TV display/recording programs

dgingeri

2[H]4U
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Dec 5, 2004
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I am looking for a new TV display program. I have 2 TV cards, an Asus TV880 and an ATI TV Wonder PCI 200, and I don't like either of the programs they came with.

I am looking for a program which will display the signal without distorting it (I have a 20" widescreen monitor) and possibly allow recording to an avi file, but also be relatively simple. The ATI program takes too long to load, and the PowerVCR I that came with the Asus card crashes when trying to record and has bad display, along with a few other issues. Both distort the signal when I go full screen, stretching it wide.

I don't own a TV, and prefer to watch through my computer. I have a very small apartment with only one room, just big enough for my desk and bed. I use an external DVR digital cable box from Comcast. It makes scheduling recordings for TV shows easier. I would like to save some of the shows I currently have recorded in the DVR to computer files, but that is kind of low priority compared with just displaying it correctly.

Oh, I'd also prefer to keep the cost down to $50 to $80. If necessary, I can go buy another TV card, but I'd prefer to keep away from doing that. An independant program, working with nearly any TV card, would be preferred.

Any ideas?
 
I think that those two tuner cards are 'software enocders' which rely on the cpu to do a lot of work. The best software that should work with them is BeyondTV.

The distortion is because you're taking a 4:3 input and displaying it on a 16:9 monitor. BeyondTV lets you either have black borders on either side to keep the same aspect ratio, or can stretch it for you.
 
Thank you. I took a look over the page I found for BeyondTV and it looks like exactly what I'm looking for. It was a bit more expensive than I had planned, but will work with my Asus TV880 card.
 
I'd have to say I'm severely disappointed with BeyondTV.

Biggest disappointment: It wouldn't work with my first choice sound card, an Audigy 2ZS, wouldn't even detect it for input. Wouldn't work with my on-board sound, it played the sound 3 times in succession, and all of them early compared to the video output. It would work with my alternate sound card, a Fortissimo III 7.1.

The next biggest disappointment is I can't turn off the time shifting, so every time I change the channel or want to show info on the show, it takes and extra 3 seconds to respond.

The next biggest disappointment is that the program menus disappear when in full screen mode.

I am now wanting my money back, but I doubt I'll get it.
 
I find BeyondTV to be an enjoyable PVR app, but as with any roll-your-own, it takes a bit of effort to get everything initially setup correctly. I'll try and address your issues the best I can.

1. Sound. You have three soundcards in your computer, or you replaced the Audigy with the Fort in effort to get sound going? This sounds like a conflict or windows setup problem to me. I'd remove/disable all nonactive soundcards, to try and isolate the problem. There are BeyondTV users using an Audigy 2 ZS sucessfully so something is awry in your setup. Sorry I can't be of much help, but I don't own a 2 ZS. I did find a setup guide via google.

2. Time-shifting. By the definiton of PVR (personal video recorder) time-shifting is the primary function of these applications. Now, that said, the only thing that should take three seconds is to change the channel. If show info, or the BTV guide is taking three seconds to appear, you're experiencing a shortage of processor power (most probably caused by your software encoding tuner cards.) When I press the info, or guide buttons on my remote, BTV snaps to it and doesn't give me any lip.

Finally,

3. Menus. I'm not exactly sure what you mean here, but BTV (and all other PVR apps) are intended to be fully operational from a remote control. Under my normal viewing conditions, there is never a reason to need menus. What are you using the menus for that you couldn't do with the gui interface? Everything from scheduling recordings, viewing recordings, show management, guide viewing, playback settings, and compression settings can be controlled through the gui without the use of menus. Some one-time configuration settings such as video folders, and channel listings require the web admin feature, but these are largely "set and forget" configuration items.

I'd encourage you to work with BTV more, as after the initial setup is complete, there is little maintance needed to continue its operation.
 
1. I didn't install 3 sound cards. When I was working with the ATI TV card, I had my Audigy 2ZS installed and the on-board disabled. I had to take it out because BeyondTV wouldn't configure with it in there. I used the on-board sounds after that, but got that weird echo effect, where the sound track from my cable box would sounds like 'row, row, row your boat' sung in round robin fashion. I'd hear 'We'd like to see them', 'we'd like to see them', 'ok', we'd like to see them', 'ok', 'ok', then the actor on the screen would actually mouth the phrase. it was unwatchable. (I was watching Law and Order at the time for testing.) It finally got it to work withthe Fortissimo III, but that doesn't work with Ventrillo while playing WoW, which makes raiding a bit more difficult.

2. I guess my situation is a little out of the ordinary. I use an external DVR box for time shifting and show recording. I don't want to have to worry if my system has enough power to play WoW and record my shows at the same time, so I use a dedicated box then pipe it into the TV card's Svideo port, bypassing the internal tuner. I guess I didn't explain that part all that well. I was more upset last night at the thought of $100 down the drain than anything else. the 3 second delay is due to the svideo signal getting recorded by the PVR functions of the program, then played back. It gets very annoying. My area doesn't even have analog cable available anymore. it's digital cable, satellite, or nothing, so I can't use the internal tuner.

3. the menus I mean are any of the BeyondTV functions int he program. they all go black as soon as I go into full screen mode, then I am unable to get it out of full screen mode without a full removal and reinstall. I guess it's the Geforce 8800GTS drivers more than BeyondTV doing that.
 
You probably should have tried the BTV demo before plunking down the cash. Sory you spent so much and don't like it. I've no idea what your problems are, BTV just works for most of us.

If all you wnted was a video-input window, check out dscaler.
 
I took a look at dscaler, and it looks like just an enhancement on other programs to deinterlace TV signals for better quality images. It doesn't look like it displays anything on its own.
 
It's a little confusing, but you need the download for DScaler 4 to get it to play in a window. Here is the link for the information ..
DSCALER

Version 5 is just a mpeg codec basically.

Another option may be VLC. Theoretically it can play video from a capture device, I'm not sure it that counts the TV tuner cards though.
 
Just got it installed and configured in less than 5 minutes. It works perfectly. thank you very much.
 
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