Tv Tuner Cards

4aces · 29-12-2005 9:42pm #1

Was thinking about getting a TV tuner card (analogue + PCI) and was wondering if anyone could advise me on purchasing a good card. I want it to have Mpeg 2 encoding, Scheduled recording, teletext, FM radio and remote control. I'm willing to spending up to 120 euro for decent card.

Any help?

4aces.

PC Specs: 1.7 Ghz, 768Ram, Win Xp Home SP2.

Tom Dunne · 30-12-2005 3:18pm

You can't really go wrong with the Hauppauge range. I have the USB2 PVR and it's the mutt's nuts. The only problem is the software - it does the job, but it ain't pretty.

You can of course use most of them with Windows Media Center and Media Portal (not forgetting GB-PVR) and most come with a remote control.

TempestSabre · 30-12-2005 9:12pm

Does it have a wireless remote?

Tom Dunne · 31-12-2005 5:03pm

Erm, I didn't know there was such a thing as a wired remote.

Yes, it is a standard infra-red remote with buttons for teletext, DVD and a few specialised (e.g. full screen).

TempestSabre · 31-12-2005 9:02pm

tom dunne wrote:

Erm, I didn't know there was such a thing as a wired remote.

Yes, it is a standard infra-red remote with buttons for teletext, DVD and a few specialised (e.g. full screen).

I meant "wireless radio frequency remote" as opposed to an infra red IR remote which require line of sight, and a dongle somewhere.

Paddy20 · 01-01-2006 3:35am

Avermedia specialise in this type of product: click on :- www.avermedia.com/

Their *AVerMedia AVerTV GO 007 FM Plus may be what you are looking for, they are also available from; www.qvcuk.com/
Item number 553554 for STG£28.24p + P&P, when in stock.

Good luck & HPNY.

P.

4aces · 01-01-2006 8:02pm

Thanks for the replies. I'll have a look at the Avermedia site. Hopefully they have what I want.

4aces.

MOH · 05-01-2006 11:33am

I had an AverMedia USB one for about a week, brought it back and got a Hauppauge PVR-USB2.0, found it much better.

-Al- · 06-01-2006 4:55pm

brother has a hauppage tv card in his media centre, when you record from sky the quality is excellent.

4aces · 08-01-2006 8:39pm

I had a look at the AverMedia site but they didnt have what I wanted.

I was recommended this card by Komplett based on my PC specs - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=304730&view=detailed

Anyone have any experience with this card or know anything about it?

Cheers,
4aces.

SouperComputer · 08-01-2006 9:24pm

stick with the hauppage range TBH. PVR 150, 250 OR 350 are all very good. They all support MPEG2 on the fly hardware encoding,

masteroftherealm · 09-01-2006 2:11am

Souper your well into HTPC whats ur opinion on the ati theater 550 chip yay or nay?

SouperComputer · 09-01-2006 9:49am

masteroftherealm wrote:

Souper your well into HTPC whats ur opinion on the ati theater 550 chip yay or nay?

What OS do you plan running it on?

Judging from their previous chips, Id say yay. Some of the older AIW', pre MPEG 2 had great philips frame capture chips. Great for digitising VHS\Video 8.

A good card overall, im not sure about Linux compatability, so far I cant confirm or deny it!

[OT]Sorry I didnt get in touch over the weekend, playing catchup ATM[/OT}

masteroftherealm · 09-01-2006 3:03pm

[ot: Yeah no probs man whenever ya have time! Ihave nothing but time as ya can guess ;p[/ot]

Well it'd be going into a media portal system (For the parents) so VidForLinux compatiblity aint very high on the list. Waht wuld be would be a decent hardware decoder cause the processor will only be a 2.6 P4 and I cant have stuttering.

masteroftherealm · 09-01-2006 3:04pm

[ot: Yeah no probs man whenever ya have time! Ihave nothing but time as ya can guess ;p[/ot]

Well it'd be going into a media portal system (For the parents) so VidForLinux compatiblity aint very high on the list. Waht wuld be would be a decent hardware decoder cause the processor will only be a 2.6 P4 and I cant have stuttering.

SouperComputer · 09-01-2006 3:20pm

P4 2.4 is grand unless you plan doing Hdef, even then you should be fine.

Usually you can get away with 1.2Ghz+ for MPEG II. After all a DVD can be decoded in software without dropped frames on a PII 400 under 98SE.

Ive found media portal to be heavy on resources though.

Have a looksie here, interesting article:

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/tuner-comparo/index.x?pg=1

Emerson · 09-01-2006 3:34pm

Anyone know of a card that I can access remotely?

It would be so useful to be able to just put software on my home pc, hook it up to my cable/sat and then control it and playback from an epg on my laptop either in the house wirelessly or in college/away.

I've had two pci cards now that won't stream at all using Windows Media Encoder. Remote Desktop just displays a pink/blue screen where the video should be.

With DSL upload speeds going up to 384k in a couple of weeks, streaming video from your home pc will become increasingly viable. But is the hardware/software available?

<edit - that Nvidia one on Komplett seems to do the job actually... Anyone tested out this feature? It's sold out though :-( >
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=304730&view=detailed

SouperComputer · 09-01-2006 3:41pm

if you have MCE:

http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/

If you dont, you could try UltraVNC for remote access. Use the DSM plugin if you can

naturally both of these have secuity implications, but they are worth looking into.

I wonder how well that Nvidia card work on MCE with streaming, another card for me to play with

[edit] just re-read your post, whats above will be useful, but also....

streaming the media to anything other than a MCE extender is an absolute farce, you can try this though:

http://www.orb.com/

^Havent used this myself, but hope to try it in the next couple of weeks.

Also you can try and hijack the stream from the buffer and feed it to VLC, but thats messy.

TBH if you want streaming, MythTV for teh win [/edit]

Tv Tuner Cards

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