne - Your post is a perfect example of why I mail order video capture cards. I want to get what I want, not what the store has on hand. Plus, it's almost always cheaper to mail order.

I have the Hauppauge PVR-350. It's a fine card. The only difference between the PVR-350 and PVR-250 is that the 350 has TV out. I have digital cable. I have no problems recording with this card. I just run a coax cable from my cable box to the 350 input and it works fine. The quality is as good as the broadcast.

I don't know anything about the HVR-1600, but I have none of the problems you describe with my PVR-350. I can tell you that because most motherboards share PCI slots between services, you may have to try another slot. I had some issues several years ago with a Dazzle DVC-II card and due to limitations of my motherboard, the only solution was to plug the card into a specific PCI slot at which point it began to behave. If you have a way to not share the PCI slot with another service, that would be ideal, but that depends on the motherboard. I recommend not doing anything else on the PC while capturing video as that will lessen the chance of PCI conflicts, which it sounds like you may have.

[edDV]

The HVR-1600 is their latest card. It will receive an over the air ATSC digital channel, or tune analog NTSC channels or accept composite or S-Video baseband. ATSC signals are received as MPeg2_TS streams. Analog inputs are hardware compressed to MPeg2 if you use the Haupauge software. It should not be loading your system if it is working properly.

It is even said of this card that it will dual tune an over the air analog + a digital channel at the same time (e.g. record two channels at once).

[jagabo]

I agree with jman98, try the HVR 1600 in a different PCI slot if you can.

[Greyhorne]

Greyhorne - Your post is a perfect example of why I mail order video capture cards. I want to get what I want, not what the store has on hand. Plus, it's almost always cheaper to mail order..

I bought my DVD burners online, and agree, the savings makes purchasing by brick and mortar tough to justify. But what prompted me to buy one of these cards, was a TV I purchased, that exceeded the 30 day return period, and resulted in store credit-only.
A year later, the credit-only reciept began decomposing in my wallet.

Your point regarding the shared PCI slots, sounds plausible. The card was the only thing plugged into any of the slots, but I'm using the mobo's audio, and on-board ethernet access, and might of been the culprit.
Thanks for the info on the 250 and 350. If it still locks up after this, I might just invest in one.

Analog inputs are hardware compressed to MPeg2 if you use the Haupauge software. It should not be loading your system if it is working properly.

So it shouldn't be imposing the heavy draw on resources as other cards require?
I was trying to free up things up for that very reason, when the lockups got out of hand. Admittedly my newbish settings might of been jacked up, but I recall, recording at the 2Mbit setting, when experiencing major chop.

But in light of any potential PCI conflicts..


I expect to have some results later tonight.

Your help comes highly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

[jagabo]

You can check for possible conflicts with Device Manager:

Right click on My computer, select Manage. In the left hand pane of the Computer Management dialog click on Device Manager. On the View menu select Resources By Connection. The most likely source of conflict will be in the Interrupt Request (IRQ) section. Look for another device that is sharing the same IRQ as the HVR 1600.

Onboard devices are hard wired to share IRQs with some of the PCI slots. In theory devices should be able to share IRQs but certain devices often don't get along.

[Greyhorne]

Onboard devices are hard wired to share IRQs with some of the PCI slots. In theory devices should be able to share IRQs but certain devices often don't get along.

Cool! Thanks jagabo,

This is great to know. I assume the Sound Device, would probably be the worst IRQ to share.

Is there one you believe, that might propose a more tolerable existance, sharing the same pair of sneakers?

[Nelson37]

You may need to install Service Pack 2.

Describe the lockups. They occur ONLY while recording?

Have you tried physically installing the card and not the software, and checking for normal operation? Card plus the drivers, but no recording, normal operation?

Try disabling and disconnecting the onboard audio.

You seem to indicate the freezes got worse, AFTER you were making changes to the system.
This could point to the problem, or the card could be defective and just getting worse over time.

Defrag hard drive, check for available space, virus and spyware check.