Question on quality, mpeg, wmv

[Couch Potato]

I'm trying to understand what the best approach for recording is, and have a couple of hopefully easy questions. I've got a Hauppauge WinTV USB tuner (kind of old). I currently record WMV files using some tweaked settings and end up with reasonable quality shows. I'm wondering if I could get better quality shows by changing the recording to be mpeg though.

Q1. I don't believe the WinTV USB tuner does hardware mpeg, so any compression would have to be done in software - CPU-wise I think I'm ok (I did a test recording and used maybe 40% of my CPU during a 30 minute recording). But will the quality be any better than what I'm currently recording with WMV?

Q2. While recording, I was able to watch what was being recorded; I get the feeling that this is because the MPEG compression was done in software and if I'm to switch to a different tuner with hardware compression, I will no longer be able to watch mpeg recordings as they are being recorded, is this correct? Is it also the case that I won't be able to watch live TV with a tuner with hardware compression?

Q3. The 30 minute MPEG test recording I did was 1.7GB, so presumably it's very good quality; if I use showsqueeze to squeeze that to something smaller (my current tweaked wmv settings, for example), how should the quality compare to something recorded natively in WMV? In other words, am I buying anything by capturing initially in MPEG and then squeezing down to WMV, or do I end up with roughly the same quality in the end?

Q4. Assuming a tuner with hardware-based MPEG compression is the right way to go, can anyone suggest one that works well with SnapStream and is external USB?

Thanks

PS. It seems that ShowSqueezing a 30 minute MPEG into a WMV file takes an hour and 30 minutes or so - is that right? Nearly 3 times real time - wow! Size-wise, the WMV is about 1/3 the size of the MPEG though..

[Eric3a]

A1. Visual quality is subjective and only you can tell. Number and bit rates and so on are nice in theory, but the proof is in what you see.
A2. No you'll be able to watch and record simultaneously with MPEG2 soft or hardware encoder.
A3. Same as A1.
A4. I believe there is a USB version of the PVR250.

Subsidiary answer: Check these forums. wmv compression takes a lot of time. You can lower time by changing from wmv9 to wmv7.
Eric

[nanook105]

Q4. Assuming a tuner with hardware-based MPEG compression is the right way to go, can anyone suggest one that works well with SnapStream and is external USB?

PVRUSB2 from Hauppauge

[Couch Potato]

Thanks, I'll check it out..

[jgourd]

The PVRUSB2 looks just like the Adaptec. Does anyone know who OEMs it?