Best TV Tuner for capturing analog TV,S/VHS to mpeg2 & other codecs...

[retroborg]

Hello,
I would like some opinions on which is the best TV-Tuner at the moment, for capturing analog TV,S/VHS to mpeg2 & other codecs, in terms of highest resolution, optimal picture capture quality, high Frame rates and also supports NTSC,PAL & SECAM formats.

I've been told to further look into the following two brands:

LEADTEK WINFAST & HAUPPAUGE TV-Tuners

I'm interested in achieving the best possible capture results, so any subjective opinions on which specific card I should choose, will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[edDV]

"Best possible" as in regardless of cost? Be more specific.

What types of sources are you capturing? Just over the air broadcast or baseband video? NTSC, PAL, Secam tuner implies you are traveling. Is this for a jet set laptop?

What is the destination? DVD? SDI? High def?

Consumer tuners mostly use the same Conexant, Philips or TI chips. The main issue is uncompressed (under $80 ) vs. hardware encoding models ($100-500). Hauppauge PVR MPeg encoding tuners are popular.

High quality decoders to 10 bit uncompressed SDI run in the $700up range (Miranda, Aja, Ensembe Designs, etc.). At the high end, most decoders are application specific.

[Firewire60]

Consider the Compro Videomate DVB-300. It is multi format (PAL, NTSC) and receives SD and HD and is performing perfectly for me and I am new to this. We have PAL in OZ.

And card is good value price wise.

It comes with cables that allow your PC to be wired to allow power on and power off by the remote control that comes with it. This power on / power off is not supported by all motherboards but my PC is fairly recent and supports this.

Card can be scheduled to power on, record TV and power off automatically and will do it weekly if you want.

This card with the latest Compro Software and driver from the Compro site is tops as far as I am concerned. It does not need any third party software to operate flawlessly.

But this is no surprise as it was recommended by a discerning friend who had one.

[retroborg]

"Best possible" as in regardless of cost? Be more specific.

What types of sources are you capturing? Just over the air broadcast or baseband video? NTSC, PAL, Secam tuner implies you are traveling. Is this for a jet set laptop?

What is the destination? DVD? SDI? High def?

Consumer tuners mostly use the same Conexant, Philips or TI chips. The main issue is uncompressed (under $80 ) vs. hardware encoding models ($100-500). Hauppauge PVR MPeg encoding tuners are popular.

High quality decoders to 10 bit uncompressed SDI run in the $700up range (Miranda, Aja, Ensembe Designs, etc.). At the high end, most decoders are application specific.

I'm mostly interested in capturing aerial, analog, antenna broadcast TV signals (TV channels), as well as capturing into high quality mpeg2 files from some old multi region VHS tapes (PAL, NTSC & SECAM), via Composite RCA video cable connected to my VCR.

Destination is my Hard Drive.
Later on, I might edit some of these mpeg2 files & encode them into Xvid or DivX to reduce the size of the files.

Can the Hauppauge PVR cards capture in both Variable & Constant Bit rate and do they support both perspective & interlaced modes?

I know the Winfast TV series cards do.

Also here is a bad review on Hauppauge cards:
http://www.richardberg.net/WeatherMapRoundup
http://www.richardberg.net/Pvr150Review

Thanks in advance.

[edDV]

An issue with Hauppauge (and other) consumer cards is they don't stick to one decoder chipset or tuner can. These change through the various production runs and you can't tell from the model number, only the production date. I once researched the PVR-USB2 model and found it had used both TI and Conexant baseband video decoders.

This link shows some of the model differences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauppauge_Computer_Works

As I recall the early PVR USB2 used the TI tvp5150a decoder
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tvp5150a.html

Other runs used the Conexant CX2584x.

Google searching helps pin down these details.

[wiak]

have you guys looked at amd's theater 550 pro & 650 pro?
i have 550 pro, it has great quality on composite & s-video input as vel as coax
amd's 550 pro also beats nvidia & hauppauge in image quality

and the theater 550 + 550 pro has tweakable filters!
so we can custom tweak the encoder/noise reduction!!!




http://ati.amd.com/products/theater550/index.html
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/tuner-comparo/index.x?pg=11
http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/ati/550pro/index.php?p=05
http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=764
http://www.ocmodshop.com/default.aspx?a=251
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_theater_550_pro/
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1752
http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/1243/39/

[edDV]

I have a Sapphire Theatrix 550 and haven't found the formula to make it look any better than generic AIW. I haven't made much effort to deconstruct this card because default results have been so poor (with gbpvr or BeyondTV). It does tune cable and it does make MPeg2 but the quality has been minimally acceptable even in medium or high settings. I'm using the latest ATI driver recommended by ATI and Sapphire.

Help me find some value in this gift other than recording CNBC during the day. I hope somebody knows how to get quality from this tuner card. The promos were encouraging but the normal reviews are absent. Did this card fail and results were withdrawn during the AMD takeover?

[R55B]

I have had nothing but good usage out of an Hauppauge Win TV PVR2, mpeg2, usb2 hookup to my PC. I line all signals into a video editing board, and one set of 1meter cables into the PVR. Granted, the window interface is not the best, but there are alternatives...

[retroborg]

Hello, I’m thinking about getting the HAUPPAUGE WINTV PVR 150for:
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html

1. Does it support De-Interlaced/Progresive Capturing/Encoding, to eliminate the lines, noise and flicker on the edge of motion objects, like the Leadtek WinFast TV2000XP Global?
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/tv_tuner/overview.asp?pronameid=169&lineid=6&act=1

I found no reference regarding Interlaced, De-Interlaced Capturing/Encoding at the Hauppauge site, about the WINTV PVR 150.

2.Does it support Variable/Constant Bit rate?

Thanks in advance.

[retroborg]

So, this is what I got from another site…

Reply...

No it doesn't. It captures as interlaced MPEG2 video. If you persist you can use the card to do AVI captures, but that defeats the purpose of buying a MPEG2 card.

1. If I capture from an antenna RF TV channel, or from my VHS/VCR, to mpeg2 and play the file on my pc, I'll see lines, noise and flicker on the edge of motion objects?

You could use whatever software you like to post-capture de-interlace if you want to convert to another format

2. What software do you propose?
You suggest that once I capture in interlaced mpeg2, I should then use other software to convert to Divx/Xvid / de-interlaced?

3. Is there any way to capture/encode hardware de-interlaced mpeg2 with this card?

Thanks in advance.

[edDV]

The card captures interlace analog video (as broadcast) and encodes to interlace MPeg2 (aka 480i/576i). You can

1. keep it as interlace (best for display on a TV). A good deinterlacing software player like Power DVD can be used to watch on a computer monitor. VLC is another player with various manual deinterlace settings.

2. Inverse telecine film baced material to true progressive video.

3. Use various deinterlace techniques on the file. Note that these will produce various artifacts in the image like double vision blurs.

[retroborg]

2. Inverse telecine film baced material to true progressive video.

1.Could I use
Avisynth 2.5.7
http://avisynth.org/

Decomb Plugin for Avisynth
http://neuron2.net/decomb/decombnew.html

...And this Inverse Telecine Guide to De-Interlace guide:
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/inverse_telecine.cfm
to convert the captured interlace mpeg2 files to progressive (De-Interlaced) mpeg2 files?
Will this process produce various artifacts in the image like double vision blurs?

Or...

2.How about the "WinFast PVR3000 Deluxe"
http://www.leadtek.com/eng/tv_tuner/overview.asp?lineid=6&pronameid=322

“Hardware MPEG-II Encoder” provides excellent video quality with minimal CPU usage.

De-interlacing:
Enjoy crystal-clear picture quality and much smoother frame rate for TV, DVD and other video playback

powerful 3D NR (Noise Reduction) can clear noise from the TV source and deliver clear, vivid TV pictures. No more ‘snow or raindrop’ effects or poor channels on TV

Has anybody used it and could this card capture in good quality, hardware mpeg2 encoding, aswell as de-interlacing, without having to mess around with post-processing?

Thanks in advance.