Hi, I've been searching the web for tv tuner card reviews but every website I've found only reviews 2 or 3 cards or is 2 or 3 years old. Basically I'm trying to figure out what to buy. First I'll tell you about my computer. It's a 2.6 ghz with 512mb ram and another 512mb coming this week by UPS. If all goes well I'll have 1 gig by this time next week. There was a mix up with the memory I ordered. Don't ask. Here's what I want my card to do: Act like a DVR, record tv programs for me to watch later and burn to a dvd±rw or +r. Oh, and btw, I have analog cable tv. That's what it'll be hooked up to. I don't play games on my pc(Windows XP) so don't worry about 3d shading or all that, and I don't need FM radio because I have a lot of music programs already. I do have my computer hooked up to my tv's surround sound system tho so something with decent sound. The quality of the videos should be pretty good to excellent because I also have a video card called TView Gold which allows me to view my computer screen on my tv. I use it to download movies from Movielink.com to my computer then watch them on the 27" tv. I would like to spend $100 or less but if what I want costs more than that then less than $200.
Hauppauge PVR-250, with GB-PVR software. http://www.hauppauge.com http://www.gbpvr.com (free). Plugins and extras for GB-PVR: http://www.bladerhq.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php
Thanx Rebootjim! I was hoping you would reply. I read some other threads before I posted and you seem to know a lot about this stuff. While waiting for someone to reply I checked out my cable situation to see if it would reach across the room and I discovered that I have one cable coming in that gets split in two. Half goes to the tv and the other half goes to my cable modem. Do I have to call my cable company to split the cable again and send it to the tv tuner card or can I do it myself? If I call the cable company do they charge extra for that? If I do it myself will I end up in jail? lol
Just go to the local Radio Shack, or BestBuy or whatever. Get a splitter and 2 patch cords. Should be less than $10. Put the cable that currently goes into the cable modem, into the splitter. One patch cable to the Hauppauge, the other into the cable modem. I don't know what cable co you have, but most simply allow for this sort of thing, without a service call, especially if you have TV and Internet both with the same co.
I have cox cable. I called them and they said there was no charge but I'd have to do it myself. Read some threads about how to do it, still don't know what kind of splitter to get so I'll just get the biggest one. Heh. Checked out gb-pvr and I like it. Oh, I bought a pvr-250. It arrives via UPS on the 15th. Installed net 1.1 or whatever it's called. Downloaded demo of Vegas 5 because you seem to like it....a lot. lol. No tuts came with it tho so I fiddled around with dvd archetect which was easier to figure out. Made some spiffy menus and a start screen. I like it; too bad it's so expensive. I'll have to stick with Ulead which comes free with my card. Looked into mjpeg codec and the decoder you mention in another thread. Too expensive for the decoder. Can I still use the mjpeg codec? It's only $19. Can't find the Intervideo nonCSS thing. Downloaded the drivers from http://www.shspvr.com They're in a zip file waiting for my card to arrive. What else do I need?
moonfrog i wanted to do the same and hooked a vcr with direct tv run thru it and i do the following to get recorded TV and transfer VHS to dvd::::::: Using Win Tv Hauppage Pvr 150 i record 1hr show i then get a type MPG. file of a about 220 GB. i then edit to about 50 min. in MF SE 3 and burn <highest quality> saying its gonna take time to convert <about 2hrs> turns out a very good dvd of the program! then it leaves me with a file type MPG. <larger than the original> of about 250 GB in the Ulead temp folder< labled convert> which is the edited version!!! Not sure if this is the best way but after trying and failing with Plextor convert and spending hrs with MF SE 3 i got this it to work like this !!!!!!!
With the Haupauge, you don't NEED mjpeg or any other codec. The card does all the work with hardware. The Intervideo Non-CSS will come with the drivers and software on the disk. You can download the updated one from www.hauppauge.com, just click on the picture of the box that's the same as yours. The latest from shspvr are great drivers. FAR better than the stock ones. Don't even load the drivers from the CD you get. Browse it and only install Win2v2k (for troubleshooting if needed) Nanopeg editor (very basic and slow, but it works), and Ulead. Unzip the driver file from shspvr. Shutdown, and install the card. Restart, and when prompted, browse to the folder you unzipped the drivers into. Let it install. It may take 3 or 4 times browsing the same folder, but it will work. Download and install GB-PVR. Read the Quickstart guide on shspvr.com Post in the forum there, if you have any troubles. The engineer of gbpvr is also the forum mod, and is glad to be of help to anyone.
Grrr.. okay I downloaded so much stuff I don't know where I am. I think I got it all working but how do I install the drivers from shspvr? I didn't do it when I was setting up the card. I used the cd then updated from the Hauppauge website. Now how do I get the shspvr drivers in? Oh, and when I try to play a show I recorded I get a no media between these pins error. The manual says to check my DMA and VGA accelerator settings but I can't find them because I have Windows XP and the manual is written for some other kind of Windows.
There's a readme.txt inside the zip from shspvr.com It explains how to do the drivers. There's also a thread in the forums where you downloaded the driver from, that goes into more detail. What are you using to play it? Did you set up and install WinTV2000? Did you change any recording settings? Did you make sure you selected PVR-250 (and not 150) when setting up GB-PVR?
I don't know what to use to play it so I just drag and drop it to WinTv2000. Here's what the error says. ConnectPins Reader, Splitter There is no common media between these pins. (0x80040207)
If it's not a compliant mpeg-2 that was encoded and captured in WinTV2000, it won't play. Also, drag and drop are not completely supported. Don't make it more complicated than it is. WinTV2000 is for capturing TV, not playing videos.
Got it working! I was saving it as a dvd. Switched it to mpeg2 and now it works fine. Thanx Reboot! No more drag & drop either.
you can click on the red record button and a dropdown will have controls click on that little folder in the lower right corner of wintv 2000 and it will open where your saved captures are!! click on the one you want to play and it will load in the dropdown controls on win tv 2000 , hit play and your capture will play in wintv 2000!!!!!!!!!! at least it does for me!!!!
