TV Card - Which one?

[ChristopherP]

Hey...

The parents are interested in a TV card for the media centre...

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good model that would give perfect quality reception (going from an output on the sky box to the capture card) without any graininess or horizontal lines such as on my Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 Deluxe.

It would be used to record TV shows instead of the old school VHS way - as we could then burn to DVD's - basically we want Sky+ for cheap!!

Any suggestions or personal experiences?

Chris

 

[Me__2001]

i've been looking into one also and this site has got some good reviews on it http://www.tv-cards.com/

 

[floppybootstomp]

I got this one, a Pinnacle: Pinnacle PCTV

I'm pleased with it, it accepts terrestrial and cable signals.

But, tbh, I only bought it to capture video.

I paid £30.00 for it, though mine didn't have a remote control.

That's about the only experience I have of TV cards. The ATI AIW's are good.

 

[ChristopherP]

Have looked at that site, but theres so many it's kind of confusing.

I just want one thats going to give the best quality video and audio,
with the ability to record high quality too. Thats all... I don't need any pointless features.

I only have experience with the one model. Different people say different things about all the different cards. argh.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Chris, I've been down that road too, lol, in the end I went with the Pinnacle as I had their Studio 8 software, no other reason.

I do hear the Hauppage cards are good, but I've no experience of them myself.

 

[psd99]

Look no further than Hauppage my friend

Ive had one of these for 3 years now, must say very impressed by these German Giants!
I do suggest going for a PCI Card version too, neat and out of the way! Freeview is getting so much better nowdays aswell,
but obvioulsy u want it for Sky too, im sure Hauppage accomodate for this too!


I got a Digital Freeview PCI Card Receiver and the recording quality is quite simply exceptional! It is mpeg4, very good quality. This format will not work on standard DVD players, but I have a way around that nowadays, as I have my x-box. Other drawback is the sheer size of the recordings, one hour for me takes up around 2GB's! But one will never complain about the beauty, quality and build of these cards!


check out their range:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/prods.html

good luck

 

[Quadophile]

I have read good things about Hauppage at many places and I think you should check them out as PSD99 has suggested.Must say I personally have no experience of using one.

 

[crazylegs]

I also have no experience of using hauppage tv cards but all the write ups i have ever seen over the years always give these cards top billing so they must be doing something right...

 

[Raje]

Look no further than Hauppage my friend

I got a Digital Freeview PCI Card Receiver and the recording quality is quite simply exceptional! It is mpeg4, very good quality. This format will not work on standard DVD players, but I have a way around that nowadays, as I have my x-box. Other drawback is the sheer size of the recordings, one hour for me takes up around 2GB's! But one will never complain about the beauty, quality and build of these cards!


check out their range:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/prods.html

good luck

Could you create teh image using the card and given program , then use another program to convert the AVI into an ISO.... or is it a protected image?

 

[psd99]

Could you create teh image using the card and given program , then use another program to convert the AVI into an ISO.... or is it a protected image?

i think this is possible as its not protected

but ive never tried it

 

[ChristopherP]

Will look into that now then...

Thanks

 

[Me__2001]

i dunno if its too late but i've just come across this from hauppague, bit pricey but it seems worth it to me

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_4333.html

 

[psd99]

it does look quality

can it take sky or cable?

 

[Me__2001]

from what i know about cable and Sky, they work by decoding the info in the box then sending the info by an RF lead to the TV, so in theory if the info is decoded in the box then you can hook the output up to anything that has an RF input and TV decoder

 

[marleyuk]

Compro T200/T300 are pretty decent. I have a T200 they both support digital and the T300 comes with a seperate analogue tuner aswell. Drivers support Windows Media Center and there is some program you can get that runs in the background and converts the signals so the remote can be used with Media Center.

Marl Out.