Can someone help:
1. I'm looking for a cheap TV card for MC9 that will still give a good picture
I can not really make a specific recommendation since I do not know whether one device is better than the other. For cheap TV cards, ATI TV Wonder VE works well for me. Hauppauge WinTV PCI too. Other people have success using AverTV and Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro with MC too.
You can search topics on this forum and find some useful info on this.
Other people may fill in on this too.
2. Can MC9 tv options work like a tivo?
- Can it download a program info like tivo or snapstream and let me browse what's on for the next two weeks and record from that?
No, not yet.
- when I'm watching live tv can i always rewind if i miss something, or do I have to do something special to do that?
When you start TV, it is in regular viewing mode, not time-shifting mode, so you can not rewind. You need to start time-shifting by doing one of these two things:
1. Click Pause key to pause it. (And click the same key again to resume). Now you are in time-shifting mode.
2. Right click on video screen and select TV Options\Start Time-Shifting.
- what features do I miss by using mc9 instead of tivo
I have not used TIVO myself. So I do not know exactly.
- can i record two programs simulatiously (do I need two tv tuner cards to do so)?
No you can not record two programs simultaneously. You do need two cards to do it, but not with MC alone. You can record one with MC using one device, and record the second one with a another program using the second device. Doing so will put quite some strain on your system though, especially if you use compression options.