PCie HD Capture Card?

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Ingonuts13

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Jun 9, 2003
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Afternoon gents, I am in the market for a PCIe HD Capable capture card that can handle Vista Ultimate 32Bit. This will be used for watching TV as well as recording some random shows to be streamed to my 360 in the living room.

Any suggestions that might work well with Vista?
 
From my research I've concluded the best two are probably the Hauppague WINTV-HVR-1800 or the ATI HD 650 Combo Tuner


The Hauppague with MCE remote is about 110 on newegg, the ATI is about 120.

I dont know which has better picture quality, however. If anyone else does, please enlighten me.

*warning* if you get the ATI, do NOT install the included software. Download just the driver from the ati site.
 
do you need digital cable to get the clear-QAM in media center, or can you pick them up off of a standard cable connection
 
unhappy_spammed said:
From my research I've concluded the best two are probably the Hauppague WINTV-HVR-1800 or the ATI HD 650 Combo Tuner


The Hauppague with MCE remote is about 110 on newegg, the ATI is about 120.

I dont know which has better picture quality, however. If anyone else does, please enlighten me.

*warning* if you get the ATI, do NOT install the included software. Download just the driver from the ati site.
Click to expand...

Yep, those are the two I was looking at earlier. I am a little concerned about ATI but I do hear the picture quality is stellar. Anyone have one of these?
 
i have a PCI ati 650 right now, but I'm going to return it. The hvr 1800 is less, comes with the MCE kit, and I've heard it's better. The one I have right now is not the dual tuner, but rather the hyrbid tuner (the pci-e version has two tuners), so that's the main reason I'm returning it.

It looks good, but I don't really have anything to compare it to.

It takes a long time to chnage channels, but again, nothing to compare it to.
 
The ATi 650 Combo is brand spanking new, so I doubt many people have it yet. I have had mixed results with my 4 previous tuner cards from ATI, but was considering the 650. However, I am leaning to the Hauppauge or AverMedia.
 
FlimFlam said:
The ATi 650 Combo is brand spanking new, so I doubt many people have it yet. I have had mixed results with my 4 previous tuner cards from ATI, but was considering the 650. However, I am leaning to the Hauppauge or AverMedia.
Click to expand...

Well crap, maybe I should wait then. I just cannot make a decision.
 
Another vote for the Avermedia. The HD quality on this card is phenomenal, plus if you get the retail box it comes with a true MCE remote unlike the Hauppauge.
 
the hauppague can come with the MCE remote. i went ahead and got the avermedia one though on account of the MCE qam drivers and the good things owners have said
 
I got my avermedia card today, here are my conclusions:


SDTV quality is a little lower than the ATI card. I notice ghosting as the main thing. However, the card seems to remove some of the "television" look of the image...in other words it looks less like an analog cable signal, but gains things like ghosting.

HDTV quality is great, as I would imagine. It works without a hitch. I haven't tried the clear qam yet, but the free antenna is a pretty nice 'gimme'. It doesn't get the best reception though. I didn't realize that digital broadcasts were either 1 or 0, though. So the ones it does get look perfect.


One strange thing i noticed is that when using the HD tuner, the volume is about half as loud as with the normal tuner. Anyone know why this is, or how to fix it? It's annoying having to change the volume dramatically every time i swap between the tuners.
 
unhappy_spammed said:
SDTV quality is a little lower than the ATI card. I notice ghosting as the main thing. However, the card seems to remove some of the "television" look of the image...in other words it looks less like an analog cable signal, but gains things like ghosting.
Click to expand...

Quality is not quite as good as a TV, but still good enough (for me at least).

unhappy_spammed said:
HDTV quality is great, as I would imagine. It works without a hitch. I haven't tried the clear qam yet, but the free antenna is a pretty nice 'gimme'. It doesn't get the best reception though. I didn't realize that digital broadcasts were either 1 or 0, though. So the ones it does get look perfect.
Click to expand...

Yep, agree.

unhappy_spammed said:
One strange thing i noticed is that when using the HD tuner, the volume is about half as loud as with the normal tuner. Anyone know why this is, or how to fix it? It's annoying having to change the volume dramatically every time i swap between the tuners.
Click to expand...

I get the same thing here, but I also get this on my TV/DVR combo. HD and premium channels (HBO, Starz) are "quieter" than normal channels, so the signal being received from the cable company (or OTA) is probably more of a factor than the tuner itself.
 
Ok, I am about to pull the trigger on the Avermedia product but am worried about the SD quality. Is it really washed out like I have been reading?
 
I have nothing to compare the Aver to, so I cannot say it is better or worse than competing products. Sorry.

Frankly, I did not expect it to be as good as a regular tuner/TV combo. About the best that I can say is that it is quite acceptable to me. The quality simply blows, tho, when you compare it to a HD signal. Same impression is there when I compare an analog to digital signal on a regular TV, just not "quite" as much of a differance.

This might be a PITA, but buy the Aver and another one, compare the differances/features and return the one you don't like.

One final comment: unless you live in an area that currently has *tons* of HD channels, I would not buy a card based solely on HD quality. By the time SD is completely dumped and HD is the only choice, you will probably in the market for a "better" card anyway. Probably dual HD tuner, no SD tuner.
 
JC634 said:
One final comment: unless you live in an area that currently has *tons* of HD channels, I would not buy a card based solely on HD quality. By the time SD is completely dumped and HD is the only choice, you will probably in the market for a "better" card anyway. Probably dual HD tuner, no SD tuner.
Click to expand...

Yep, that is why I am worried about the SD quality.
 
Personally I like the AVerMedia card. I have the Beta QAM drivers and the Clear QAM stations are awesome. My only complaint is that local affiliate stations cause VMC to crash. However, Discovery HD Theater, Universal HD, TNT HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, A&E HD and NESN HD don't crash. So I think something is weird about those local affiliate stations.

I have noticed ghosting while watching analog stations. It only occurs when the picture is very dark.
 
Nice, from what I see, SD on both the Aver and Hauppauge is on a par with each other. Still not as good, IMO, as a regular TV/tuner, but I certainly did not expect it to be.

In my case, it may be more a matter of screen adjustment. I tone my monitor down a bit for normal PC viewing. HD probably comes alot closer to a PC signal (color, saturation, etc.) then a SD signal does.
 
I have the ATI 650 original tuner in my PC and have not had a single problem with it. HDTV works great with my local channels OTA and I've had both ATI and NVidia video cards (x1950 series and currently an 8600gts) with no issues whatsoever. I'm actually watching a windowed Vista Ultimate MC in HD right now as I type this message on my HTPC! I'll be replacing the 8600gts with one of the new 3800 ATI cards very shortly.

I heard that there were some issues with the ones that were released last year during the first week, but those were recalled. I have both a Gigabyte DS3 and an Infinity Dark 965 motherboards and neither one has had any issues with this card at all. I purchased mine in May.

I'll be getting the new Combo PCI-e version along with the new HD3800 series video card at the end of the month.
 
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