trying to find the best capture card!!!!

[owen_o_we]

hey looking for a capture card for pci slot "not pci-e"and wondering what is the best one to use, I used the ATI pro 550 before and it wasnt that good of a choice, so I took it back,,,, looking into the Hauppauge 1600, I just want to reocrd off of cable or satellite, and back up my VHF to DVD, and record off of my camcorder.... maybe you know of a couple different capture cards I can look at? the ati 550 gave me a choppy view when I tryed to record family guy off of satellite, I know theres the 650 but I kinda want to stay away from ati now haha..... and most of my VHF wouldnt record, maybe to macrovision I think its called, some protection!!! anyways if you can help out on the best capture cards out there that would be awsome thankx,,,,,,, Owen

[Bjs]

Welcome owen_o_we

Leadtek winfast dtv2000 t ... covers it all from tv antenna , dvb , sat , rca , game consoles .

Check requirements , pc is fine but note sp2 info missing from your pc specs .

[jman98]

I have the Hauppauge PVR-350 and it's a truly great card, but to be honest with you, you could save some money and just get the PVR-150. The PVR-150 should be as good as the PVR-350 and this truly sucks for me, but Hauppauge also gives you on the PVR-150 the ability to record in AVI format if you wish. I don't really need to do this, but I think it sucks that I paid a lot more for my PVR-350 than what the PVR-150 costs and the PVR-150 offers AVI recording and the PVR-350 doesn't. The 1600 model may be overkill for you as it offers HDTV recording if I remember correctly and you probably don't need that at this time.

Having said that, I don't believe that Hauppauge cards can remove Macrovision. You will need to buy a TBC (time base corrector) to remove Macrovision. I like Hauppauge cards a lot. They just work and they work well and they have a hardware chip to do the encoding, which I think is great. I'm not a fan at all of ATI cards, all of which do software encoding, which I think is not so great. You definitely shouldn't do anything on your PC when recording with an ATI card or you might drop frames. With a Hauppauge card, if you can do normal stuff on the PC at the same time you record because the card's chip is doing the encoding, not your CPU. You are a wise person to stay away ATI.

[dfisher052]

I have the Hauppauge PVR150 card & like it. I had an ATI card before that on a different computer (lower power) and that worked fine, after I finally got it configured right. The only thing I have noticed is that the Hauppauge is just a little bit softer in picture quality.

[yoda313]

I don't believe that Hauppauge cards can remove Macrovision

Just a heads up my 250 did before I sold it on ebay.....

By the way the hauppauge cards are excellent. I just switched to fusion so I could do hdtv recordings.

[owen_o_we]

great info people keep it up, looking into hauppauge card right now, Hauppauge WINTV-HVR-1600 PCI TV Tuner card (new) what about that for 60 bucks, or should I go for the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 for 40 bucks

[yoda313]

I can fully vouch for the 250 - its a great card. I don't know what the 1600 offers.

However as mentioned if you need avi recording don't get the 250 or 350 as they don't have it. Other hauppauge cards do. You have to verify which version does before you buy if avi recording is important to you.

[jagabo]

In addition to standard definition capture the HVR-1600 can capture high definition digital broadcasts via ATSC (over the air) or unencrypted QAM (cable).

[owen_o_we]

well I just bought a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 PCI Hardware Video Capture Card
for 40 dallers, is that a good price??? I dont think I care about the AVI, as long as it produces a good video I will be happy, I rather it be in Mpeg 2 anyways!

[mats.hogberg]

WinTV-PVR 250 PCI Hardware Video Capture Card for 40 dallers, is that a good price???

I'd say so. Once upon a time I bought one for like 4 times that much, and was/still am satisfied with it. As my goal when capturing is to put it on a Video DVD, a detour over AVI isn't interesting. Being able to use the computer quite as normal while capturing, something the software based/"assisted" cards make impossible isn't bad either.

/Mats

[jagabo]

Some good information for PVR-250 owners:

http://www.shspvr.com/
http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/htpc.html (see the Tips and Tricks section)

The shspvr site has some utilities that let you adjust sharpness and noise reduction settings that can't be controlled with WinTV2000.

When recording with WinTV2000 you can press the || (pause) button (between rewind and stop buttons) to pause the display but continue recording. This reduces CPU usage to near zero.

[owen_o_we]

wow thankx for the help but Im not sure if this comes with an operations system, what program do you think is best to run with this card!!!

[jagabo]

It should come with Hauppauge's drivers and software. If not, you can download them from Hauppauge's web site.

WinTV2000 isn't great but it's adequate. If you want more PVR functionality, like a built in program guide and a 10 foot UI, you can try out programs like BeyondTV, GBPVR, and SageTV. Amontillado's site has links...

In terms of quality, the PVR-250 is a hardware MPEG encoder. All software will deliver the same quality with the same settings.

[SmokieStover]

SHS has a Lite CD for the PVR 250 which you can download, unzip and burn to CD. This makes the installation much easier than downloading the seperate parts directlty from Hauppauge and following their instructions.

I haven't tried SHS's latest version because the previous one caused odd problems, so I'm back to what came with the card.

The "Hauppauge Tweaker" will not make all the changes required to staighten out the audio. For some reason, the volume settings are way too loud when the base drivers are installed and then automatically updated to the latest version. I find the sharpness value (2 by default) to be too low, but a value of 3 seems much better on analog cable. With sat. TV you can try a higher value of either 4 or 5.

Unless SHS's latest Lite CD fixed the audio and sharpness problems, you will need to edit the registry keys in three places after the installation is competed.

HERE ARE THE DEFAULT REGISTRY KEYS:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Globespan\Parameters\ivac15\Driver]
"OutType"=dword:0000000e
"Bitrate"=dword:00000640
"InType"=dword:00000000
"VideoRes"=dword:00000000
"TVFormat"=dword:00000000
"AudioDataRate"=dword:0000000e
"GOPSize"=dword:00000f03
"ClosedGOP"=dword:00000000
"SamplingRate"=dword:00000001
"AudioOutputMode"=dword:00000000
"AudioCRC"=dword:00000001
"BitrateMode"=dword:00000000
"BitratePeak"=dword:00004e20
"TrickMode"=dword:00000000
"InverseTelecine"=dword:00000000
"OldEncoderBitrateInterface"=dword:00000001
"HueValue"=dword:00000000
"BrightnessValue"=dword:00000088
"ContrastValue"=dword:00000048
"SaturationValue"=dword:00000047
"SharpnessValue"=dword:00000002
"DownloadFWAtBootTime"=dword:00000000
"EncPauseBuffSize"=dword:00000000
"EncCheckVSync"=dword:00000000
"EncoderFrameSize"=dword:00008000
"EncoderNumberFrames"=dword:00000032
"AudMode"=dword:00000002
"CurrentPgm"=dword:00000010
"HcwAudioScart1Prescale"=dword:00002a00
"HcwAudioScart1PrescaleFM"=dword:00005000
"HcwAudioScart1Volume"=dword:00007701
"HcwAudioNicamPrescale"=dword:00005800
"HcwAudioFMAMPrescale"=dword:00002401
"FltDnrMode"=dword:00000000
"FltDnrSpatFltLevel"=dword:00000000
"FltDnrTempFltLevel"=dword:00000008
"HcwAllowVideoDiscontinuity"=dword:00000001
"HcwForceEnableIRClock"=dword:00000001
"SetInitialSCR"=dword:00000001
"InitialSCR"=dword:00006993
"HcwRadioBitrate"=dword:00000fa0
"HcwRadioBitrateMode"=dword:00000000
"HcwRadioBitratePeak"=dword:00001f40
"CpChoice"=dword:00000003
"hcwRunningRestrictions"=dword:00000003
"YUVTimeStamps"=dword:00000003
"PCMTimeStamps"=dword:00000003
"EnableMultiGraphSupport"=dword:00000000

HERE ARE MY EDITED KEYS (ONLY THE UNDERLINED ONES HAVE BEEN CHANGED)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Globespan\Parameters\ivac15\Driver]
"OutType"=dword:0000000e
"Bitrate"=dword:00000640
"InType"=dword:00000000
"VideoRes"=dword:00000000
"TVFormat"=dword:00000000
"AudioDataRate"=dword:0000000e
"GOPSize"=dword:00000f03
"ClosedGOP"=dword:00000000
"SamplingRate"=dword:00000001
"AudioOutputMode"=dword:00000000
"AudioCRC"=dword:00000001
"BitrateMode"=dword:00000000
"BitratePeak"=dword:00004e20
"TrickMode"=dword:00000000
"InverseTelecine"=dword:00000000
"OldEncoderBitrateInterface"=dword:00000001
"HueValue"=dword:00000000
"BrightnessValue"=dword:00000088
"ContrastValue"=dword:00000048
"SaturationValue"=dword:00000047
"SharpnessValue"=dword:00000003
"DownloadFWAtBootTime"=dword:00000000
"EncPauseBuffSize"=dword:00000000
"EncCheckVSync"=dword:00000000
"EncoderFrameSize"=dword:00008000
"EncoderNumberFrames"=dword:00000032
"AudMode"=dword:00000002
"CurrentPgm"=dword:00000010
"HcwAudioScart1Prescale"=dword:00001194 THIS IS HEX EQUAL TO 4500 DECIMAL
"HcwAudioScart1PrescaleFM"=dword:00005000
"HcwAudioScart1Volume"=dword:00007301 THIS IS A TUNER VOLUME OF 0db
"HcwAudioNicamPrescale"=dword:00005800
"HcwAudioFMAMPrescale"=dword:00002401
"FltDnrMode"=dword:00000000
"FltDnrSpatFltLevel"=dword:00000000
"FltDnrTempFltLevel"=dword:00000008
"HcwAllowVideoDiscontinuity"=dword:00000001
"HcwForceEnableIRClock"=dword:00000001
"SetInitialSCR"=dword:00000001
"InitialSCR"=dword:00006993
"HcwRadioBitrate"=dword:00000fa0
"HcwRadioBitrateMode"=dword:00000000
"HcwRadioBitratePeak"=dword:00001f40
"CpChoice"=dword:00000003
"hcwRunningRestrictions"=dword:00000003
"YUVTimeStamps"=dword:00000003
"PCMTimeStamps"=dword:00000003
"EnableMultiGraphSupport"=dword:00000000

"HcwAudioScart1Prescale" is the Line In volume. The default value was far to loud and distorted. I tried decimal values from 4000 to about 12000 (default) and 4500 decimal seemed the best for me.

"HcwAudioScart1Volume" is the tuner volume. The default value of + 4db is way too loud with distortion and clipping. You shouldn't be using the tuner (RF input) with a sat box anyway. 6f01 equals -4db, 6b01 equals -8db.

Because of the loud and distorted audio, I dam near thru my PVR 250 in the trash. Seems like no one (including those on SHS Wintv PVR forum) had a clue as how to fix the horrible Line In audio. I finally ran the problem down on a UK forum.

Best not to edit the registry directly. Run regedit and work your way down the tree until you reach the "Driver" folder, then double click it and you will see all the keys listed above. Then click on "File" and then "Export"......a window will open up allowing you to name and save the .reg file. I suggest naming it something like Registry Keys Default PVR 250. You can then open that file with wordpad (set to all file times) and make the edits and then save same with a new name. Go to My Computer, double click on the edited file and answer "Yes". You must reboot for the changes to stick.

Good Luck!

[/b]