Need advice picking out capture and video card

[pduncan67]

Can someone please suggest a capture card (with remote) that is compatible with gbpvr? I have a Hauppauge Win-TV Go card (which I learned won't work due to lack of hardware MPEG compression).

My PC (PCI only - no PCIe or AGP slots):
dell dimension 2.8 GHz P4
500 MB RAM (can buy more if necessary)
120 GB HDD (can add more if needed)
WIn XP SP3

I know I need a card w/ hardware MPEG compression - but would also like to purchase a unit that comes with a remote.

I have a 52" Zenith HD projection TV (it has component (R, B, G) only for HD input - no HDMI) and the usual composit/s-video inputs. What video card would you recommend that I buy to drive the TV? (BTW - my TV is a 'monitor' - no NTSC or HD tuner).

My local (Memphis, TN) cable provider is Comcast - due to recent financial cutbacks I have elected to drop my HD service and now have just basic cable in SD - which looks terrible on my HD set. I don't plan to upgrade back to HD service for a couple of years (trying to pay off some student loans) so I am stuck with SD on HD TV for a while. I understand why it looks bad (e.g. 480 to 1080 interpolation) - but is there a video card that would 'up-convert' my SD signal to it doesn't look quite so bad on my HD TV (even if it isn't 'true' HD).

One option I believe would work is dual tuners - and use an antenna to pick up over the air HD channels, and the other for cable?

I don't have a lot to spend - would like to do this for less than $400 if possible (am I even close to being realistic here?)
Anyway - my main concern is that it works with gbpvr.

also - can I use my old Win-TV GO card for another input? I know I cant record of that card, but would it allow me to watch one channel while recording another, PIP, etc? (or should I just retire this to the scrap heap?)

If my $400 budget is unrealistic, could this be done in 2 stages: stage 1 - get capture card working (with remote) and record/watch on my PC.
Stage 2 - buy a 'good' video card and connect to my TV.

to recap - here are my limitations:
$400-$500 for project
No HDMI plug on HD TV
No PCI express or AGP port on PC

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[TonyXL]

1. Need 1GB of RAM

2. Need bigger hard drive for recordings (especially for HD OTA).

3. I'd get a Hauppauge HVR-1600 capture card. Has 2 tuner: 1 OTA/QAM, 1 regular cable

4. Video card might be tricky, probably only a few PCI video cards with component video out. Another worry is playback of HD recordings, you usually want a card that supports DXVA video acceleration. Not sure if a PCI card would do that. Check Newegg.

4a. If it would fit in your Dell case, it might be worth it to spend $100 at Newegg on a new motherboard and CPU. Then you could get a PCIe video card that could definitely handle HD playback and output component.

5. You can use the Win-TV GO card with GB-PVR, but only using the GraphRecorder plugin and some finagle-ing. Recording would use up CPU cycles though (cards with built-in encoders don't). If you got it to work, you could use that as a separate tuner. GB-PVR doesn't have a PiP feature though.

[johnsonx42]

This horribly long link will show you three video cards that should fit the bill:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcom...6814161238 (edit: yes, it doesn't look all that long... trust me, it is). Click on the pictures to see the Component Out adapter. Unfortunately I couldn't find a fanless card that also had component out 'in the box'. With some cards you may be able buy a seperate adapter for component out.

PCI 8400GS from Jaton, another from EVGA, and an HD2400Pro from HIS. The list of PCI cards with component output is pretty short, but there you go. I can't really say which I'd pick... probably the 8400gs; I tend to lean ATI, but my HD4550 is giving me fits (though apparently the problems I'm having are already fixed on HD2000 and HD3000 series cards). PCI cards are far less common, and less well supported by the drivers sometimes, so you may run into unique problems with those. I know I've heard of problems with AGP HD2000/HD3000 cards.

For the tuner, a Hauppauge HVR1600 should fit the bill, and is well supported by gb-pvr and the community here. You can simultaneously tune one digital and one analog channel. It has a separate input for your OTA antenna. You may also find that your cable co is sending you your locals in digital ClearQAM (HD even!), even though they don't publicize it. So, you may not need an OTA antenna at all. Either way, the 1600 should do you.

Try the channel database at http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels
I've heard it isn't always 100% accurate, but it should tell you if your local cable co is sending digital locals.

Finally, as far as I know your WinTV Go is simply useless at this point. It doesn't have a hardware encoder, I don't think it's supported by the Hauppauge SoftMCE software encoder, and it doesn't do digital.

[pduncan67]

Thank you for the info!

[stustunz]

also price up new motherboard/cpu/ram/video card etc you might find the price difference is not that much more
parts are pretty cheap these days and the system you end up with will be way more reliable and work alot better

pcie video cards are half the price for double the spec

[pduncan67]

so if I am reading the responses correctly here - if I go with my 2.8 GHz P4 w/ PCI cards I most likely wouldn't be happy with the results, and for a little more I can upgrade and have a 'decent' system?

OK - so if I go that route, I should look for PCIe bus - and should I go w/ SATA drives or can I recycle my IDE's? I am kinda 'weak' on my hardware knowledge/experience - and don't have a lot of money to invest, so I want to be sure I can get this working right the first time and still meet my budget.

Do you think it is possible to build a complete system for less than $600? (motherboard, memory, processor, capture card and video card and maybe case)

Can you suggest some boards and processors? Is NewEgg a good place to look?

Sorry for all the questions but I (sadly) turned in my rented HDDVR last week and I am in severe DVR withdraw I think...

ALSO - not sure if it matters but I am going real cheap on the cable side. I have downgraded and now only have 'Basic Cable' - no converter box. Does that change anything?

[pduncan67]

what about something like this?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...&CatId=332

the mb has 256MB Shared video Memory - so if I get this, all I need is a capture card - (I think)

[stustunz]

yeah something like that then you can add a video card later if you wish
but since its a quad core it should be all good(personally i like having separate video card but im probably just stuck in my ways)

you could re-use your hard drive although you will find more harddrive space is always a good thing to have
new machines normally only have one ide cable connection meaning you can only connect 2 devices (1 harddrive and 1dvd rom)unless you get a pci card but if you do that you should just buy new sata drives normally between 4 and 6 plugs

yeah a tuner card will be all you need as mentioned in previous posts

[soccerdad]

That is a nice system, but really is overkill for a DVR. You can get a good HD rig for about $250-300, especially if you reuse your old case. I get most of mine from Newegg with free shipping and you can really put one together cheap with good stuff. The 780g chipsets can do HD very well so no real need for a dedicated vid card. BUT, most new motherboards don't have component outputs. Do you have a RGB computer monitor input? If so, you might get some ideas from this thread. http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...t=m3a78-em Remember you will need an OS also.

Good luck and welcome to the forums!

[johnsonx42]

what about something like this?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...&CatId=332

the mb has 256MB Shared video Memory - so if I get this, all I need is a capture card - (I think)

No component out though.

If I were you, I'd try it with your existing system. The HVR-1600 will be good no matter what happens, so your only potential 'waste' item would be the PCI video card; that EVGA 8400gs is only $60. Even RAM needn't be an issue right away; I quite happily tested GB-PVR 1.2.13 on a 2Ghz single core system with only 384MB of RAM and an ATI 9500Pro AGP graphics card. Hell, in some ways it worked better than my 'real' gb-pvr box, which has a dual core, 1GB ram, radeon HD4550.