Beyond TV Chipset Compatibility

[barrysanders20]

I have a question about compatibility

The Compro Video Mate uses the Phillips SSA7133 chipset. The MSI TV Anywhere uses the Conexant CX23883 chipsets. Does anyone know if Beyond TV works with the Phillips SSA7133 or the Conexant CX23883 chipsets? I currently have a Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 Expert and I'm not very pleased with it. The card is a resource hog (using up to 90% CPU functions) when recording, and the included PVR software is rather limited. I would like to use Beyond TV, but I understand that there is some SAP problems with the particular card I have. I'm still within the return period for the Leadtek card I have and will most likely return it based upon Beyond TV working with the aformentioned cards.

[RobertH]

I think the MSI devices have a track record of not working with anything but the crappy software they come with, not sure of the other card, but if you are looking for a card specifically for use with BTV then I would suggest picking one on the supported device list:
http://www.snapstream.com/Products/P...VS3_SysReq.asp
those cards that say they are PVR devices or do mpeg4 encoding wont work with BTV cause they more than likely have a customized hardware encoder or have funky drivers that dont work with normal capture software.

If you are looking for qualty (and i mean dvd) recordings and dont care about streaming livetv over home network or the internet then get a pvr250 or an adaptec (depending on if you can put in a pci card) these give dvd quality mpeg2 recordings using little to no cpu for recording because of the onboard hardware mpeg2 encoder.

[codeit999]

Does beyond tv work with the Real XCard by sigma designs?

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard_features_specifications.htm

[RobertH]

if it isnt on the support list it isnt gaurenteed to work, some cards will work if they provide generic drivers, however a lot of these new cards coming out are touting they are PVR or hardware encoder devices arent going to work because they provide pre-compressed streams or they dont have standard WDM interfaces. the Xcard doenst work properly, some users have hacked methods of getting it to work but it wont display content on the pc monitor from what ive heard.

BeyondTV does not support any Hardware DECODERs (playback) all playback is done using the video card in the system, you can use 3rd party mpeg decoders to get hardware assistance from the video card but that is as far as it is going to go.

Your best bet for compatibility and gaurenteeing it will work is to pick a card off the list, most of these devices are great, while some (hardware encoders, pvr250/350,adaptec) will give great dvd quality captures the rest rely on the cpu for encoding.

for video out if the system is only going to be used for video playback, get a geforce 4mx or low end fx card or a cheap radeon. if you are going to use it for other tasks or for gaming then you are going to want to look into using a hardware encoder and whatever video card you want to use for gaming if you are doing such, a hardware encoder will be better on a rig used for other tasks because regular cards will loose quality as cpu is taken away from the encoding process for whatever else you are doing.

[codeit999]

robert,
thanks

[twosouls]

Aloha...
I have two cards in my pvr.. I have an ATI TV Wonder and an MSI TV @nywhere pro..

Both cards work the exact same in the machine using btv... Same quality and no problems...
Trying to work them both at the same time with two different pvr programs is another story... They seem to conflict in the way of drivers or something, but can't get them to work at the same time...

So yes, the MSI card does work with BTV...


Hope that helps...
aloha for now
Gary

[RobertH]

what drivers are you using?

Ive seen atleast a handfull of people that say the MSI anywhere card doesnt work with BTV.

[twosouls]

Aloha Robert..
I'm using the latest drives on the MSI site.. They released them on 10/2003..
I have the MSI TV @nywhere master... Not sure if that makes a difference or not, but the drivers are different from the regular tv @nywhere...
I was going to only use the MSI, until I found the ATI tv wonder with remote onsale for $79 at CompUSA, so I picked it up as well and was surprised to see no difference in quality with either card...


aloha for now
Gary

[RobertH]

interesting the ones Ive heard complained about were the regular ones (cx881 chipset)

[SHS]

RobertH they could eazy support Hardware Decoder for Playback but we need Video Renderer or Overlay Mix and Video Renderer but need to say BTV only use the Video Mixing Renderer 9 rigth now

[RobertH]

yeah, saying they could if they re-wrote the majority of the graphcial interface code would allow this but basically with them only supporting VMR9 and none of the hardware decoders supporting this (for whatever reason) is basically saying the same as they dont support it

until either the decoders support vmr9 or SS gets a chance to rewrite the rendering code, hardware decoding isnt supported, hardware "assisted" decoding does work by using supported 3rd party decoders but that isnt the same, but it is good enough until they get round to doin it (if ever)

although ive heard a few that got the xcard (or one of those) working by hacking some video driver into the preferred deocder list but it only displays video on the card, no overlay graphics and wont display on the monitor.

[SHS]

Well that ture unless they do like I have it and that is over VIP which dose display on the monitor but that mean they need older Video card like ATI or nVidia.
2nd option is NetStream 2000/2000TV/4000 which dose overlay graphics and display on the monitor.
3rd option is to make use of Xcard OSD kind like what JovePlayer dose but in full sceen but that all mean need full support Xcard switch from in out FullScreen mode kind like what the old 3dfx Voodoo did other then that it just be sent the video it self out the Component/S-Video/Composite output depenting on how the user set it up in the first place.