Best Card for TV input and PVR?

[Escher0]

I'm looking into buying a TV tuner card so I can watch TV without buying a TV for my dorm room next year. I won't be doing much capturing if any besides for recording shows like a PVR would. I'm leaning towards ATI TV-Wonder because I've heard a lot of good things about it and read a number of favorable reviews, but its an older card so I was wondering if there are better and possibly newer solutions out there. Any reviews or information be be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your input.

Also, I'm aiming for $100 or less but I'm willing to spend a little more if it seems worth it.

[Trik]

I have both a Avermedia, AverTV Stereo and a I/O Magic PC PVR.
IMHO the I/O Magic has better picture quality and its less expensive.
Heres where I bought mine: http://www.dartek.com/ItemDetails/index.cfm?ItemNo=788069012454

The I/O magic comes with PowerVCR/DVD, which makes its PVR nicer than the AverTV's.

Also the folks at http://www.avsforum.com/ swear by the I/O Magic.
Bothe of them are based on the bt878 chip and both work with DScaler: http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/

[Anonymous65]

I would check out the new model from Pinnacle, the Bungee.

[Escher0]

the bungee is a little out of my range, its about $200 and I don't know hoe great an external USB solution could be

and Trik, could explain what deinterlacing is exactly? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question.

Thanks for the info thus far

[The village idiot]

For just PVR work, the ATI TV Wonder would work very well for you. If you don't care about a stereo TV tuner, you might get away with the TV Wonder VE which goes for under $50. I have a TV Wonder and as far as a PVR to your computer monitor goes it works fairly well under win2000. It also makes great VCD's if you give it a good enough source. You can get it for around $80. Both are BTxxx based cards. I haven't tried any other cards so my comparisons are a little limited.

[DVantrease]

I'd like to know if the I/O Magic PVR and ATI TV-Wonder work well under Windows XP. (I saw the TV Wonder has XP drivers, but how well do they work?) Also, does the I/O Magic have video-in or does it only capture from the tv tuner?

[Anonymous65]

Remember that the ATI TV Wonder and the other BT8x8 cards will normally only capture up to x240 pixels, meaning it will only record half the information in the video. If 320x240 is good as a PVR resolution, then the $50 cards will work fine. However, if you want higher quality PVR, meaning the records look pretty much like the real thing, you have to record in 640x480 mode, something that the ATI TV Wonder cannot do. So, make sure you know what quality you want to watch your TV in using it as a PVR. 640x480 or higher require a hardware encoder, or a software encoder like PowerVCRII and a superfast PC. Since video often looks pretty bad on a supersharp PC monitor, 640x480 is often the only way to go for good quality video.

[Trik]

http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/FAQ.htm
"Analog, interlaced video is what devices like VCRs, laserdisc, and game consoles output"
DScaler is an app that a lot of Home Theatre PC users use to deinterlace, and cleanup a video signal before outputing it to a projector or TV screen or monitor

The I/O Magic has composite and s-video inputs that work, no matter what it says on the mfg's website.
I was cap'ing from VCR using composite nite before last on mine.

It will capture in mpeg-1/2 up to 720x576 @ a bitrate of 10000.
Of coures you'll need a monster computer to do so and have LOTS of diskspace

[Escher0]

So if I understand correctly, deinterlacing will allow me to watch VCR's or game systems through the TV card?

also, another question, I undertand the ATI can only capture up to 320x240, but is that the resolution you would see watching the live feed?

[Trik]

So if I understand correctly, deinterlacing will allow me to watch VCR's or game systems through the TV card?

also, another question, I undertand the ATI can only capture up to 320x240, but is that the resolution you would see watching the live feed?

You can watch whether its interlaced or not.
DScaler has a lot of filters and settings that can be used to improve the picture quality.

[Escher0]

thanks so much for the info, i'm now leaning towards the I/O Magic
sounds like it will suit me much better

[Trik]

One more thing...
With both the AverTV and I/O Magic I can't capture AVI using 3rd party apps like Virtual Dub at res's greater than 320x240.
But both cards can use PVR software to capture mpeg-1/2 at res's up to 720x

This is in win98se on my system.
I've read where others can cap AVI at higher res's with them but for some reason I can't duplicate their results.

So if i want to make a divx at something higher than 320x, I have to cap in the best quality and highest res mpeg-2 I can and then convert it to divx and more than likely at a reduced res.

[Escher0]

I don't think that will really afftect me, like I said, I won't be doing too much capturing if any at all, but thanks

[kwag]

Get a WinTV GO or any other BT878 card.
Use these drivers:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net

And you can capture at any resolution and frame rate you want.

kwag

[Trik]

I've never been able to get those drivers to install correctly under win98/se.

EDIT: I've had good luck with these though: http://www.iulab.com/index.shtml?bt8x8/about

[kitty]

What about the Hauppauge WinTV PVR models? they would capture MPEG1/2 in hardware to VCD, SVCD, or DVD resolutions yes?

[jeg_jason]

AverTV Studio works and can be bought online for less than $85 after shipping and handling. It does everything like TV tuning, pausing live TV, video capture in real-time to mpeg1 or mpeg2 from coaxial/composite/s-video, FM tuning and recording, scheduling programs to record video and FM radio, and CD player. The unit also ships with a cool remote control. To cut it short it is a do-it-all PCI card for people on a tight budget that gives excellent results. I too am a student and this card has been an amazing purchase for me. It can be used to make VCDs, SVCDs, and DVDs. To make SVCDs you have to re-encode the video down from 720 x 480 or 640 x 480 to 480 x 480 using a program like tmpgenc (freeware!). This card is worth a good look before spending more money to get the same features from a product like WinTV PVR series which costs about a hundred dollars more than this does.

[ntonix]

If you wanna use WinTV PVR PCI (880 series) as a TV Tuner, it's ok, but as a realtime MPEG1/2 encoder,well, just forget it. This card got some problems with either their drivers or the KFIR chip which handles all the encoding process.You gotta make sure your video source,eg.RF signal,VCR,camcorder, were completely free from video/audio signal lags and distortions to produce good MPEG1/2 videos. But if you just wanna see TV channels at your PC,why bother spending 220 bucks for this card while you can get other regular TV tuner cards under 100 bucks ?

[Anonymous65]

Check out this new model, the PVR-250.
http://steve.kittelsen.com/pvr250

[SHS]

Hey skittelsen did read the message I post a few days address to you?.
If you miss it http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=101422 oh by the way check my web site there new drivers there.