USB TV Tuner with Windows XP

[RedAvenger]

Hello all,
I just received a new dell Optiplex small form factor and though it would be the perfect ss machine. That is until I found out I can't put a real video card in there. So I was wondering what is the best card to get that is Win XP compatible and works good with SS 2.0? Less money is always better so let me know what you think. Should I buy the SS + USB TV Tuner bundle?

Thanks,
RA

[RedAvenger]

Well I did some snooping around and I found http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvrusb_datasheet.htm . This guy looks pretty sweet and is what I am going to probably end up using. Is anyone familiar with this particular Hauppage card? Will it work with SnapStream? Any comments?

Thanks,
RA

[tjkraz]

A couple of comments:

I believe there was a recent discussion of the Hauppauge WinTV PVR. Do a board search to see what was covered there.

Second, you can get a fairly vanilla Hauppauge USB tuner card for about a third of the price without their PVR features. If you plan to use SnapStream, I'm not sure that you want or need the extra features of the PVR version.

The two main features of the PVR software that SS current does not cover are pausing live TV and a direct burn to CD feature. Based upon what I've read, both are very high on SnapStream's development list, so it's up to you to decide whether you want to wait or not.

Last comment: I've personally found Hauppauge's bundled software to be on the weak side myself. The Hauppauge PCI card that I have boasted bundled capture software, but it turned out to be a primitive AVI capture application that wasn't worth my time. I'd check with other owners to inquire about the quality of the bundled software on the PVR version. Without a solid software application, most of the features they mention are meaningless.

[fes]

I just purchased the WinTV USB product from Hauppauge. It installed on my old Win2k 450 Pentium 2 with no problmes. I then installed SnapStream 2.0 , also with no problems. I will be upgrading this machine to XP sometime in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes! Good luck.

[RedAvenger]

Thanks Fes. I have the USB DVR on order and I will let you know how it goes as well.

Thanks,
RA

[RedAvenger]

Well time for an update. Whatever you do don't buy this card... At least don't buy it from MicroWarehouse.com . I have never ordered from a crappier website. First they screwed up my order and sent me Japanese version of the WinTV PVR USB. Which had major problems with the software I tried downloading from the hauppage website. Major pain in the butt. I contacted Hauppage and they said they are going to run a test to see if the US version of the kit will work with snapstream. I was really impressed with their tech support even if I had to pay for the call. THey are going to call me back on what comes from their tests so I will post back here tomorrow night to let everyone know what they say.

Thanks,
RA

I tried an ATI TV Wonder USB at one time and ended up returning it. The image quality was OK but I thought the PCI image quality was better.

I had thought that the quality would be limited by the USB connection. Is this not the case?

The other reason I returned it was that the ATI USB could only do AVI and not MPEG2.