StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I need one. My only requirement is that it can do live codec recording. Even if it comes with a remote, I won't be using it. I have MCE.

It's hard to find reviews on something like that, isn't it? I got a USB2 Hauppage unit and it works fine, but the audio is usually a bit out of sync with the video on the recordings. I could probably fix it by manually adjusting the audio delay in the file, but I don't see why I should have to.

I could only find a few reviews. Here's one from CNet, and a brief buyer's guide from PC Magazine. I used to own an ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI card and I was very happy with it(I ditched it when my Dad gave me his old TV set). It even had a connector that allowed you to hook up a VCR to your PC - I could even play PS2 on my PC with it. The recording feature always seemed to work pretty well.

amazon tuner

I have that little doodad above. Works well, the application uses quite a few resources, but luckily i have enough to spare. Works very well and have had no problems yet. Can do recording as well. About 1gb for an hour.. but that can be xvid'd post recording.

Darth Wong wrote:It's hard to find reviews on something like that, isn't it? I got a USB2 Hauppage unit and it works fine, but the audio is usually a bit out of sync with the video on the recordings. I could probably fix it by manually adjusting the audio delay in the file, but I don't see why I should have to.

That has happened to me as well (yes I also own a Hauppage USB model) but only on ocassions and especially if it's a rather long recording.

Nothing that VirtualDub cannot quickly fix with the method you just mentioned though...

Through work I've personaly used the Compro T200/300, and the DVico FusionHDTV DVB-T dual tuner and haven't had any problems with either.

Edit: Spelling

Dominus Atheos wrote:I need one. My only requirement is that it can do live codec recording. Even if it comes with a remote, I won't be using it. I have MCE.

What do you mean live codec recording? Some of the Hauppage units can hardware-encode MPEG2 if that's what you mean.

Darth Wong wrote:I got a USB2 Hauppage unit and it works fine, but the audio is usually a bit out of sync with the video on the recordings.

How bad (in terms of how many seconds of deviation generally) would the audio be?

Thinking of a tuner as well, but my desktop is years old...

phongn wrote:

Dominus Atheos wrote:I need one. My only requirement is that it can do live codec recording. Even if it comes with a remote, I won't be using it. I have MCE.

What do you mean live codec recording? Some of the Hauppage units can hardware-encode MPEG2 if that's what you mean.

As in into DivX or XviD .avi format.

Dominus Atheos wrote:As in into DivX or XviD .avi format.

In hardware? None, AFAIK (and if any can hardware-encode into MPEG-4 it'll be out of your price range). In software, well, a lot of the older Brooktree-based cards can (see dscaler.org for a list) do it in software on-the-fly ... it'll just be extremely taxing on your CPU.

I have one now that does it, but the quality (in any format) is not very good.

Dominus Atheos wrote:I have one now that does it, but the quality (in any format) is not very good.

Bad signal into your computer?

Here's the MythTV Top 12