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Topic: TV tuner with video output card, need advices (Read 4677 times) previous topic - next topic
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TV tuner with video output card, need advices

I have the project of building a HTPC (home theather PC, doesn't it sound cool  ) with some old spare parts I have, but I need to be able to see TV at the computer and send it to a TV set.

Is there a good quality card, not very expensive, that does all this in one? If not, I'm planning on buying a Pinnacle PCTV for the tuner and an inexpensive Hercules Kyro-based card for the TV output, which I've read have good video output quality. I don't need great 3d processing power, as much DVD acceleration would be good, but not a must.

Any advices welcome, thanks.

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #1 –
You could check out cards based on ATI:s All-in-Wonder products. You get TV tuner, Video in and out and some DVD acceleration. (You also get some 3D accelaration). I am not sure if it would be cheaper than buying the two cards you mention, but it is quite neat with just one card and one set of drivers and software.

I Think Sapphire makes the cheapest All-in-wonder cards. Hercules makes such cards as well and you can probably find ATI branded too.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/products.asp
http://europe.hercules.com/index_products.php?t=1
http://mirror.ati.com/products/builtdesktoppc.html

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #2 –
I have a PCTV, and love it. Never failed me.

For TV out, I use my GF2 MX 400.

I'm somewhat unsure about those "all-in-one" cards. From experience, I believe things that try to do all end up doing everything unsatisfactorily. (Talk about Jukebox Software)

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #3 –
ATI cards are supposed to have the very best tv-out quality.  Some nvidia cards I've seen are very, very bad.  My gf4 4400 has a conexant cx25871 video out chip on it that is surprisingly good; supposedly its the same chip used in the xbox.  I would still go with a cheap ati card though; you can even get a hdtv tv-out adapter for ati cards, hows that for future-proof?

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #4 –
The TV out of my GeForce2 MX440 does not cover the entire TV screen (black boundries) make sure yours don't behave like that. I guess the best all around would be an Ati All In Wonder, the ones with slower (outdated) 3d are not that expensive, the newer ones with Radeon chips are.
She is waiting in the air
 

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #5 –
Quote
The TV out of my GeForce2 MX440 does not cover the entire TV screen (black boundries) make sure yours don't behave like that. I guess the best all around would be an Ati All In Wonder, the ones with slower (outdated) 3d are not that expensive, the newer ones with Radeon chips are.

With TV Tool (http://tvtool.info) you can optimize the output of the GeForce: it removes black borders  and the image is sharper. 
I use it and the output is as good as the ATI cards.
[ Commodore 64 Forever...! ]

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #6 –
if you can get used matrox etv450 < 100$ it is not that bad deal imho:

tv tuner - average
s-video input - good
drivers - sucks
tv -output - never used it
internal hardware resizing - average (i 'fix' that by lowering the resolution)
normal 2d picture - very, very sharp and cool

----------------------------------------------------------------
example of the dvcam->s-video input (i lack the firewire)
http://smokeamiga.virtualave.net/pcvcr.jpg
note that noise in black is introduced by dv compression + the (not very proper) use of the highspeed shutter and not by the card itself)
PANIC: CPU 1: Cache Error (unrecoverable - dcache data) Eframe = 0x90000000208cf3b8
NOTICE - cpu 0 didn't dump TLB, may be hung

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #7 –
From what i read on ixbt.com - the output DVD quality of differnet Radeon series also differs. (!) (It's russian resource of testing, benchmark - very popular one). More of that - the best quality was showed when playing at Radeon 9000 series.(!!!) Radeon 9700,8500 had the worst of it. 7500 is at the back of 9k. Strange indeed...  But there were no occasions not to beleive that guys ever. 

So, as the Radeon 9k has low price, why not to give it a try?

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #8 –
Quote
the output DVD quality of differnet Radeon series also differs.

Deinterlacing quality, to be exact.

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #9 –
Quote
The TV out of my GeForce2 MX440 does not cover the entire TV screen (black boundries) make sure yours don't behave like that. I guess the best all around would be an Ati All In Wonder, the ones with slower (outdated) 3d are not that expensive, the newer ones with Radeon chips are.

We are talking overscan here. That would be the propper term. As a rule ATI cards have much better overscan setups than Nvidia cards.  Even the current cheap ATI cards are vastly superior out of the box in this area to even the newest best Nvidia cards. ATI cards are not perfect though. Their overscan typically fills the screen top to bottom. But the overscan on the side is not exactly correct. This is not a really huge deal since overscan between different TVs and manufacturers can varry widely. For instance I have a 10 year old 21 inch TV with much less overscan than a brand new 20 inch flat tube TV I bought recently.

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #10 –
Well, i later found it not to be the fault of the chip, it was the fault of nVidia's software. I followed the tvtool page, it is a 10$ shareware program that will close after 15 minutes

But in that page there is an earlier freeware software called tvcc2000 that can do the same but only in if you have a chrontel chip. Lucky me, mine is!
She is waiting in the air

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #11 –
Yes but support should enter into this. Why was it nescessary for a third party to write such a software? Shouldn't Nvidia have done it? ATI is a bit better on that front. I still remember the Quake Quack debate. The Nvidia guis did not think it fair to say ATI drivers were superior since the driver would detect games and aplications in many instances and load optimised settings just for that app all with one driver. Where as Nvidia users would load a specific detonator version to get the best performance on one game. And load and reboot with another version for another app.

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #12 –
Thanks for the responses, however I have read in a previous thread here that the ATI All-in-Wonder cards TV tuner has bad sound quality. I have also been told that Hercules Kyro cards have good TV output. Any comments?

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #13 –
Well in my opinion i don't like nVIDIA as a company, its practices are not so good, comparable to the likes of Creative. Having fully open specs for the hardware is also preferable, so i wish other companies to do better.

Thing is, the market is flooded with cheapo tnt2/gforce2/gforce4 cards.
She is waiting in the air

TV tuner with video output card, need advices

Reply #14 –
Quote
Thanks for the responses, however I have read in a previous thread here that the ATI All-in-Wonder cards TV tuner has bad sound quality. I have also been told that Hercules Kyro cards have good TV output. Any comments?


Edit: hmmm, I can't find back any links to support what I remembered about this. I think this was the point, but I might just have my facts mixed up...

What series AIW was that?

The Radeon 8500 based AIW had a digital tuner, which turned out to be crappy. The newer (somewhat expensive) AIW has an analog Philips tuner again.

I'll see if I can find back some recent info on that.