Looking for a PVR card (Long)

[Lydokane]

I have decided to take an old case/power supply/motherboard and turn it into
a PVR. The power supply is 350W and the motherboard is a Gigabyte with
512Mb RAM and 800Mhz AMD processor. I have a DVD-ROM drive that I am going
to put in it as well as a Western Digital® 80Gb Hard Drive that will run
Windows XP Pro ®. The motherboard has integrated sound but I will most
likely upgrade to a higher quality surround sound card when I have saved
enough coin. I should probably also mention that I am in the United States
and I only have basic expanded cable, no digital and no premium channels.
My only question is "What is the best PVR card for me?" I have looked at
several and the top contenders are:

AVerMedia Ultra TV PCI 350 or the Aver TV Studio
Nvidia Personal Cinema (FX based)
Haupauge WinTV-PVR-350
Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe

I haven't done much research on any of the ATI cards because much of the
information that I have stumbled upon mentions that their drivers are often
[always] buggy and I want something that will work right from the box. In
addition to this I couldn't find any evidence that titantv.com services
support any of the ATI cards. Also, I couldn't find much information
readily available for the ATI PVR line of cards.

Here is what I intend to do. I want to be able to pause/rewind live TV
(duh!) I would like to be able to record TV to the hard drive. With the
titantv.com service (mentioned in the previous paragraph) I can schedule
recording up to eight days in advance, maybe even more as the guide seems to
provide 14 days of programming information. I am thinking of getting into
DVD authoring as well. If I find that I have the time I would like to save
some of my favorite TV shows as well as convert home movies. This PVR PC
will only be used as a PVR. I will not be running any unnecessary apps or
games. I do intend to hook it to a TV (Toshiba 36") through S-Video. This
PVR PC will also act as my DVD player as well.

I am willing to spend around $200.00 or so but could talk myself into $250
if necessary. I just don't want to spend $125 only to realize two weeks
later that if I had spend an additional $30 I could have gotten better
quality or an option or two.

Here are my questions:

Is going VIVO the best route or should I buy an additional video card with
outputs?

If I go with a VIVO card, will that card send the DVD signal out to the TV?

As I write this I am unsure about VIVO support for any of the above
mentioned cards. If these cards do not support VIVO can somebody refer me
to a make/model that supports VIVO?

RE: Nvidia line: What is the difference between the FX5200, FX5600 and the
FX5900? Will the more expensive card provide a better quality PVR
experience? Better options? Opinions? Facts?

If I record to the hard drive for future playback then delete do I need to
be concerned with frame rate and/or frame drop? What about if I decide to
go into DVD authoring? Is this going to be an issue?

For DVD authoring, what is the preferred method of capturing and encoding?
I have read that MPEG2 is the best but I am an amateur in this field.

How difficult is it to navigate Windows® when using a TV instead of a
monitor. Are the fonts difficult to read? What about reading web pages and
working with applications that will be necessary from time to time? Are
some cards better than others when dealing with this situation?

In closing, I have done MUCH research on the topic of PVR cards over the
past three or four days. The preceding questions are the ones that I have
not been able to answer. Please forgive me if any of these questions have
been posted/answered recently. I am also open to suggestions to any other
makes/models that anyone out there has used.

Thanks,

-Lydokane-

 

[Uncooked meat prior to state vector collapse]

(snip)

In closing, I have done MUCH research on the topic of PVR cards over the
past three or four days. The preceding questions are the ones that I have
not been able to answer. Please forgive me if any of these questions have
been posted/answered recently. I am also open to suggestions to any other
makes/models that anyone out there has used.

Thanks,

-Lydokane-

This is a subject I am completely new to. I just recorded my first TV show
two nights ago and authored my first DVD later that same night. I can't give
you any product advice other than the fact that my ATI All In Wonder 9800
Pro does the job wonderfully and I have not had any driver problems (but
I've only had the card for two driver revisions). Also, with my system (see
below) I had no problems with dropped frames or any junk like that. It took
me about an hour to take the MPEG file and get it converted to DVD format
image and burned at 4X, but it was my first time and most of that hour was
spent researching how-to, and downloading/installing the tools to do it.
Seems like TMPGenc DVD Author took about 15 minutes to convert my MPEG file
and another 10-15 minutes to burn the 4GIG worth of video. Not quite sure
what the variation on time will be with a slower system or video card.


For what it's worth, I think the ATI provided software works great and is
very easy to use. My biggest hurdle was trying to figure out how to get an
MPEG file on a DVD as video.... the PVR scheduling, recording, settings etc.
were a cakewalk.

Relevant System Info -

Pentium 4 2.8C with HT (800FSB)
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard
Kingston HyperX PC3500 1GB Dual Channel Kit DDR
ATI All In Wonder 9800 Pro 128MB Video
Crappy old 27GB and 40GB IDE HDDs

 

[D'n C]

Your biggest problem, no matter what card you get will be your CPU. An
800MHz AMD processor (either an Athlon or Duron) is woefully underpowered
for what you intend to do. You need to get a video capture card that has
HARDWARE support for capturing. I think that you would do better with an
ATI AIW card than any of the options that you mention, but even then you
will more than likely have problems with timeshifting live TV (I have
problems with that on my AMD Athlon 1800+ system). I would look into
upgrading the CPU on that system if at all possible,

That said, any of the ATI All In Wonder Radeon cards should do what you
want. As for the RUMOR of crappy ATI drivers, they are no worse than anyone
elses. I've been using ATI cards for years and have NEVER had a single
driver problem.

D'n C

I have decided to take an old case/power supply/motherboard and turn
it into
a PVR. The power supply is 350W and the motherboard is a Gigabyte
with 512Mb RAM and 800Mhz AMD processor. I have a DVD-ROM drive that
I am going
to put in it as well as a Western Digital® 80Gb Hard Drive that will
run
Windows XP Pro ®. The motherboard has integrated sound but I will
most
likely upgrade to a higher quality surround sound card when I have
saved
enough coin. I should probably also mention that I am in the United
States
and I only have basic expanded cable, no digital and no premium
channels.
My only question is "What is the best PVR card for me?" I have
looked at
several and the top contenders are:

AVerMedia Ultra TV PCI 350 or the Aver TV Studio
Nvidia Personal Cinema (FX based)
Haupauge WinTV-PVR-350
Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe

I haven't done much research on any of the ATI cards because much of
the information that I have stumbled upon mentions that their drivers
are often [always] buggy and I want something that will work right
from the box. In addition to this I couldn't find any evidence that
titantv.com services
support any of the ATI cards. Also, I couldn't find much information
readily available for the ATI PVR line of cards.

Here is what I intend to do. I want to be able to pause/rewind live
TV (duh!) I would like to be able to record TV to the hard drive.
With the titantv.com service (mentioned in the previous paragraph) I
can schedule recording up to eight days in advance, maybe even more
as the guide seems to provide 14 days of programming information. I
am thinking of getting into
DVD authoring as well. If I find that I have the time I would like
to save
some of my favorite TV shows as well as convert home movies. This
PVR PC
will only be used as a PVR. I will not be running any unnecessary
apps or
games. I do intend to hook it to a TV (Toshiba 36") through S-Video.
This
PVR PC will also act as my DVD player as well.

I am willing to spend around $200.00 or so but could talk myself into
$250
if necessary. I just don't want to spend $125 only to realize two
weeks
later that if I had spend an additional $30 I could have gotten better
quality or an option or two.

Here are my questions:

Is going VIVO the best route or should I buy an additional video card
with outputs?

If I go with a VIVO card, will that card send the DVD signal out to
the TV?

As I write this I am unsure about VIVO support for any of the above
mentioned cards. If these cards do not support VIVO can somebody
refer me
to a make/model that supports VIVO?

RE: Nvidia line: What is the difference between the FX5200, FX5600
and the FX5900? Will the more expensive card provide a better
quality PVR
experience? Better options? Opinions? Facts?

If I record to the hard drive for future playback then delete do I
need to
be concerned with frame rate and/or frame drop? What about if I
decide to
go into DVD authoring? Is this going to be an issue?

For DVD authoring, what is the preferred method of capturing and
encoding?
I have read that MPEG2 is the best but I am an amateur in this field.

How difficult is it to navigate Windows® when using a TV instead of a
monitor. Are the fonts difficult to read? What about reading web
pages and working with applications that will be necessary from time
to time? Are
some cards better than others when dealing with this situation?

In closing, I have done MUCH research on the topic of PVR cards over
the
past three or four days. The preceding questions are the ones that I
have
not been able to answer. Please forgive me if any of these questions
have
been posted/answered recently. I am also open to suggestions to any
other makes/models that anyone out there has used.

Thanks,

-Lydokane-


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[J. Clarke]

Your biggest problem, no matter what card you get will be your CPU. An
800MHz AMD processor (either an Athlon or Duron) is woefully underpowered
for what you intend to do. You need to get a video capture card that has
HARDWARE support for capturing. I think that you would do better with an
ATI AIW card than any of the options that you mention, but even then you
will more than likely have problems with timeshifting live TV (I have
problems with that on my AMD Athlon 1800+ system). I would look into
upgrading the CPU on that system if at all possible,

FWIW, the Hauppauge board that he's looking at, and a couple of others as
well, have hardware compression. IMO they'd be better choices with his
machine than an AIW--I get dropped frames even on a 1.4 GHz machine so
he'll get them for sure on his 800.

I'm just not sure which would be the best choice--the Hauppauge boards have
a bit of third-party support but they supposedly don't work all that well
with the included software.

That said, any of the ATI All In Wonder Radeon cards should do what you
want. As for the RUMOR of crappy ATI drivers, they are no worse than
anyone
elses. I've been using ATI cards for years and have NEVER had a single
driver problem.

D'n C

I have decided to take an old case/power supply/motherboard and turn
it into
a PVR. The power supply is 350W and the motherboard is a Gigabyte
with 512Mb RAM and 800Mhz AMD processor. I have a DVD-ROM drive that
I am going
to put in it as well as a Western Digital® 80Gb Hard Drive that will
run
Windows XP Pro ®. The motherboard has integrated sound but I will
most
likely upgrade to a higher quality surround sound card when I have
saved
enough coin. I should probably also mention that I am in the United
States
and I only have basic expanded cable, no digital and no premium
channels.
My only question is "What is the best PVR card for me?" I have
looked at
several and the top contenders are:

AVerMedia Ultra TV PCI 350 or the Aver TV Studio
Nvidia Personal Cinema (FX based)
Haupauge WinTV-PVR-350
Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe

I haven't done much research on any of the ATI cards because much of
the information that I have stumbled upon mentions that their drivers
are often [always] buggy and I want something that will work right
from the box. In addition to this I couldn't find any evidence that
titantv.com services
support any of the ATI cards. Also, I couldn't find much information
readily available for the ATI PVR line of cards.

Here is what I intend to do. I want to be able to pause/rewind live
TV (duh!) I would like to be able to record TV to the hard drive.
With the titantv.com service (mentioned in the previous paragraph) I
can schedule recording up to eight days in advance, maybe even more
as the guide seems to provide 14 days of programming information. I
am thinking of getting into
DVD authoring as well. If I find that I have the time I would like
to save
some of my favorite TV shows as well as convert home movies. This
PVR PC
will only be used as a PVR. I will not be running any unnecessary
apps or
games. I do intend to hook it to a TV (Toshiba 36") through S-Video.
This
PVR PC will also act as my DVD player as well.

I am willing to spend around $200.00 or so but could talk myself into
$250
if necessary. I just don't want to spend $125 only to realize two
weeks
later that if I had spend an additional $30 I could have gotten better
quality or an option or two.

Here are my questions:

Is going VIVO the best route or should I buy an additional video card
with outputs?

If I go with a VIVO card, will that card send the DVD signal out to
the TV?

As I write this I am unsure about VIVO support for any of the above
mentioned cards. If these cards do not support VIVO can somebody
refer me
to a make/model that supports VIVO?

RE: Nvidia line: What is the difference between the FX5200, FX5600
and the FX5900? Will the more expensive card provide a better
quality PVR
experience? Better options? Opinions? Facts?

If I record to the hard drive for future playback then delete do I
need to
be concerned with frame rate and/or frame drop? What about if I
decide to
go into DVD authoring? Is this going to be an issue?

For DVD authoring, what is the preferred method of capturing and
encoding?
I have read that MPEG2 is the best but I am an amateur in this field.

How difficult is it to navigate Windows® when using a TV instead of a
monitor. Are the fonts difficult to read? What about reading web
pages and working with applications that will be necessary from time
to time? Are
some cards better than others when dealing with this situation?

In closing, I have done MUCH research on the topic of PVR cards over
the
past three or four days. The preceding questions are the ones that I
have
not been able to answer. Please forgive me if any of these questions
have
been posted/answered recently. I am also open to suggestions to any
other makes/models that anyone out there has used.

Thanks,

-Lydokane-


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