Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[SeanC]

I am interested in getting a tv card for use with MJ.  I am particularly interested in the upcoming tivo-like functionality hinted at by JimH.

I already have a main AGP video card - do I have to replace it?  Are there standalone PCI TV cards that will work well alongside an AGP graphics card?

What card work well with MJ?  If possible, I'd like a card that does it's own compression work, and doesn't burden the CPU with video stuff.

[Scronch]

When you PC-TV gurus answer, please include a short blurb on the best TV solution for a laptop.  I would leave the "external TV card" attached to my cable modem, i.e. it doesn't have to be portable.  Thanks.

Scronch

[JimH]

ATI cards are supported.  Some Hauppauge cards work too.  Others may work.

The ATI TV Wonder VE is cheap and works well.  Tuner only card.

Compression is something I can't tell you much about.  Hardware compression is still expensive but seems to be dropping.

Scronch,
I use a Hauppauge USB device with my notebook.  I think it's called WinTV USB.  It's about $80.  Works OK.  The ATI USB card didn't work right, but the next build of MJ should fix that.

[claudio]

Hi SeanC,

I have a P4 with a GeForce3 Agp card running Win2k, and after a bit or research I decided to buy the Hauppauge WinTV dbx with fm radio tuner (model 401). Other vendors also offer a tv tuner only pci card (eg. ATI TvWonder), but my choice was mostly driven by the quality of the driver on Win2k. I'd stay away from an usb external tuner, unless you have special reason to get one (i.e. laptop), since they all use USB 1 at the moment, and compress the video signal to fit into the USB bandwidth with some effect on quality. Aside from USB, most of hte consumer level PCI tv tuner card have similar quality, since they are all based on similar Brooktree (now Conextant) chipset.

At the moment I have to say that I'm not using MJ as my tv viewing application (I use Dscaler), but if easy timed capture and personal-video-recorder functionality become part of the package, I'll probably reconsider since in that case organization will become more important.

Aside from the tv tuner the WinTv has an s-video video input for video capturing: it does not support HW compression, but on my P4 this is not an issue. The sound is handled by connecting the out of the WinTv card to the mic in on your sound card

Ohh, the WinTv comes also with an infrared remote (altough I'm not using it since I have another RF-remote that can be use from anywhere in the house and is easier to customize)

Scronch: sorry I do not have much experience with USB external tuner for laptop... someone else will have to fill in. My guess is that in the next little while, as USB 2.0 becomes widely available, an external solution will be completely on par with an internal PCI, but at the moment they arent and I haven't seen any USB2.0 tuner yet

Claudio

[SeanC]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

Claudio - what kind of RF-Remote are you using?

[claudio]

I have the X10 remote: it's a combination IR-RF remote that comes with a sw package that allows to associate keyboard commands to the remote buttons. You can also use it with Girder, and MJ has a plugin for it as well. It came with my "DVD/mpr3 Anywhere" package ( a wireless audio and video sender/receiver that I mostly use to beam sound around the house) and it works quite reliably with MJ. X10 is generally obnoxious in their marketing strategies, but performance/price wise they are quite good

Claudio