TV Tuner Card Woes

[Barney Rubble]

I hope I have the right group ?

I bought a Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Expert tuner card , basically for
watching a bit of TV while emailing etc. It works very well with live
signals, both TV and FM radio.
The problem I'm having is with recording / playback.

My system is a
1.3ghz Duron
512 mg ram
80 gig 8 ms Maxtor HD
32mg MSI nVidia GeForce 2 MX Video Card.
Winx XP SP2 with all updates and Direct X 9

Minimum Specs for the card

P2 300
128mg ram
Direct X 8.1 or better

First let me say that while my specs are far from state of the art, the
system works well for my video use and I seem to exceed the minimum
requirements for the card.

Here's the problem.

Using the supplied software when I try to record from the Line In, it will
run for approx 2 - 3 minutes and the computer reboots. That has also
happened when I've tried to record from the cable, but not as frequently. I
was able to record several (5?) minutes worth last night without
interruption. When I played it back, after a minute or so, the audio was out
of sync with the picture ? The other problem was that when I was able to
record from the line in, eventually the image 'froze' on the screen while
the audio kept going.

I browsed the site and found this little gem
Note
The capture performance depends on the system configuration and video
parameters setting .

Perhaps that's the answer...but I'm not sure?


As you can guess, I really haven't a clue where to start sorting this out,
other than to conclude that the card is basically crap?....but if someone
has an idea, I'd appreciate it.
I was wondering if this sort of problem would be enough to return the card
or is it just 'one of those things...?"

Thanks in advance.

 

[MCheu]

I hope I have the right group ?

I bought a Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Expert tuner card , basically for
watching a bit of TV while emailing etc. It works very well with live
signals, both TV and FM radio.
The problem I'm having is with recording / playback.

My system is a
1.3ghz Duron
512 mg ram
80 gig 8 ms Maxtor HD
32mg MSI nVidia GeForce 2 MX Video Card.
Winx XP SP2 with all updates and Direct X 9

Minimum Specs for the card

P2 300
128mg ram
Direct X 8.1 or better

First let me say that while my specs are far from state of the art, the
system works well for my video use and I seem to exceed the minimum
requirements for the card.

Here's the problem.

Using the supplied software when I try to record from the Line In, it will
run for approx 2 - 3 minutes and the computer reboots. That has also
happened when I've tried to record from the cable, but not as frequently. I
was able to record several (5?) minutes worth last night without
interruption. When I played it back, after a minute or so, the audio was out
of sync with the picture ? The other problem was that when I was able to
record from the line in, eventually the image 'froze' on the screen while
the audio kept going.

I browsed the site and found this little gem
Note
The capture performance depends on the system configuration and video
parameters setting .

Perhaps that's the answer...but I'm not sure?


As you can guess, I really haven't a clue where to start sorting this out,
other than to conclude that the card is basically crap?....but if someone
has an idea, I'd appreciate it.
I was wondering if this sort of problem would be enough to return the card
or is it just 'one of those things...?"

Thanks in advance.

What are your record settings? Try reducing the image resolution and
shutting down as many unused processes as possible. The recorder
program is encoding MPEG1 or MPEG2 in real time, even at the lowest
resolution (presumably 320x200), that's a LOT of data to compress
quickly. Going to higher resolutions only makes it worse. Of course,
that only explains why the recording might freeze or go out of sync.

That doesn't explain why it might cause the system to reset. That
might be because of any number of things, a defective TV card, poor
case grounding, bad power supply, software bugs, anything.

If you want a forum that's more focused on TV Cards, try here:

http://www.tv-cards.com/

Has hints and tips, discussion groups, and some freeware programs
(note: the freewares only work for some chipsets)

 

[Barney Rubble]

What are your record settings? Try reducing the image resolution and
shutting down as many unused processes as possible. The recorder
program is encoding MPEG1 or MPEG2 in real time, even at the lowest
resolution (presumably 320x200), that's a LOT of data to compress
quickly. Going to higher resolutions only makes it worse. Of course,
that only explains why the recording might freeze or go out of sync.

That doesn't explain why it might cause the system to reset. That
might be because of any number of things, a defective TV card, poor
case grounding, bad power supply, software bugs, anything.

If you want a forum that's more focused on TV Cards, try here:

http://www.tv-cards.com/

Has hints and tips, discussion groups, and some freeware programs
(note: the freewares only work for some chipsets)

Many Thanks for your reply. I have tried all Mpeg settings down to 'good
quality' but after browsing your tv-cards site I see I'm not the only one
with troubles and it's probably just buggy software etc etc etc. I'll try
again perhaps with AVI but I think I'm just going to have to be content
watching Live TV, which really does work nicely.
When I upgrade, I'll obviously want something a bit more reliable. Any ideas
as to the 'best' card at a reasonable price?

THanks again
Barney

 

[Gary L.]

Turn off the feature to automatically reboot on failure (Control Panel
-> System -> Advanced -> Startup). Then you can see the error message
on the blue screen that states what error occurred. Alternatively,
check the system log in Event Viewer (although it doesn't always
capture the error message). This will give you an idea of the cause of
the problem. If you forward this info to the manufacturer's tech
support, they may have some suggestions.

- -
Gary L.
Reply to the newsgroup only

 

[Cl.Massé]

Using the supplied software when I try to record from the Line In, it
will run for approx 2 - 3 minutes and the computer reboots. That has
also happened when I've tried to record from the cable, but not as
frequently. I was able to record several (5?) minutes worth last night
without interruption.

You may be overheating. Have you done the dust recently? See
especially under the processor fan.