Hauppauge

[mglover]

Does the WinTV Theater have the same hardware encoder as the WinTV-PVR-250 or 350? If it does I am leaning towards getting the Theater version since it has Dolby Surround Sound capabilities. I currently have an ATI All-In-Wonder card that apparently uses software encoding with Beyond TV. Is that correct, or should I be able to do what I need with my ATI? When I try and record I get a delay of about 1 to 2 seconds. I have an AMD XP Athlon 800 mhz with 512 meg, doing nothing but recording. My hard drive is a 250 gig drive with plenty of free space.

Thanks,
Mike

[Terminal]

I believe the WIN-TV theater is a software encoder, but with that system you will definatly need a harware encoder. You can get by with software if you record in VHS quality WMV. I did it for quite some time, our systems are similar, but I think you would be happier with Hardware and using MPEG.

[mglover]

Thanks Terminal. How can I be sure that my All-In-Wonder is not a hardware encoder? I also need to find out for certain whether the WinTV Theater is a hardware encoder or not.

Yes, I am trying to get by in the meantime by recording in VHS quality WMV, but whenever I change to that setting from MPEG my record option disappears. When I do try and record to MPEG I get the delay in audio, even though I am not using the pc for anything else. Is there any way with my current setup to get rid of the delay? I'd like to use the program a bit more before I decide to invest in another card.

[Cayars]

Umm, because WE know the All-In-Wonders are software based encoders and don't have any hardware chips on them to support encoding. If you had an E-Home ATI card then it would be a different story however as that is ATI's first hardware encoding board.

Carlo

[Terminal]

I don't think you have enough CPU to record in MPEG, I never could. What do you mean your record option goes away when you switch to WMV?

Also only the PVR series cards from Hauppauge have hardware encoders.

[nrf]

the dolby on the theatre card is a bit funny too - there are extra output cables for the surround channels. not sure what comes over the pci bus when you are recording, though.

[mglover]

Well, this is really just a temporary pc setup, and its all that I have at the moment. I am just trying to get a feel for this software, and I can decide whether to make the leap to the WinTV card or not. I will have a faster processor and motherboard very soon.

What I meant by the record option going away, it the timer button that brings up the record options is missing at times. I have yet to figure out exactly what settings cause this though. I'll post it as soon as I track it down. Currently I have bigger issues. I have sound in Windows, I have sound on Live TV, I do not have ANY sound on recorded shows. Any ideas?