New ATI Tuner Card.

[Sunfox]

I'm building a completely new PC and, since there aren't any high-speed PCI-E ATI All-In-Wonder cards, I'm having to make do with a standalone card and the TV Wonder Elite. From reading a lot of threads I think I may end up missing my 100% reliable AIW 9800 Pro!

At any rate, I was wondering which is the best way to go: Windows MCE 2005, or XP Pro with something like Beyond TV. I have no use for multiple tuners and limited use for DVR functionality. This is basically a work PC and I want to watch live TV in a small window while I work on other system-intensive things, and make scheduled recordings when I'm not around.

Which would be the most reliable (NO CRASHES!) and least resource dependant (ie. bogging down the system while running) solution?

[Octavean]

I'm building a completely new PC and, since there aren't any high-speed PCI-E ATI All-In-Wonder cards, I'm having to make do with a standalone card and the TV Wonder Elite. From reading a lot of threads I think I may end up missing my 100% reliable AIW 9800 Pro!

PCIe AIW X800 class cards are in the works as indicated in this ATI Press Release HERE

All-In-Wonder X800 XL for PCI Express will be available later this summer with an MSRP of $399 USD.

With some luck, this product will not be delayed. I myself went with an ATI X800XL PCIe card and Sapphire Theatrix Theater 550 Pro PCI card because I didn’t want to use the older Theater 200 chip in MCE 2K5.

At any rate, I was wondering which is the best way to go: Windows MCE 2005, or XP Pro with something like Beyond TV. I have no use for multiple tuners and limited use for DVR functionality. This is basically a work PC and I want to watch live TV in a small window while I work on other system-intensive things, and make scheduled recordings when I'm not around.

It depends on your starting point and preferences. If you already have XP pro for use in a work environment then it may not be cost effective to go with MCE 2K5. There is also the hidden cost of down time for installation and configuration of MCE 2K5 as well as the need to jump through hoops to get it working with domains.

Which would be the most reliable (NO CRASHES!) and least resource dependant (ie. bogging down the system while running) solution?

For me, that’s hard to say. I have tried both MCE 2K5 and Beyond TV. I tried Beyond TV first but I just didn’t like it,….although it was stable and trouble free. I bought a MCE PC and was blown away,….but MCE has some wicked limitations (such as DRM).

Having said this, you never really know what problems might crop up.

Now, that said, we did experience some non-video card related issues with the SnapStream Beyond TV software. The problem is that we were not able to get Beyond TV’s TV functions to operate properly on our regular Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe PCI-Express platform. We tried multiple video cards from ATI and NVIDIA and multiple PCI slots on the motherboard, but we failed to get the TV signal working with Beyond TV. The problem would appear when we got to the TV testing part of the Beyond TV testing wizard. At this point, the Beyond TV software would lock up (we could still maneuver around Windows for a little bit) and then the whole system would freeze after a minute or two. This required us to do a hard reset to recover from the lockup. We simply could not get the TV part of Beyond TV to work correctly on the A8N-SLI Deluxe.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Nzk5LDc=

[hrlslcbr]

I would use WinXP pro if you already have it, and use GB-PVR to capture.

[urosbe]

I didn't have any problems with the remote when I had PowerCinema installed, and don't have problems now with GB-PVR.

What kind of channel controler (remote) do you have selected in config (there is no Cyberlink...)?

[Sunfox]

Well, I don't actually need domain controllers (this is a home work environment, besides for the net I basically only need to communicate with my own machines).

And I do already have XP Pro, however I'll need to install from scratch at any rate (one of the reasons for building this PC - this XP installation is 3 years old and has been going buggy for 2 of those years...)

[hrlslcbr]

What kind of channel controler (remote) do you have selected in config (there is no Cyberlink...)?

MCE Remote. I believe the CyberLink remote works as any other MCE remote (just looks different), but I'm not sure.

Sunfox: I'd use GB-PVR anyway. It works fine and doesn't have all the crap that most micro$oft programmes usually have.

[jonaslasky]

I'm building a completely new PC and, since there aren't any high-speed PCI-E ATI All-In-Wonder cards, I'm having to make do with a standalone card and the TV Wonder Elite. From reading a lot of threads I think I may end up missing my 100% reliable AIW 9800 Pro!

At any rate, I was wondering which is the best way to go: Windows MCE 2005, or XP Pro with something like Beyond TV. I have no use for multiple tuners and limited use for DVR functionality. This is basically a work PC and I want to watch live TV in a small window while I work on other system-intensive things, and make scheduled recordings when I'm not around.

Which would be the most reliable (NO CRASHES!) and least resource dependant (ie. bogging down the system while running) solution?

This has been dealt with MANY times before... but here it is again.

The Theater550 Pro (like all hardware based MPEG-2 encoders) uses very little CPU resource while recording (encoding). But when VIEWING (encoding and DECODING) it uses up a bit more. I can't think of a TV card that offers hardware decoding.
Still... CPU utilization is fairly low.

Jonas

[urosbe]

Ok, probably we misunderstoon. I already tried 550 Pro on MCE 2005 and it works great, but I would like to use it on Win2k3 and for now everything is ok, except that you cannot change channels on remote (and button for Record doesn't work either).. i tried PowerCinema3 and 4 triat, but the same problem on both. Then I read about GBPVR and it works great except the remote... in config settings there is possiblity to select channel changer, but there is no Cyberlink so I asked what should I choose instead of it. If I choose "no remote", I have only basic functions like Enter, Clear, Digits, OK, up, down, left, right and Volume... those commands work even in Notepad

[Metrophage]

urosbe

hrlslcbr is correct, select the "MCE remote" option from the remote control type field. I cant remember if channel up/down works as I dont watch live tv, but selecting the MCE option certainly enables ff/rw/stop for my cyberlink remote in GBpvr.

The only caveat is if you run on win2k, like I do, some buttons dont work (no pause!)
Win2k doesnt support USB HID devices ( which is what the MCE and Cyberlink remotes are ) as fully as XP does.

Hope this helps.

[phil120]

This message is to Satnav4 or anyone else that can shed some light into my problem...

I was seriously considering purchasing the ati 550 chip, I still am because I dont think I am very concerned with using MMC as long as I can use 3rd party software such as SageTV, BeyonTV, etc, and I think using the 550 will allow using 3rd party Software.

What i am looking for is the utmost best image quality and a hardware mpeg encoder.. I will not settle for anycard that uses software encoding. What i did come across is cards that do mpeg4 encoding.

Based on what I read from Satnav on Tv-Cards.com http://www.tv-cards.com/messageboard...extor+convertx
most dvd players will not support mpeg4 encoding. This is bad news but I am sure it will eventually change in the future. But then again mpeg4 players won't be mainstream for a while. yet this is also good if i am just saving my recording on HD. So its a "catch-22" So yes i would sacrifice mpeg4 for quality but if the image quality is the same I would rather go to a card that does both mpeg2/4

But Right before I was about to make the purchase I came across the following:

1) Compro VideoMate Action TV tuner box (U800/U700):
I am intrigued by this card because it has mpeg4 but not sure if its hardware or software, and it has a 3d Comb y/c seperation.

2) Plextor ConvertX PVR
I dont have much info on this one.

3) I was considering the lifeview 3000 but after reading that "encodes mpeg2 only up to 6mbps. A dvd player can read up to 9+mbps. More bits = more image quality. You can get decent quality at that rate."

4) The ati 550 Chip is very intriguing to me because of the outstanding reviews of the image quality.

5) Hauppauge 150/250 Although this was my initial 1st choice, my reservations against them is that it does not have the 3D Comb filer or the y/c Seperation and if i recall it only uses 9 or 10 bit chip, dont recall on top of my head.

Thanks

[satnav4]

I can't think of a TV card that offers hardware decoding.
Still... CPU utilization is fairly low.
Jonas

I believe the Hauppauge 350 hardware decodes.

S.

[hrlslcbr]

I believe the Hauppauge 350 hardware decodes its own encodes.

S.

Yep... true.

[satnav4]

This message is to Satnav4 or anyone else that can shed some light into my problem...

I was seriously considering purchasing the ati 550 chip, I still am because I dont think I am very concerned with using MMC as long as I can use 3rd party software such as SageTV, BeyonTV, etc, and I think using the 550 will allow using 3rd party Software.

What i am looking for is the utmost best image quality and a hardware mpeg encoder.. I will not settle for anycard that uses software encoding. What i did come across is cards that do mpeg4 encoding.

The best image quality is relative. The Hauppauge 150 has the sharpest image: the ATI 550 is a little softer, but better with motion capture. In my 3 tuner setup, I have the 550 in the 1st spot, followed by 2, 150's. Its about to change, but for volume reasons. The 550 records at a much lower volume, which did not work well on my last flight. I couldn't hear over the airplane noise. In the house, I can boost the volume on the TV, but must remember to reduce the volume when changing from a recording.

If I were to buy only one tuner, I would probably get the 550. If I were to buy 2, I would get one of each. I still don't think hardware mpeg4 is the way to go; I simply post encode to carry recording on my Dell Axim.

Hope that helps.

S.

[phil120]

Thanks Satnav for your response.

Just out of Curiousity, I am interested to know why you say mpeg4 is not the way to go? I think my only prob with mpeg4 is once its encoded in mpeg and u want to burn it to a dvd and have it play on a dvd, you have to encode to mpeg2, its a waiste of time.

In any case, I think I will start out with the ati550 and later get the hauppage 150... any recommendation beween the sapphire/visiontek ?

[Myrdhinn]

I believe the visiontek comes with beyond tv ... much better than powerenema... though the guide is a 30day trial but it only takes a short while to read a tv guide so no biggie imho. Otherwise the cards would be identical except for the board colour.

[satnav4]

Thanks Satnav for your response.

Just out of Curiousity, I am interested to know why you say mpeg4 is not the way to go? I think my only prob with mpeg4 is once its encoded in mpeg and u want to burn it to a dvd and have it play on a dvd, you have to encode to mpeg2, its a waiste of time.

In any case, I think I will start out with the ati550 and later get the hauppage 150... any recommendation beween the sapphire/visiontek ?

I have the Sapphire, and it works for me. I would let the remote and price decide. I don't believe the Visiontek has a remote unless you pay a bit more than the Sapphire. See Newegg photos for included components, and you will see what I mean. I use a full version of BTV, I don't know that a trial would do me much good.

I forgot about the similar PowerColor: PowerColor 550

As for mpeg4, I can't use it on DVD players I own. If I ever do need it, say for my Axim PDA, I use free Gordian Knot.

S.