Help !

[is_matrix]

I am very disappointed with what has happened to me. I bought a ATI TV All in Wonder pci tuner card and the software seem to have a lot of bugs. So I bought a 3rd party software(PowerVCR) and it does work better but stills has bugs concerning instance replay and some of other features that I got it for. So now I am trying to decide should I take back the card or try different software or just what should I do?

So I am thinking that maybe I should get some good suggestions from people that have had some experience. I read all the promises that this software offers and I will give it a try but I would like to get a tuner that is compatible with it and not something that requires all this add on junk. It should not have so many problems.

I am real sick of buying software that does not work correctly and you end up having to spend hours trying to figure out that it is some programing problem that the company overlooked. I realize how hard it is to make software that will work with all the different devices so that is why I want to get something that is a sure thing. I really don't enjoy spending so much time changing different settings.

So if someone would be so kind as to direct me to a setup that would work properly and not have lots of sound problems or replay problems etc I would appreciate it. Thanks

3200 AMD 3200 CPU

SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY

NFORCE MOTHERBOARD

ATI 9800 PRO GRAPHICS CARD

1500MB COSAIR MEMORY

DRIVERS ARE UP TO DATE

[Bilar Crais]

About a year ago, I was experiencing the same sort of frustration that you are. I had bought an AverMedia Stereo tuner, an Nvidia Xtasy Everything capture card, an ATI 8500DV, and an Compro VideoMate Ultra. I tried them all with every conceivable software combination I could think of. Always, results fell far short of my expectations. When I bought BTV, I finally realized what a PVR SHOULD be! So I had fantastic software, but my capture card was lacking.

It was then that I bought the Hauppauge PVR-250 retail tuner card. HEAVEN!!! With it's hardware encoder, my CPU usage during a full resolution DVD capture is only 3-6%, and I can do virtually anything I like while it is recording. The tuner has a significantly higher quality picture than any consumer TV in the house, and seems immune to some of the ghosting that is seen on certain channels on other TVs. I highly recommend that you get a hardware encoding card. I wish I had got one from the start, instead of spending untold hundreds of dollars on useless crap. If you do decide to go the Hauppauge '250 route, I would strongly suggest that you get the "RETAIL" version over the MCE version. The retail version does not have the onboard radio tuner, but is less problematic than the MCE version.

Now, about BTV...my main application is recording high resolution DVD mpeg2's at all hours of the day, scheduled by using the integrated program guide, and watching some live TV periodically. BTV performs nearly flawlessly in this regard.

Good Luck

[is_matrix]

Thanks for that responce. I finally got the Beyond TV 3.5 software and it seems to all work correctly. There are some things that I wish it would do that it does not do. For Example it is going to be hard to make a copy of the movie etc to a cd disk with the compression I am getting out of mpeg 2....about 800mb per hour. But they did not promise that so I cannot complain. All in all I am satisfied with this now!
I think you are right now that I see the difference between hardware and software encorders. Does anyone know where to get the Hauppauge PVR-250 retail tuner card now that I have spend this much I suppose I need to finish the job.
Are there any codecs or other programs like windows encoder 9 that need to be installed?

[Bilar Crais]

I bought mine from NewEgg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-602&depa=1


You can probably get a better price, but NewEgg's reputation is impeccable.
Are you making SVCDs? Or just storing them on CD? SVCD profile captures are a pretty good tradeoff for resolution vs. quality. You should be able to create a SVCD profile that would suit your needs.

3.5 includes the SnapStream (Cyberlink) SP decoder, which is quite good, so it's probably not necessary to purchase an additional decoder. I prefer the Intervideo codec (Hauppauge includes an Intervideo codec with the PVR-250 software).

[is_matrix]

Are these the same products? I think they are but I am not completely sure.???http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-602&depa=1

and

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...ta_pvr250.html

this comes with some interesting software too and is only 98.00

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by is_matrix

Are these the same products? I think they are but I am not completely sure.???http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-602&depa=1

and

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...ta_pvr250.html

this comes with some interesting software too and is only 98.00

It certainly looks like the 250 retail. I'll bet they're lowering prices in anticipation of the release of the 150 and 500 models.