Which video cards take a load off the CPU?

[mixedup]

Hi,

Just wondering when reviewing TV capture card specs how to tell which ones would take extra load off the CPU to do the decoding?

e.g. I currently have a "VisionPlus Twinhan Tuner Card" (<$100). What would be a good value-for-money card that would take more load off my CPU however (e.g. DVico FusionHDTV Plus ?)

tks

[pBS]

if it's true hardare encoding,there shouldn't be any load except for the file writes..so a good video out card with hardware assistance would be your best bet...i see barely 1-2% from my pvr-150..
most ati and nvidia cards offer hardware decoding assistance,dropping cpu usage to total less than 40% even while recording..
many others offer hardware mpeg decoding as well,just need a good mpeg2 codec that supports your card or if i'm not mistaken,they all use directx/3d to access it so any compatible card should do if it has the features..

cyberlink [powerdvd] codec and nvidia purevideo are my fav mpeg2 codecs,they will tell you if you card is assisting with hardware too..[and what level on nvidia's, higher the letter, more hardware assist]
properly installed,almost all agp/pcie video cards offer some acceleration..
pricier cards just offer more features in hardware...hence better performance..
but almost all offer the cpu usage drop..[<50% even on motherboard-video cards]

[sub]

Just wondering when reviewing TV capture card specs how to tell which ones would take extra load off the CPU to do the decoding?

Unfortunately the Hauppauge PVR350 is only capture card that includes a hardware MPEG2 decoder. I wouldnt recommend you by this device for this purpose though, as this aspect of it is pretty buggy.

[mixedup]

oh, ok - thanks for the clarification - sounds like my $99 card which works fine (VisionPlus Twinhan Tuner Card) is as good as any then