TV Tuner Cards..

[SlowCivicHmm]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this....

I am in need of a TV tuner card for my PC........and I have no idea what to get........none of the ones I have looked at say they can do what I need it to do.....nor do they say they can'd do it.....so I need some answers before I go to buy....

I need to record 2 channels at the same time.....ie 5pm news from 2 diff stations........and I need to be able to shedule them 5 days a week.....

Some help would be gladly appreciated..thx...

[FulciLives]

You can't record 2 different channels or sources at once unless you have two different computers.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SlowCivicHmm]

damn.........and you can't put 2 cards in one PC right??

[FulciLives]

damn.........and you can't put 2 cards in one PC right??

You can although chances are it might prove difficult to get them to work without conflicts but even then you can't capture from both at the same time.

- John "FulciLives' Coleman

[AlecWest]

I need to record 2 channels at the same time.....ie 5pm news from 2 diff stations........and I need to be able to shedule them 5 days a week.....

This is not a "PC" solution but it is a solution (assuming they're available on this side of the pond):

http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/040115-2.html

[mats.hogberg]

damn.........and you can't put 2 cards in one PC right??

Yes, you can. Or look for a duoble tuner card. I think I've seen such a beast somewhere.

[Mats

[hudsonf]

It can be done with the right cards. I record with a ATI AIW card and a Hauppauge WinTv PVR 250 card at the same time and never had a problem. I never tried it but I don't think you can record to the same harddrive. I would suggest looking into the Hauppauge cards if you want mpeg captures and BeyondTV or SageTV for a capturing program.

[lordsmurf]

Two computers, two DVD recorder, two VCR, etc....
Or a combination thereof.

[offline]

Sure you can. I run 1 bt878, one phillips and one
ATI. I can record two streams at once from two different channels and watch one at the same time
You need a powerful computer or
one stream encoding on a PVR 250 or similar to get
it to work.

[SlowCivicHmm]

i'm a noooob...details plz

[MOVIEGEEK]

Yes you can but it will use too much CPU resources and you will drop frames.Unless you have dual CPU's or a P4 with HT I would use two PC's.

[offline]

i'm a noooob...details plz

Well I'm sorry but you will have to un nooob

I would love to sit down and write a 20 page guide
on how I did it but I don't have the time and it would
be obsolete anyway.

What you want is a dual tuner (or two tuners) set up to
record a program each together in real time. Most
smart people would buy two TIVO's or PVR's and leave
it at that. Computer savvy people would buy two cheap computers.
Only really sick people would want to setup a HTTP (home theatre PC)
to do it all.

If you are of the third variety, you have some
reading and research to do

[SlowCivicHmm]

hmmmm I just need it for work...

I need to be able to view the 5pm news from 2 diff tv stations and log it (make a script outta it)

[FulciLives]

You are better off just buying two really cheap stand alone DVD recorders and use those.

OR

You could always get one stand alone DVD recorder and then a capture card so you use the computer for one stream and the stand alone DVD recorder for the second stream.

If you want reliable hands-off time recording though you are better off with two stand alone DVD recorders. I am sure we all have horror stories about setting a capture when not at home only to find out the computer crashed when we got back hehehe

Since you need to do this for "work" or a "job" then you want reliable.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Afterburner]

Check the brand new WinTv-500 card, it has dual tuners and dual mpeg encoders.
I know you can watch on one and record on the other,
not sure if recordable on both at the same time.

[edDV]

This will do what you want ... Beyond TV
http://www.snapstream.com/Products/beyondtv/

"You can also pause, fast-forward and rewind not only your recordings, but also live television. If two of your favorite shows happen to air at the same time, no worries… Beyond TV gives you the option to record more than one show at the same time or watch one while recording another."


Review
http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i=2179

[mats.hogberg]

Yes you can but it will use too much CPU resources and you will drop frames.Unless you have dual CPU's or a P4 with HT I would use two PC's.

Or, unless the card is of the hardware encoder kind, like Hauppage PVR 1/2/350. Zero CPU load for encoding.

/Mats

[hudsonf]

It can be done on one computer. I still suggest getting two Hauppauge cards and either BeyondTV or SageTV. I spent some of my Christmas money yesterday on a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2 card and recorded two different channels to the same harddrive at the same time with both Hauppauge cards and it worked great. I haven't tried using all three cards yet. With the Hauppauge cards you don't have to worry about dropped frames.