If i replace my ati tv wonder pro with a better card?

[nba1341]

If i replace my ati tv wonder pro wtih a more expensive tv tuner with hardware encoding will the picture quality be a lot better? Currently my quality sucks and its very fuzzy.

So would a newer better card help it so it looks more like a real tv?
My 19" Monitor full screened on my current tv tuner looks really bad compared to a 19" TV in my room.

Any Card Suggestions?

[not_Shorty]

pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 or dual tuner PVR-500 (or something from another manufacturer, I've only had experience with Hauppauge hardware encoders though, they're quite nice) and you won't be disappointed. The quality you're seeing now has absolutely nothing to do with the TV Wonder, and has everything to do with the software encoder that Snapstream provides. It stinks. Get a hardware encoder and you'll be much, much happier. Not to mention you'll still be able to use the machine while it's recording, since your CPU usage for recording is practically zero.

[Bigbird999]

nba
If your TV Wonder is not faulty and is properly configured, the recorded video should be excellent. With a good recording, the picture quality is most dependent upon your video card and it's settings.

The quality of your picture should be excellent with the ATI tuner card. There are lots of reasons to switch to a hardware card like the Haupauge, but picture quality is not one of them.

Please post back with your system specs
what video card
what decoder are you using
connected to tv only or dual display

BB

[dallas2727]

I had the TV wonder pro, the picture was MUCH better when i tossed it and got a PVR-150.

Think about gettting a HD card though, they don't differ much in price.

[btvfreak]

I agree with BigBird. You should try everything you can before you spend cash on a new card that is not guarenteed to fix your problem. If your signal is weak, or has interference, then a new card will still have bad quality. Here's some tips:
http://www.diy-pvr-dvr-htpc.com/inde..._And_Tips_SDTV

[Hazen]

I agree with "not shorty", based on my own experience, here is a quick summary of that experience for your info:

I originally had the same ATI Wonder Pro, and used ATIs interface before discovered Beyond TV. Continued to use the Wonder, but as my wife started to make more use of my "latest hobby", we had show conflicts, so I wanted a second tuner card. Was convinced by this forum (search hardware encoding) to go for a hardware encoding card, settled on the Hauppauge PVR-150. Initially I put in the 150 as primary, left the Wonder in as a secondary tuner card. Head to head, no comparison, my quality was better from the 150, and as "not shorty" stated, hardware encoding does not load the CPU. In fact, I frequently had poor jittery recordings from the Wonder if the CPU was being used while recording (ie watching a recorded show). Therefore, back in Feb I bought a second 150, initially thought I'd be greedy and leave the Wonder in for the odd triple recordings, but did not like that it occasionally got used for primary shows due to the two 150s being busy for end of show padding. So the Wonder now sits in my pile of computer relics.

My only regret, which may serve as more advise - should have just bought the dual tuner PVR-500 when bought that first 150, might have saved a few bucks compared to two separate 150s.

Hope this helps with your decision.

[btvfreak]

I agree that a good hardware encoding card will be much better than a software encoding card. My point is that if there are other issues that are contributing to picture quality (weak signal, interference, poor decoder, not using best cable like s-video), then there will still be quality issues after switching capture cards. I'd just check all possibilities before jumping to conclusions.

[Bigbird999]

hazen

There are lots of reasons to switch to a hardware card like the Haupauge, but picture quality is not one of them.

And you just listed almost every one of them. Software encoding cards have problems playing nice with hardware encoding cards in BTV, don't like to share with other cpu usages, BUT in a single tuner, dedicated application (no multitasking), they will work with BTV. If the recording settings are properly set to maximum record at Best Quality, the PQ of the recording is as good or better than a 150. I use my AIW (same Theatre 200 chip and software as the TV Wonder) to record conflicting shows on my main PC and watch it on BTV and to my eye the picture is better than my 150 recordings made on my HTPC.

If I were setting up a new HTPC I would always choose a hardware card (like Snapstream recommends), but when you already have a software tuner, why not try and make it work?

Based on nba's original post there is not enough information to know what the problem is. In the absence of more information, replacing the tuner is, at best, a shot in the dark.

BB

[nba1341]

My specs:
P4 Prescott 2.8ghz @ 3.22 ghz (socket 478)
eVGA Geforce 6800 agp-8x (Forceware 84.21)
Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS
1 GB pc3200 ram
74 GB Raptor 10000rpm

Im whatching tv from a 17" LCD Samsung SyncMaster 712n connected to the gcard with the analog (blue cable).

Tuners:
Ati TV Wonder Pro
DVICO FusionHDTV5 Gold

Playback Settings:
MPEG-2 Decoder: Snapstream Video/SP Decoder
MPEG-2 Audio Decoder: Snapstream Audio Decoder

BTV 4.3.0 Build 3231

I will read the guide for making connection look better but yea even my recordings play backed get lines through them in WMP.
I also get like this faint strobe light type affect when whatching live tv.

[Bigbird999]

nba
What about playback of your HD recordings or other known good quality recordings like a DVD rip or avi downloaded from the web, do they have a good PQ? If known good files do not have acceptable playback, then you need to fix that issue first. At this point it could be a problem with many items (video card, monitor, PC configuration, tuner, driver conflicts, codecs, signal strength, RF interference, etc.) Until you have good PQ on a "known good" file, you can't address the quality of the analog recordings. It could be a low strength analog signal, capture quality settings or even a faulty card. You have to investigate the problem in a systematic manner to zero in on the problem.

BB

[not_Shorty]

you're missing the point, here. SNAPSTREAM'S SOFTWARE ENCODER IS HORRIBLE. This is *THE* source of his problem. It's got *NOTHING* to do with the TV Wonder's capturing. Snapstream's encoder output looks all blocky and pixellicious, it's insanely bad. Switching to a hardware encoder *IS* the solution to his problem. The TV Wonder captures just fine. It's what Snapstream is doing with it afterwards that is the problem. Get a hardware card, you completely avoid the software encoder, obviously. You guys are chasing this up the wrong tree. His card is fine. The software encoder is his complaint. A hardware card is the solution.

[btvfreak]

I'm not saying that isn't the problem. You could be right. I'm just saying I believe in checking all possibilities before making any assumptions, regardless how obvious it might be.

Relax a bit and have a beer. Geez.

[nba1341]

Well since I kinda want a dual tv tuner I probally should go for one.
Is Nvidia DualTV the best?
Also is my cpu usage gonna be killed if lets say I wanted to record a show on another channel and then whatch a show on a different channel at the same time?

Or record and then play a game on the same computer?

Also it comes with the bronze pure video codec.
Will it let me change just the video recording settings or also audio to pure video?

BTW: yea my HD playback was fine after checking it out. Nothing wrong with it from what I could tell.

[not_Shorty]

I've got the same card he has, now in another machine. Its capture quality is excellent, which you can see by capturing the output with something other than BTV, such as virtualdub. I also used mine with BTV, back when it was PVS and I was just checking it out. The picture in PVS was horrible. Thus I asked here what people thought would fix the problem. Card works great in virtualdub, and WinDVR, so why does it look so bad in PVS/BTV? Cuz the other apps aren't using the same (or any) encoder as PVS/BTV does. I was told I'd need a hardware card to bypass Snapstream's encoder. So I asked what to get. PVR-250 was the answer then, so that's what I got. Never looked back. Awesome picture. The built-in software encoder is the pits.

Originally Posted by btvfreak

I'm not saying that isn't the problem. You could be right. I'm just saying I believe in checking all possibilities before making any assumptions, regardless how obvious it might be.

Relax a bit and have a beer. Geez.

[not_Shorty]

hardware encoders don't use the CPU, at all.

Originally Posted by nba1341

Well since I kinda want a dual tv tuner I probally should go for one.
Is Nvidia DualTV the best?
Also is my cpu usage gonna be killed if lets say I wanted to record a show on another channel and then whatch a show on a different channel at the same time?

Or record and then play a game on the same computer?

Also it comes with the bronze pure video codec.
Will it let me change just the video recording settings or also audio to pure video?

BTW: yea my HD playback was fine after checking it out. Nothing wrong with it from what I could tell.