Recommendations Please

[GaryB]

To the point:
What is the best card to get the best picture and most functionality (LiveTV and BeyondTV Link) out of BeyondTV?


Background:

I have been using BeyondTV 3.4, since I read a review from MaximumPC. I was running an AIW7500, and life was good (picture quality was so-so). I upgraded to 3.5 and attempted to use the new mpeg encoder and got the picture stuttering problem. I have had to rebuild the BTV PC, and decided to purchase the WinTV-PVR 150, since snapstream.com was pushing them and the userbase seems to recommend them. At the same time I purchase 3 beyondtv link licenses. Now I can't stream live tv, because of the MPEG hardware encoder, and LINK will not even see the server.

Does it make sense for me to upgrade my AIW if streaming is that important to me? Does ATI upgrade the encoder piece of the card or just the graphics engine? Should LINK work with my new PVR 150?

[jkoon]

Link should work with the pvr-150.

[dancetracks]

I just built a new HT video server/pc with dual PVR-150 MCE cards. Both cards work fine together; I can record from one and watch live TV from another. I am now trying out BTV Link as a trial and it is amazing - full functionality from a remote location. I just need to try to output to a TV on the remote PC. NIC usage is 2 percent in task manager. Sweet.

If you can scrap the AIW card and just use capture cards from one brand to avoid driver conflicts, that would be my recommendation.

I use a Shaphire Radeon 9600 with Microsoft's copy of the ATI driver from Windows update. No conflicts with my Hauppauge cards. When it comes to drivers and software for hardware I am always a minimalist and only install what is needed for the product to work with Windows at the helm. I am using MCE 2005, though.
Hope this helps.

[grandpaken]

I've got a similar setup and BTV Link works great. Do you still have the ATI AIW listed as a recording device? If yes then try deleting it in web admin. Also ensure that Force TCP and the streaming server boxes are enabled in advanced setup. After you have streaming working you can then add the ATI as the 2nd capture device.