I am pondering capturing Satellite TV and would like to burn DVD. I have the burner and software. I have been debating the purchase of the ATI Radeon AIW 9800 Pro (or 9600Pro)or the Hauppauge PV350. Any opinions as to which would give the clearest video,or would another product be preferable. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
If you want to capture Satalite TV you should get a Satalite Capture Card..These cards actually record the Incomeing Mpeg2 transport stream that is being transmited to your satalite dish so what you record is exactly the same as what is being Transmited... Useing an analogue Capture device like a AIW or the Hauppauge you are actually captureing a Copy of the Incomeing signal so the Quality isn"t nearly as good.. But out of the 2 devices you are considering I would go for the Hauppauge Card as it uses a fairly good Mpeg encoder chip but there are certain drawbacks captureing directly to Mpeg2 Like Mpeg2 files are difficult to edit but the advantages are you can author the captured files directly to DVD without haveing to encode the files......Cheers
Thanks for the reply Minion, good information and I appreciate it. Can you recommend a Satellite Capture Card or do you know where I can get info on them?. Thanks Nifty
From what I've read pure digital satelite capture can be difficult depending on your provider, but if your research on your provider shows that it doesn't encrypt its signals then a satellite capture card would be ideal. If you don't want to dedicate a whole lot of processing power, or if your computer doesn't have enough power in the first place, then I'd recomend a hardware mpeg2 card like the hauppauge nexus-s (http://www.dvbwholesale.com/product.aspx?prodid=434) For a cheaper, more processor-intensive card, you should concider the technistat skystar (http://www.dvbwholesale.com/product.aspx?prodid=437) Note, these are not the lowest prices I found, just a site off of a forum page I read describing the two cards. Personally I would choose the hauppauge card becuase it saves your cpu and will prevent a loss of quality from the use of the computer for other tasks while recording (and because I like the hauppauge brand of product and quality)
