TIVO-like tv tuner card?

[poly4life]

Hey y'all, does anyone know if a tv tuner card that can duplicate the TIVO's features, notably skipping commercials and learning what programs you watch, skipping repeats? Basically, I'm looking for a TIVO that can plug into a PCI slot, so I don't have to pay 13 bucks a month for its features. The two features I mentioned above are the only reasons to buy a TIVO, in my opinion, but if you can seize them using a tv tuner card, why not, right?

 

[stupid_tech_geek]

Msi Tv@nywhere. It has win dvr and pvr so you can capture tv and timeshift to work around the commercials. You can program your favorite channels too. As for encoding you have a choice of mpeg 1-2 and 4. It's an all around excellent card for a reasonable price (50 to 60 bucks). And the icing on the cake is that you can capture radio too.

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[Crashman]

Cheap cards use CPU compression, good cards use Hardware MPEG2 compression, the good cards reduce overhead so you'll have enough performance remaining to do other things on your PC at the same time.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[bullcrappy1]

i understand hardware vs software coding. but if thats all its going to do does it matter?

like an ati aiw vs the 250 or 350....

 

[the_Prisoner]

I guess if I just want to record something and not use my computer then a cheap card is ok. I like to use my computer while doing other things. So a Hauppauge or Pinnacle card with hardware compression is the best way to go. It does cost some money.

Crashman has repeated this over and over again. I got tired of repeating this 6 months or more ago.

Get a Hauppauge 250 PVR with hardware compression or a 150 PVR with hardware compression for about 60.00 USD. that is a great price.

link:<A HREF="http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/prods_pvrs.html" target="_new">http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/prods_pvrs.html</A>

the Prisoner


I'm not a number, I'm a free man! 😡 <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by the_Prisoner on 10/10/04 00:47 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

I'm fairly certain the 150 has no hardware compression.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[the_Prisoner]

I will check. WinTV-PVR-150
Watch, pause, record and burn TV on your PC:
Watch, Pause and Record TV on your PC, in a window or full screen!
Digital VCR, too! Record your TV shows and home movies to disk using hardware MPEG-2 compression with selectable formats from 2 Mbits/sec to 12 Mbits/sec (DVD quality).
Turn your TV shows and home videos into DVD or CD. Includes Ulead DVD MovieFactory for disk burning.
Includes WinTV application, remote control, MPEG editor and TV scheduler.
WinTV-PVR-150MCE's built-in hardware MPEG encoder allows you to continue to use your computer while recording. Listen to music, watch digital pictures or play a DVD movie while recording!



It is a really new product for them. So i havent use it but it says hardware compression. Great price for 60.00 if true.

If it performs well with the hardware MPEG-2, I might buy one for a new computer project. Great price, might be willing to try it. It has to be better then a normal TV card. The MSI and other TV tuner cards ok to watch TV, but I wouldnt want to use them to record TV.

I have used Hauppaugge and Pinnacle for years and they are always high quality.

the Prisoner



I'm not a number, I'm a free man! 😡 <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by the_Prisoner on 10/10/04 08:09 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[dd_viper]

u can buy a normal tv tuner card and buy a prog to do all the tivo work. i found this one nice for ~45 bucks (USD) on newegg. sounds like its got great feautures, but doesnt come with a tuner card this is just the software (obviously)also no monthly cost

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=32-293-201&depa=0 " target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=32-293-201&depa=0 </A>

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[kwebb]

Hauppauge PVR. I have a PVR 350 but would probably save a few bucks and get the 250 if I had it to do over again. No contest when comparing this card to AIW, MSI, Leadtek software tuner/capture cards.

 

[Tavelkyosoba]

i bought the MSI TV@nywhere on crashmans advice(i think, i can't remember anymore) and its pretty nice. the tv quality is, in my opinion, a bit better than a normal tv. and the record quality is near 100%, i cant see any degrade in quality but im afraid to say its 100%.

it doesn't bog the cpu down much, if at all. however it gets a little querky after a bit of operation. after about an hour of use it just starts doing goofy thing, i think its heat(i can't figure out why there are no heatsinks on these things, they get hot) and sometimes the recording settings reset. this is bad because the default recording level has a lot of distortion in the sound AND the sound is delayed several seconds. but on the "dvd 1/2" setting everything's perfect(what i use).

i use it for watching tv( i do not own a tv) and recording shows that i miss. it has shceduling functionality so you never miss(unless you forgot to turn the computer on). it works well for my rather amateur/informal uses. i dont think its ideal for someone who's hardcore about their HTPC.

side note so i dont have to start a new thread: would putting a heat sink on the decoder chip be advantagous or just wasteful?

I've never had a drink that I didn't like;
Got a taste of you, threw up all night!

 

[kwebb]

I had a TVAnywhere card at one point. I wouldn't say it was a horrible card for the money. You usually get what you pay for. Decent budget capture card. If you throw the money part out of it and just compare apples to apples, the MSI card is not in the same ballpark as the Hauppauge card. Really just depends on how much your willing to spend and what your willing to expect in terms of picture/capture quality and features.