TV Cards

[ajbrun]

I'm thinking of buying a TV card, and since I'm absolutly new to them, I was wondering if you lot could help me . I have no idea what features are a standard on TV cards or anything - I usually go to pricerunner and check all the features I want, but pricerunner don't do tv cards .

So.... Here's what I'm looking for:

* It must be able to record the TV (is this on all TV cards?)
* It must be at least stereo sound
* Maybe (unless it's too expensive ) I'd like to pause live TV
* I don't know if this is possible, but I'd like to record straight to a disk, without having to put it on the hard drive first, again unless it's too expensive
* I'd like the price of this thing to be below £60, and definatly not over £80. Basically as cheap as possible, but still fairly decent!

I think that's all. So far, I've seen this one for about £30.

[3dcandy]

That card does all you want...have you thought of getting an ATI TV-Wonder or something similiar? I personally use a Radeon All-In-Wonder to capture my tv, the only thing I'd say is that for best results you need a nice fast cpu, and bags and bags of hard drive space!
Also, you may want to look at a digital card, basically a Freeview box on a card. They can record the original MPEG-2 stream direct to disk, so the quality is exactly the same as what you view on the tv....could make life easier

[ajbrun]

WOW - you can get digital cards!?!?! I've looked for them, but never actually found one - only external boxes. Could you point me in the right direction to find one? Thanks.

How fast a CPU would you recommend (you can see the speed of mine from my sig)?

I know about the space required, which is why I'd like to know if it's possible to record straight to a disk.

I'm really interested in the digital thing, they get terestrial and digital channels don't they. If you can get more info on them I would be a very very happy man!

[ajbrun]

Right - I think a digital TV card would be good, but do I need a satellite dish to watch freeview TV, I think that I do. if this is the case, then a digital card is out of the question.

[Jonny M]

Nope, Freeview comes through a standard aerial

[myth]

What about ATI's HD Wounder! Where is it? How long will it take to releas one dam card!

http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvwonder/index.html

[ajbrun]

Can you get cards that record straight to a disk instead of to a hard drive?

[myth]

Uh.....? Hold on! I'll try mine quick ( AIW )..

Edit: Sorry I cant! My aiw wont alow it! but you can record in all typs of formats! Up to a 15 MB/s bitrate! Thats what I use..

[ajbrun]

are you saying that you can't record straight onto disk just on your setup, or is this for everyone else too?

[myth]

If you use an all in wounder you will be unable to record directly to media.... like a cd or dvd. Not like that realy mater though! I can only fit 5-7 mins on a CD!

[3dcandy]

Not sure if there's any software out there which will record direct to disk....would need a nice powerful setup to work properly anyway! I remember seeing some bundled HP software with one of their old dvd+r drives, but I'm not sure if it would work with a tv input. If it's possible to record direct to disk, it would probably be with a digital tv card because I'm sure that the mpeg2 stream is dvd compliant...

[skattrd]

Personally I've never tried to record to anything apart from hard drives, and don't think I will, I have 2 AiW's and a Hauppauge nova-t (digital tv card).
The main problem with recording is frame loss, and recording straight to disc i would imagine is going to cause increased frame loss, ie. poor quality recording.
Thats before you mention filesize and editing. A dvd can hold just over 4gigs and in the quality I capture in sometimes the filesize is over 4gig (I capture in full dvd format 720 x 576 which takes approx 2gig/hr). Which I then edit adverts etc. out of.
When capturing from a digital card the stream captured is not ready to be played o a dvd player, it must go through something along the lines of "pvastrumento" which then makes it dvd compliant and can be burnt to disc for playing on a standalone dvd player.

For decent capture the AiW's are great, but not a patch on the digital Hauppauge nova-t (retail about £65). The image quality on the digital is fantastic, almost comparable to dvd, wheras from an anologue card its slightly lower quality. However the software that comes with my digital card isn't great - I've contacted Hauppauge tech support more than once, who were quick to respond and very helpful, solving my problems straightaway. If you are capturing much you use alot of hard disc space - I've currently got 400Gig of hard drive space and am ordering another 200gig drive this week

If want the best digital tv card check out the nebula (do a google) its about £120 and is supposed to be fantastic, but I find the Hauppauge very good, and after a few initial issues setting it up it has been problem free.

[Byatt]

are you saying that you can't record straight onto disk just on your setup, or is this for everyone else too?

I actually have the leadtek card - the "expert" as opposed to the "deluxe" flavour (same price)...I haven't tried recording straight to media, but it does have that feature...I'm ordering a DVD writer and some discs today, I'll let you know how it performs...I seem to remember the ebuyer reviews not being too positive on this aspect though...