CArd suggestion please

[picomode]

Need an analog tuner card (SDTV) with hardware decoding but would like to be able to save files in .AVI format. Any ideas ?

[sub]

Sorry, no card used with GB-PVR will create .avi files.

All the hardware encoder devices produce MPEG2 streams, so you'll typically see apps like GB-PVR saving .mpg files.

[picomode]

Thanks for the reply. Is there a physical reason why no cards do better than mpeg 2 ? I've seen a few cards that claim to be able to do mpeg2 or mpeg4 although I don't know if it's via hardware or software encoding.

[sub]

Pretty much all those cards do it in software, and usually do a pretty bad job - much worse than the multi-pass xvid files you'd typically download from the internet. One device that does H.264 encoding in hardware is the Hauppauge HD-PVR, but it'll create a .ts file not a .avi file.

.avi files are kind of useless for PVR applications since your cant really play them until the very end of the file has been read, which means you wouldnt be able to watch them while they're recording.

[picomode]

The Hauppauge HD-PVR looks interesting but lacks a tuner of any kind. That'd make for a cluttered HTPC, needing three pieces of gear instead of just one TV card. Plus the use of an IR blaster to change channels seems like a giant step backwards.

[sub]

The Hauppauge HD-PVR looks interesting but lacks a tuner of any kind. That'd make for a cluttered HTPC, needing three pieces of gear instead of just one TV card. Plus the use of an IR blaster to change channels seems like a giant step backwards.

It depends what you need it for. The HD-PVR is pretty much the only device on the market that can recording high definition premium satellite/cable channels, and does a great job at it. There is no chance of using an onboard tuner for that stuff, so using an external set top box is pretty much the only option.

In general the days of new analog hardware encoders for analog cards has gone. Every manufacture is pretty much focusing on digital products these days, which pretty much means getting transport streams containing MPEG2 or H.264. We may see some card with built in transcoding engines in future though (ie MPEG2 in, H264 out, at record time).

[picomode]

Thanks for your help Sub, I think I've learned quite a bit from this.