TV tuner cards

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:04 am

Does any of you have a suggestion concerning a good TV tuner card for TELSTRA cable signal?

I don't want any el cheapo USB toy gizmo and would prefer if the card could encode mpeg as well as DV-AVI.

I would want to be able to receive and record analog as well as digital signals.

Thanks for any feedback.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:24 pm

Heinz,

If you happen to look at or are considering any ATI series the TV Wonder Pro series, PCI based.
The main reason I responded ot your post is referencing the
"ATI TV Wonder Pro ELITE" card.
I Would NOT recommend this card even though it has realtime compression.
The settings aren't as flexible as the standard TV Wonder Pro series.
The ads for that card can be mis-leading.

MD

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:52 pm

Thanks MD, appreciate the feedback.

Do you have a suggestion as to the card I should use?

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:16 am

Heinz,
>>>I would want to be able to receive and record analog as well as digital signals.

I can only say the ones I've used.
One would be the "ATI All In Wonder Pro series", these AIW cards are main video AGP or PCI-e along with capturing features TV/FM & analog inputs.

The other is ATI's PCI capturing device which is the "TV Wonder Pro" & the "TV Wonder Pro Elite".

Pretty sure the "TV Wonder Pro" (pci analog/tv) capture card will do what you want.

(The term AIW "All In Wonder" is ATI's video card along with capturing analog/TV capabilities, ATI's all-in-one solution) .
I stopped using the AIW series because of ATI always changing the video drivers which along with that included the capture drivers. After a while it was a hassle for me so I now use NVideo for the main video card and a "TV Wonder Pro" (pci add-on card) for analog/TV capturing.
ATI makes great equipment, but if you update the video drivers you also need to update all the capturing software because it's written to interface with specific versions of the video drivers. So they have to both match, and I need not say any more about updating video drivers & capture drivers, sometimes doesn't work out as planned.
Simply my preference to switch to Nvidia as my main video card.

When I switched to NVidia I missed the capturing capabilities of the ATI card, so I tried the pci Tv Wonder Pro. Same interface & setups for capturing so the TV Wonder Pro has worked for me.

I have it set for US cable and it picks up all the signals up to channel 99.
I think after channel 99 on our cable system is digital which then I have to use a converter box from the cable company.
Pretty sure my cable company is analog & digial combined so my ATI card is using the analog TV signals.

With the "TV Wonder Pro" pci add-on card I can set many variable settings for recording in mpeg1 or mpeg2, framebased, interlaced,. GOP's to On or OFF, number of P & B frames (I frames only I think is also a choice), constant/variable, compression, Maximum & average bit rate, pcm or mpeg audio.
This card uses hardware & software compression combined, I like it.

The TV Wonder Pro Elite is true hardware compression. I picked one up very cheap thinking it would be better than the standard pci cards. Having some problems with it, also I'm locked into the chips decoder settings versus software that is more flexible for me.

Cpu usage capturing at Ati's 100% compression 8000kbs on a 3.2 HT Asus P4C800 on the "Tv Wonder Pro" is average 22%. Ulead is 34%.
Capturing time is only limited by diskspace when using the ATI software.

Cpu usage capturing at Ati's 100% compression 8000kbs on a 3.2 HT Asus P4C800 on the "Tv Wonder Pro Elite" is average 8%. Ulead doesn't work properly with this card yet when I select it.

Hope this helps towards your decision.
MD

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:27 am

Hi MD,

Heinz,
>>>I would want to be able to receive and record analog as well as digital signals.
I believe you mean to capture composite & s-video / audio=stereo for the analog, and the digital being a 75ohm coaxial cable distribution network. ...

I meant what I said, albeit maybe in the wrong terms.

I want to capture the digital and analog TV signals from my cable connection. At present, I only have the broadband active on this. I would need to put a splitter in between to separate the TV and internet data signals.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:40 pm

Heinz,
I'm editing the previous line out.
I wasn't trying to correct any terms. Was asking you a question.
Pretty sure the TV input is analog and the software can tune to all the cable bands via the software. That's how mine is hooked up.
.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:28 pm

MD, I'm not sure, but I think we got digital on cable also.

Can these cards only handle analog?

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:06 pm

I have digital TV (through the phone line). It's the same as cable, but deliver via phone line.

I have had the ATI wonder usb2 and it sucked big time.

I have the ati x850xt video card which is capable of video capture... no bad but it does not have audio inputs. You have to bring the audioin through the sound card.

I have the Audigy 2 ZS video editor... capable of Analogue capture (it will capture TV as well if you have svideo coming from a cble box)

What I depend on the most though is my Win TV PVR usb2 from Hauppage.
Good picture, has tv scheduler, has cable, svid, and composite inputs, remote, and software. (The software is a little ugly looking) It captures as Hardware encoded MPeg ans can capture quite stable upto 12000kps. CPU usage is next to nothing because of the hardware encoding electronics with in the hauppage.

At present I am upgrading my mobo, but after that I plan to invest in the Hauppage 350 which is a slightly better version of the USB2, but it is PCI

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:17 pm

I don't think so, at least on my cable system we need to use a cable tv box to get all the available channels. My cable ready TV's use the cable system and get 99 channels without the cable box directly connecting the coaxial into the TV. (Only about 60 channels are actually available, some are blank).
.
Even if the card did handle digital (dtv) it would need a way on my cable system to register the card (like a mac address) with the cable provider and whatever I'm suscribed for.

I have a slot in one of my TV's called a cable slot that does that instead of having to use a cable box.

I've been wanting to put up an antennae again for VHF/UHF. I know the UHF band is where the dtv channels are assigned.
I'll have to find out if that card can decode a digital broadcast.
.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:29 pm

>>>I have had the ATI wonder usb2 and it sucked big time.
That's good to know.

>>> have the ati x850xt video card which is capable of video capture... no bad
>>>but it does not have audio inputs. You have to bring the audioin through the sound card.

That's one reason I don't use the ATI graphics anymore. Actually with the latest ATI drivers the capturing software on my system isn't using the input on my soundcard now. It's directed to the PCI bus. To capture on the machine with the AIW graphics card still in it in VideoStudio I need to select "Use PCI Bus Audio" to capture. I don't have that cable plugged into the soundcard, it's not used. I'm surprised your not having audio problems with the card and the Audigy "What U Hear" channel.

I guess your AIW is different on mine I have a breakout box for capturing with all the connections. Also on the PCI tv wonder Pro uses a breakout box.

The Hauppage 350 has very good ratings. I wonder what the difference for capturing is between the Hauppage 150 & the 350.
.

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:38 pm

heinz-oz wrote:MD, I'm not sure, but I think we got digital on cable also.

Can these cards only handle analog?

Most of these tuner cards ARE analogue and the tv tuners have channel capcity for up to roughly 125 channels. ( You can get stalite and HD cards but that's a different story)

If you have digital TV, then you must have some kind of cable box around. This being the case... it is not a problem. My Hauppage is connected to my cable box via Svid. I can record normal TV as well as my movie channels. The sceduled recording does tend to be a bit of a balancing act though. Fortunately my cable box comes with an AUTOMATIC TUNE feature. I setup a movie for auto tune, then I set up my win tv for scheduled record for the same time.

If you do not have AUTO TUNE, then you can always rely on BEYOND TV, which is a software scheduling system for most of the popular american digital tv broadcasters.

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:43 pm

MADD:

The 350 is good! I have not tried the 150 but I would imagine it to be pretty good as well. The general Hauppage tv tuner line is well known for being above average.... I just wish their software was a little more imaginitive!

tyamada · Post by **tyamada** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:38 pm

I don't know what your cable is capable of but you might want to look at the Dvico capture cards:
http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:17 pm

tyamada wrote:I don't know what your cable is capable of but you might want to look at the Dvico capture cards:
http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/

I tend to get burned once only

. Call me vindictive or whatever,

but I wouldn't buy anything SHARP or SONY either.

If I go down this track, I think I will stick with HAUPPAUGE. Seems to get good marks around this forum at least. Crappy software doesn't bother me as long as the thing does a decent capture.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:17 pm

MADD:
The 350 is good! I have not tried the 150 but I would imagine it to be pretty good as well. The general Hauppage tv tuner line is well known for being above average.... I just wish their software was a little more imaginitive!

neonbob,
I did some research on the Hauppauge cards and chipset compatibility etc.
The 350 is really nice with the added benefit of hardware TV output. I don't need that feature and I like the newer chips used on the 150 board #1045.

So I've recently been using the Hauppauge WinTV 150 Model# 1045.
Great hardware compression and also programmable.
Personnally I wouldn't reccommend the Media_Center_Edition, it uses a different chipset and also different drivers. Also not compatible for my environment of OS's.

I wrote back to this old thread to let Heinz know I've had nice results with the 150 Model#1045. At low bitrates between 3 & 4Mbs the video is still very nice. There are also utilities one can use to access the hardware chips and change settings for output to tweak other than the normal settings.
.