Will PVR250 stop this

[homebuiltXP]

I am currently using BTV3 with an ATI TV Wonder VE to record VH1 Classic to record my favorite music videos.

Rather than watch the 1st 8hrs of the day then record the ones I want 8Hrs after they 1st appear I want to record the full 8hrs then pick them out afterward using a video editor.

But... I would like to do something else with my PC whilst this is happening.

My last attempt to do this (record TV whilst playing Tomb Raider 3) resulted in stuttering of the video whilst the music played Okay, the times when the only major process was BTV the video and audio was in perfect sync. I currently put this down to BTV having to encode the video itself, rather than being able to do this thru' hardware.

Will a hardware encoding card such as Hauppage PVR-250 enable me to get on with other tasks whilst BTV is recording video. I don't want to buy a new card only to find that I still have stuttering video, as there are other things I could use the money for.

EDIT:

PC= AMD XP2400+ W/D SATA 250GB HD for BTV to record to with 150GB partition for recording, 12GB partition for timeshifting, ATI TV wonder VE, 640MB RAM, XP Pro on 40GB IDE HD

[mcowger]

Yeah, the PVr250 would probably even let you play a light game while recording.

[jkoon]

I record with my pvr-250 and play various video games at the same time on a regular basis, works fine for me.

[Eric3a]

Recording while playing works fine for me.... But the channel change can be iffy so I don't do it too often.
Eric

[homebuiltXP]

Thanks folks, When the money comes I will buy it.
Newegg.com have it for $129.00 with free fedex

[merk]

i just built a dedicated machine for this, but when i was using my desktop machine, i was able to play 3d games with no noticable performance hit to the game, and no noticeable problems in the video recordings.

Actually, thats not entirely true. You will notice a hit if you have it generate chapters after the recording since that does use the cpu.

[jkoon]

Actually, thats not entirely true. You will notice a hit if you have it generate chapters after the recording since that does use the cpu.

Really? You shouldn’t because the chapters are generated at a lower priority.

[BenH]

I think even just haveing BTV running can cause stuttering . A change in memory amount during a raceing game - Need for Speed 3 HP or NFS HP 2 will cause a pause. It does on mine . I thought something was wrong the graphic card but exiting BTV helped even while not recording . During software encode one or 2 times I did get away with recording while gameing with a space sim game - FreeLancer .

I wish there was a way to program a vcr from the computer . I got a vcr connected to composite in . I could manual set the timer on the vcr during game time but I'm lazy . I could use it for a 2nd tuner to record during a tv card recording of a one time show .

[theparanoid]

i have play far cry and notice no probelms while recording

[merk]

Let me put it this way ... i had no problems running BTV with the pvr250 and playing games. The worst that happened is the frame rates dropping a little bit during the smart chatper generation.

also remember your experience is going to depend on how fast your cpu, graphics and memory are. I have a P4 2.6ghz, 1gig ddr400, ati 9700 pro.

[sarcasm]

PVR-250 wth remote for $127.51, free shipping:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10322340&loc=101&sp=1

[merk]

well fortunately i saved the box and everything in it, and there's the remote control ;)

I'll try setting it up later and see how well it works. is there something i have to install/modify to get it to work (besides the IR receiver).