TV Tuner Options

[the6carrules]

I have an old ATI TV Wonder VE card, that is absolute crap any time I
update the video driver for my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card. You'd
think ATI would make sure their products play nice together, but I've
had nothing but trouble ever since I got it 5-6 years ago.

In any case, I'm sick and tired of playing the
uninstall/reinstall/delete-files game about 20 times each and every
time I make any modifications to anything having to do with the video
card, just to get it to work. I never know what actually gets it to
work, the same routine never seems to do the trick.

(ok i'm done venting)

So, I've decided it is time to seek out a new TV tuner card and I want
your recommendations. Here's what I need:

1) I have few VHS movies that I want to copy to DVD (so a card that
was favorable to allowing this to get past the copy protection would
be nice and/or if there are known hacks out there to allow it to work)
2) I have a lot of Home video on VHS that I want to copy to DVD
3) Obviously has to have the cable hook up so I can watch/record TV on
my PC
4) I don't care about a remote control, don't need fancy bells and
whistles, but would like the stereo sound
5) I don't care what type of connection it is (pci, usb, etc...). I
do have a new notebook, so it might be nice to have a USB - but I
don't want signal degredation on the VHS copy (since it will already
be going through composite cables (my vcr does not have s-video -
assuming if you add USB on top of that could be further degraded - but
if it isn't going to be noticable, then I don't care and will do USB).

Here are my system specs if it helps you make a recommendation:
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition
AMD Athlon 2200+
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
1 GB Corsair Mem w/silver heatspreaders (2 sticks of 512)
Toshiba DVD 16/48
Liteon CDRW 48/12/48
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 80GB HD
Microsoft Wireless Optical Pro Keyboard & Mouse
Microsoft Sidewinder Pro Force Feedback Wheel/Pedals
Microsoft Wireless Basestation MN-500
Boston Acoustic Speakers
ATI TV Wonder VE

 

[John Schuler]

I have an old ATI TV Wonder VE card, that is absolute crap any time I
update the video driver for my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card. You'd
think ATI would make sure their products play nice together, but I've
had nothing but trouble ever since I got it 5-6 years ago.

In any case, I'm sick and tired of playing the
uninstall/reinstall/delete-files game about 20 times each and every
time I make any modifications to anything having to do with the video
card, just to get it to work. I never know what actually gets it to
work, the same routine never seems to do the trick.

(ok i'm done venting)

So, I've decided it is time to seek out a new TV tuner card and I want
your recommendations. Here's what I need:

1) I have few VHS movies that I want to copy to DVD (so a card that
was favorable to allowing this to get past the copy protection would
be nice and/or if there are known hacks out there to allow it to work)
2) I have a lot of Home video on VHS that I want to copy to DVD
3) Obviously has to have the cable hook up so I can watch/record TV on
my PC
4) I don't care about a remote control, don't need fancy bells and
whistles, but would like the stereo sound
5) I don't care what type of connection it is (pci, usb, etc...). I
do have a new notebook, so it might be nice to have a USB - but I
don't want signal degredation on the VHS copy (since it will already
be going through composite cables (my vcr does not have s-video -
assuming if you add USB on top of that could be further degraded - but
if it isn't going to be noticable, then I don't care and will do USB).

If you don't find a card that meets your requirements, consider getting
two cards - on for TV and one for converting VHS tapes to DVD. Consider
the AVerMedia DVD EZMaker USB 2.0. It's not very expensive, and it works
like a champ. It can transfer your VHS tapes directly to DVD - no
intermediate copy-to-disk stage unless you want it. The quality is as good
as your VHS tapes; it's best if you have a s-video connector on your VCR
(rather than composite video). If you want to tweak the video, capture to
disk for editing.

I nominated this device for Tom's Hardware Guide "best product of 2003".

 

[J. Clarke]

I have an old ATI TV Wonder VE card, that is absolute crap any time I
update the video driver for my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card. You'd
think ATI would make sure their products play nice together, but I've
had nothing but trouble ever since I got it 5-6 years ago.

In any case, I'm sick and tired of playing the
uninstall/reinstall/delete-files game about 20 times each and every
time I make any modifications to anything having to do with the video
card, just to get it to work. I never know what actually gets it to
work, the same routine never seems to do the trick.

(ok i'm done venting)

So, I've decided it is time to seek out a new TV tuner card and I want
your recommendations. Here's what I need:

1) I have few VHS movies that I want to copy to DVD (so a card that
was favorable to allowing this to get past the copy protection would
be nice and/or if there are known hacks out there to allow it to work)

There's an inexpensive gadget called a "signal stabilizer" that is commonly
used for circumventing Macrovision.

2) I have a lot of Home video on VHS that I want to copy to DVD
3) Obviously has to have the cable hook up so I can watch/record TV on
my PC

Just about any board with a tuner can do this.

4) I don't care about a remote control, don't need fancy bells and
whistles, but would like the stereo sound
5) I don't care what type of connection it is (pci, usb, etc...). I
do have a new notebook, so it might be nice to have a USB - but I
don't want signal degredation on the VHS copy (since it will already
be going through composite cables (my vcr does not have s-video -
assuming if you add USB on top of that could be further degraded - but
if it isn't going to be noticable, then I don't care and will do USB).

USB is a digital channel--it degrades the image quality the same as any
other digital channel, which is to say not at all. The problem with USB is
that USB 1.1 doesn't have enough bandwidth to get good results with video
capture. USB 2 does and there is at least one USB 2 capture device (from
Dazzle) available. But that type of solution tends to be a bit expensive.

FWIW, the Compro boards are getting a lot of good feedback--haven't tried
one yet so don't know how much hassle (if any) is involved in updating the
ATI drivers with one of those boards installed.

Some non-ATI BT8x8 boards will work directly with Multimedia Center 8.9
(this surprised me) which pretty much eliminates the driver issue, but
they're BT8x8 boards so capture quality is not the greatest.

Your best results would probably be with one of the prosumer products like
the Canopus ADVC-100 but they're not cheap and require a firewire port as
well (note that Canopus has some PCI solutions as well--read _all_ the fine
print as some of the Canopus PCI boards have problems with XP SP1 that last
I heard Canopus and Microsoft had still not been able to iron out).

 

[Mangyrat]

i got tired of my ati tv wonder VE also
i replaced it with a leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert.
works fine for me. all i use it for is tv and coppying movies from camcorder
to the computer
video looks about the same as the ati.
one thing i dont like is it dont like to run on 2nd monitor in dual monitor
setups.
but everything the tv wonder ve did it will do better.
best $58 i spent.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...atalog=47&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1&section=3

you can get a lot better but for home use its fine.

 

[Billm]

I have an ATI 8500dv and a Compro Video Mate. There are no conflicts
between the boards. The Compro has a much better picture. I can't say
anything about the VHS recording because I haven't tried it. I bought my
Compro from Newegg for 66 dollars delivered.