Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe... am I making mistake ?

[donpedro]

Im still thinking about this hardware..... now it is for $129 after MIR. Am I making mistake to pass on this ?

What I am looking for is to capture my favorite TV shows in stereo when I am not home (5 days) and burn them possibly to DVD in full quality.

[LSchafroth]

I got the normal PCTV at CompUSA for $29 after rebates. the Deluxe was $84 without any rebates.

The card works wonderfull if you use the software here on the site. Do NOT use the software that came with the card.

Unfortunately I cannot use VirtDub since my card uses WDM drivers. I've switched to IuVCR for capture.

Lannie

[Gazorgan]

Same here, $30 card (US) and IUVCR. My card is mono, and that's the real difference between the 2. same old BTxxxx cheap chipset. Everything is software, so you want a 1 Ghz minimum. Huffyuv is fine, but I can't really tell the difference with MJPEG and it's less than 1/2 the size. With new drives you can capture in pretty much whatever resolution you want. Scheduling is a little primitive, but it works fine, including running via schedular, so the app doesn't have to be running to capture something timed.

I generally hit 40% CPU with MJPEG at 95%, PCM sound at 480x480. 720x480 is around 65%. This is with an Athlon 2400+/512 DDR/W2K. The only time I drop a frame is if I pause the capture on commercials.

I personally think PowerVCR is a better capture program, but it only caps in VCD.SVCD, so it's pretty useless for anything but watchign a TV show you missed.

[donpedro]

the Deluxe was $84 without any rebates.

When ? Was it realy Deluxe or PRO ? Deluxe is external box.