TV Tuner Card Recommendation

Anyone have any favorite TV Card recommendations? I have a Hauppauge Win TV
Go PLus, and the remote control is very unreliable. I'd like to get
something a little more reliable.

Thanks for any opinions.

"Buck Turgidson" <jc_va@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:wwzQf.85689$bF.72175@dukeread07...
> Anyone have any favorite TV Card recommendations? I have a Hauppauge Win
> TV Go PLus, and the remote control is very unreliable. I'd like to get
> something a little more reliable.
>
> Thanks for any opinions.
The reviews for cards based on the ATI Theatre 550 chip such as the TV
Wonder Elite and Sapphire Theatrix are very favourable - the picture quality
looks to be the excellent. Now that the latest versions of ATI Multimedia
Centre are reputed to work with them (according to the rage3d forums) it
should be possible to use the composite/S-Video inputs as well. Personally
I'm happy with my ATI TV Wonder and All In Wonder equipped PCs. Having used
Hauppauge in the past with a couple of products, I wouldn't go back to them
due to their software.

Paul

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 07:38:00 -0500, "Buck Turgidson"
<jc_va@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Anyone have any favorite TV Card recommendations? I have a Hauppauge Win TV
>Go PLus, and the remote control is very unreliable. I'd like to get
>something a little more reliable.
>
>Thanks for any opinions.

Probably the most popular card is the 150 Hauppauge. Its relatively
inexpensive if you get the white box version (no remote and software
just drivers) which I got. Then its around $65 or so. Check Amazon and
Buy.com which usually sells it with Free shipping maybe no tax around
65.

I dont use the remote so its not big deal to me and you can get free
software or buy the excellent Beyond TV software which eveyone loves.
There are several free software progs a popular one is GBPVR which Ive
used with my 150. Works great.

You can buy a separate remote like FIREFLY which is very popular but
of course that adds to the cost. Ive seen the full retail pack for 100
bucks with remote and software. Its been rebated down to 70-80 a a few
times but not recently.

Ive posted ad nauseum about both in the past. The 150 was the first
cheaper hardware encoding card. Up until then the hardware encoding
cards were very expensive. I had several non hardware encoding cards.
So everyone jumped on the 150 and a new chip they came out with which
drastically lowered the cost of hardware encoding cards. Since then
there have been several hardware encoding cards for cheap in the 50-70
range but they arent as popular as the 150.

Then there was hype about the new 550 ATI chip. It was talked about at
some sites and eagerly anticipated. I was all worked up about it and
was planning on getting it instead of the 150. ATI hyped it showing
all kinds of image processing which made it seem like it may be a big
leap ahead of everything else. When it came out several tech maniacs
who had 150s and 500 hauppauges bought the sapphire version which was
going for a very low 75 at the time full package. They reviewed and
uploaded captures of video and screens. Generally the results werent
that impressive. Very hard to tell the difference between a 150 and
the sapphire. Some people said either one was better but it was a toss
up.

Anandtech did review and pointed out if you really looked some text
with the 550 was a bit cleaner but in general the signal from
regularTV was so poor there wasnt a huge difference between that and
say the Hauppauge. Other people didnt like the ATIs initially cause
they dont like ATIs software and it was less compatible. They might
have fixed that by now - some bugs people mentioned.

Anyway the top software used with tuner cards seem much preferred over
anything that comes with cards -- Beyong TV, Sage TV or MS WIN MCE.
Last time I checked the Sapphire 550 wasnt selling for 75 anymore at
Newegg it was much higher but prices at those places really go up and
down now cause they all use some software to react to supply and
demand I think. Prices seem to change daily.

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 13:48:58 -1000, "JohnS@Smith.com"
<JohnS@Newscene.com> wrote:

>Probably the most popular card is the 150 Hauppauge.

Can you recommend some forums, Usenet and private, that treat this
topic of PVRs seriously.


--

"To achieve One World Government it is necessary to remove
from the minds of men their individualism their loyalty to
family traditions and national identification."
--Brock Chisholm, Director of UN WHO

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:22:14 GMT, spam@uce.gov (Bob) wrote:

>On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 13:48:58 -1000, "JohnS@Smith.com"
><JohnS@Newscene.com> wrote:
>
>>Probably the most popular card is the 150 Hauppauge.
>
>Can you recommend some forums, Usenet and private, that treat this
>topic of PVRs seriously.

Well everyone always mentions AVS but they talk mainly about TVs and
other stuff including PC stuff
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=8
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=11

Build your own PVR site
http://www.byopvr.com/
TV-cards
http://www.tv-cards.com/

Unfortunately there are no super hot , active TV TUNER only forums as
you can imagine thats kind of a narrow topic.

When I was really interested in the topic I read several general PC
hardware sites that had reviews on the card, general topic forums
where a few hardware maniacs who were REALLY into it were posting ---
the ones I mentioned especially one guy who said he had the 500/150
hauppauge and went out and bought the 550 and then uploaded clips from
each card. He was posting to at least two sites which elicited other
serious commentary.

The big reviews

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2393

I have issues with this test --- they rank the 150 dead last and eVGA
best
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q...ro/index.x?pg=1

The Anandtech also put the ATI ahead but say in the conclusion in the
end its about a tiny bit of difference as the signal quality for TV is
so poor etc and the first hand tests I mentioned where people looked
at captures of the 150 vs the ATI didnt see a lot of difference. Also
Anandtech didnt test the 150 -- they tested the 250 which uses the
older chip I think.

Some posts also say the ATI doesnt work with most other programs
except MCE and the one its bundled with? Not sure if thats true but
that would be a big turnoff unless you wanted to use MCE of course.

I just checked --- sage tv and BEYOND TV probably the most hyped
software as best for hardware encoding TV tuner cards next to MCE BOTH
support ATI 550 cards.


I stand corrected ----- THERE IS A PCI EXPRESS card besides video
cards apparently. And apparently its a ATI 550 card exactly what I was
waiting for before I bought my 150 hauppauge. Part of the hype about
the 550 ati besides all this image processing that was supposed to
make it better was that they were making PCI and PCI express versions
sooner or later. I was hoping sooner. I waited and waited. Apparently
it finally did come out.

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarti...cleid=764&cid=2

And the ATI 550 is as low as 80 in for some makes. A graph at NEX TAG
the price engine shows it falling as low as 60 before Xmas.


HTPC news
http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=zalmanpsu_1

And theres the old VIdeo help site.

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:51:45 -1000, "JohnS@Smith.com"
<JohnS@Newscene.com> wrote:

>>Can you recommend some forums, Usenet and private, that treat this
>>topic of PVRs seriously.

>Well everyone always mentions AVS but they talk mainly about TVs and
>other stuff including PC stuff
>http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=8
>http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=11

>Build your own PVR site
>http://www.byopvr.com/
>TV-cards
>http://www.tv-cards.com/

Thanks for the heads up.

>Unfortunately there are no super hot , active TV TUNER only forums as
>you can imagine thats kind of a narrow topic.

I suspect that will change in the coming few years. It's impossible to
tell when something is going to catch on, only that it will
eventually.

>
>When I was really interested in the topic I read several general PC
>hardware sites that had reviews on the card, general topic forums
>where a few hardware maniacs who were REALLY into it were posting ---
>the ones I mentioned especially one guy who said he had the 500/150
>hauppauge and went out and bought the 550 and then uploaded clips from
>each card. He was posting to at least two sites which elicited other
>serious commentary.
>
>The big reviews
>
>http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2393
>
>I have issues with this test --- they rank the 150 dead last and eVGA
>best
>http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q...ro/index.x?pg=1
>
>The Anandtech also put the ATI ahead but say in the conclusion in the
>end its about a tiny bit of difference as the signal quality for TV is
>so poor etc and the first hand tests I mentioned where people looked
>at captures of the 150 vs the ATI didnt see a lot of difference. Also
>Anandtech didnt test the 150 -- they tested the 250 which uses the
>older chip I think.
>
>Some posts also say the ATI doesnt work with most other programs
>except MCE and the one its bundled with? Not sure if thats true but
>that would be a big turnoff unless you wanted to use MCE of course.
>
>I just checked --- sage tv and BEYOND TV probably the most hyped
>software as best for hardware encoding TV tuner cards next to MCE BOTH
>support ATI 550 cards.
>
>
>I stand corrected ----- THERE IS A PCI EXPRESS card besides video
>cards apparently. And apparently its a ATI 550 card exactly what I was
>waiting for before I bought my 150 hauppauge. Part of the hype about
>the 550 ati besides all this image processing that was supposed to
>make it better was that they were making PCI and PCI express versions
>sooner or later. I was hoping sooner. I waited and waited. Apparently
>it finally did come out.
>
>http://www.hothardware.com/viewarti...cleid=764&cid=2
>
>And the ATI 550 is as low as 80 in for some makes. A graph at NEX TAG
>the price engine shows it falling as low as 60 before Xmas.
>
>
>HTPC news
>http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=zalmanpsu_1
>
>And theres the old VIdeo help site.
>
>http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards

--

"To achieve One World Government it is necessary to remove
from the minds of men their individualism their loyalty to
family traditions and national identification."
--Brock Chisholm, Director of UN WHO