Which capture card to use? 150, 550, or DualTV?

[grillcheese]

I am considering purchasing another card for my system. I have comcast (no box) with an A/B switch. Adding a new card will allow me to watch/record the B channels without having to get up and hit the A/B channel switch.

Everything works fine right now and so I'm a bit hesitant about which card to get. The cards that I'm considering are the pvr-150 ($63), the MSI Theater 550PRO ($72), or possibly Nvidia's DualTV MCE ($169). I have no need for FM, just tv capture.

Can anyone tell me, which of these cards produces the best picture, the fewest amount of issues, and the easiest setup. Your opinion is appreciated. I'm concerned about what I have read about the 550 driver issues. I'm also concerned that the pvr-150 may not produce as good a PQ as the newer cards. I am also confused if compression can/cannot be disabled on the Nvidia DualTV card. Finally, will I have to remove my current card so that nvidia's card will work?

From the snapstream blog comments:

“Your computer may already have an analog tuner card installed. If so, you need to uninstall it and replace it with the NVIDIA DualTV tuner card. You also need to uninstall any other Windows Driver Model (WDM) Drivers for TV tuner cards. Go to Start��Control Panel��Add or Remove Programs. Select the installed analog TV card drivers and click Add/Remove. This will uninstall all files associated with the drivers you have selected.”

Of these cards which should I go with?

[Bigbird999]

cheese
If you buy the NVdual you will have 3 tuners. So you could sell your 250. All the cards will work with BTV. I am sure that you will get lots of different opinions. Me? I would go with the cheapest.

BB

[PaulF]

I am happy with my PVR500(except no captioning). I was thinking of adding another one, but my local dealer switched to the new AVerTV Purity 3D MCE 500 from Avermedia. Has anyone tried this card? The all silicon tuner looks weird with no Faraday shield. It also supports PAL while Hauppauge doesn't anymore.

[nba1341]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

cheese
If you buy the NVdual you will have 3 tuners. So you could sell your 250. All the cards will work with BTV. I am sure that you will get lots of different opinions. Me? I would go with the cheapest.

BB

Nvidia dualtv has to be the only analog tuner installed for it to work.

Although I havent tried having another different analog tuner in at the same time but thats what it says.

[darren_e]

I don't know- I used to have both the ATI-550 and the Hauppauge 150 side by side in my system. I used to think the 550 was better.

Now with Hauppauge's new drivers for the 150/500- I ended up pulling out my ATI-550 and I bought a second PVR-150 for my computer.

I like my Hauppauge PVR-150's now that video and audio issues are ironed out. I just can't wait for some HD capture cards to hit the markets.

[KyleK29]

Originally Posted by darren_e

I like my Hauppauge PVR-150's now that video and audio issues are ironed out. I just can't wait for some HD capture cards to hit the markets.

They're on the market (Fusion 3, 5, etc). Did you mean by Hauppauge?

I'm more holding off on HDTV cards until someone-somehow gets support for the cable boxes or non-OTA channels. I don't want HD in just ABC, CBS, NBC, etc .. I want Discovery/etc.

[jkirk]

Originally Posted by PaulF

I am happy with my PVR500(except no captioning). I was thinking of adding another one, but my local dealer switched to the new AVerTV Purity 3D MCE 500 from Avermedia. Has anyone tried this card? The all silicon tuner looks weird with no Faraday shield. It also supports PAL while Hauppauge doesn't anymore.

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...264#post197264

[yatman]

I just got my dualtv this weekend and it smokes!! I have it all working perfectly and nvidias drivers (even though they say it's for MCE only) seem to work fine with no hiccups.