Print

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

[cascius]

Sup guys?

I'd be interested to get a new tv card and was wondering if some of them supported both NTSC and European formats (Pal/Secam).

Thanks for the info,

-Cascius

[Yaobing]

Do you want a tuner that supports multiple standards? I have not seen one (that definitely does not mean that they do not exist  ).

All cards I have tested are for North America use. The tuner part is for NTSC only, but the video capture part supports multiple standard. Such devices can receive only TV signals of one standard, but I believe you can play and record video of other standard through SVideo or Composite inputs.

[cascius]

Thanks Yaobing,

good thing you asked me to clarify what the multistandard is for. I actually need a card that supports S-video capture from both North America (NTSC) and France (PAL/Secam). The tuner has to be NTSC, I don't need Pal/Secam for that.

I'm basically a frenchy living in the US and would like to make a backup of some French tapes I have before they really become unviewable...

Anyway, you seem to have a card that can do all that, can you tell me a bit more about it? i.e. Brand & model #. Also if you have any recommendations for other brands, feel free to throw them in as well.

I've been trying to get this type of info off the specs on ATI's website, but unfortunately they didn't have that kind of detailed info.  

Thanks man (lady:P),

-Cascius

[Yaobing]

After reading your post, I tried to make sure what I said was right by testing. Now I am not so sure anymore  

All cards I have tested allow you to change TV standard on the "Capture" portion regardless of the tuner format. That was why I thought any of the cards should work. These cards include ATI, Hauppauge, etc.

However, a moment ago, I wanted to make sure, so I hooked up a VCD player to the Composite video input of my ATI All-in-wonder card. It turns out, the player I have been using converts PAL to NTSC before outputting to the TV card (or TV set - I should have known, since that is how I usually play those PAL formatted VCDs, i.e. from the player directly to NTSC TV set). So, inspite of my believe that it should work, I do not have real test to prove it  . Sorry.

It would probably the best to find out from the manufacturers. Emailing ATI or Hauppauge TechSupport for information probably is the best way to go.

[Yaobing]

Casius,

I have good news.

My VCD player can be configured to output either NTSC or PAL format. After configuring it to PAL format, I can still watch a show in MC using ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO. All you have to do is to press Ctrl + Shift + F repeatedly until you get the correct format.

AIW 9600 PRO is what I currently have in my computer. Other AIW models should work too.

Hauppauge cards should work as well. But some Hauppauge cards are not supported in MC.

[cascius]

Thanks a lot Yaobing! Now that's what I call helping someone. Thank you so much for doing those tests, they're greatly appreciated.

I think I'll go with an ATI card. I've heard that they're suppose to come out with some HD ones (antena input) in the near future and might wait for those.

Thanks again,

-Caiscius

[Yaobing]

Thanks a lot Yaobing! Now that's what I call helping someone. Thank you so much for doing those tests, they're greatly appreciated.

You are welcome!

I think I'll go with an ATI card. I've heard that they're suppose to come out with some HD ones (antena input) in the near future and might wait for those.

If you do not expect to use it with MC, then its OK. For now MC does not support any HD TV cards. But then again, maybe by the time you get an HD card from ATI, this will have changed (no guarantee though  ).