New to TV Capture

[Wetling]

I recently purchased a Hauppauge WinTV Theater. I'm currently using WinTV200 (that came with the card) to watch TV.

Would someone please point me to the correct tutorial/software to capture the video and turn it in to reasonably sized/quality files? I don't know what format I want, but I'd like to turn a 40-45 minute show (editid down from 60 to get rid of commercials) into a file about 100-150MB I think. Also, I have no intention of burning these files to a VCD or SVCD at this time.

I think the WinTV supports the following compressors for recording, which one do I want?

-Cinepak Codec by Radius
-Intel Indeo(R) Video R3.2
-Intel Indeo Video 4.5
-Intel IYUV codec
-Microsoft Video 1
-Indeo video 5.10
-Intel I.263 Video Driver 2.55.01
-DivX 5.0.2 Codec

Some of those give me the option to set the comipression quality, anyone have any suggestions?

And finally, I'm using WMP 8 to watch my video files (AVI, MPG, WMV). What else should I use (I have PowerDVD, would that be good)?

Thanks.

[kjmacke]

If all your doing is viewing on the computer and want the smallest file size possible then capture to divx at 352x240 max bitrate and 100% quality.

[Wetling]

Alright, I'll give that a try. Thanks.

Any comments on the viewer program?

[MaDmiZe]

I think you'll have to experiment with different compressors and settings...Everyone seems to like the divx though...or download the huffy one from the tools section. A descent quality capture in MPG1 will be more like 250 or 300mb for 45 minutes maybe less as a divx avi.
Power dvd is great and will play almost anytype file in full screen....
but the new Win media Player aint total crap so.....I tjust depends..I like the controls on powerdvd myself.