Need advice: Purchase

[urvieh]

Alright guys, here we go. What I need is a USB 2-based dvb or analogue cable box (in that case with s-video input) that can cope with dvd bitrates (therefore usb 2) and that is reliable and does not produce asynchronous sound/video. It should be able to handle signal strengths of 75 per cent.

Am I demanding too much?

TIA for your recommendations.

[Qjimbo]

There's a USB2 version of the WinTV PVR I think. I have no idea what signal strengths that can cope with though, but it has a Hardware MPEG encoder so you'd get no A/V desync.

[urvieh]

Thank you for your reply. They are using TechnoTrend hardware, and I've made some bad experience with their dvb-c usb device. I'll have a look at it.

The weird thing is I've got a Plextor PVR TV402U, and this one produces a/v asynchronicity every now and then (well, more every than then) although it does have a hardware encoder. The asynch. a/v occurs more often with mpeg-2 files than mpeg-4 (MS version), but I don't want to have the extra step of re-encoding ... Why can't they build in the same chips dvd recorders have?

[Qjimbo]

How wierd... maybe it software encodes the audio? Though that seems odd for a USB device. I've yet to have any a/v desync from my T550pro but thats not USB and the drivers are a bit flakey.

[urvieh]

Nope, it's hardware encoding for both. Weird, indeed.