Tv Cards and PVR function

[el_sr_al]

Hi there,
I'm after buying and setting up a Shuttle SFF cube. I would like to configure it as my tv/audio/video/radio unique source.
I'm trying to decide which tv tuner card to buy but I'm getting confused.

1)Do I need to buy a PVR card like the Hauppage pvr 350 with mpeg2 hardware coding/decoding to obtain good captures from TV or could I do the same with a normal TV card and through VirtualDub VCR version?
I have a bit of experience in converting DVD's to Divx but the Tv capture world is new to me! I read the recently publised guide in Doom9.org but it didn't mention any ideal hardware. Could you guide me on this?

2)When capturing through a tv card do you achieve at least quality as good as in VHS in full screen mode in the capture?

3)Do you have any recommendations on which TV card to buy, I'm not tight on my budget but I just want/need to buy what I need, no more than that! So I would be looking for a TV card that allows me to capture very good quality footage that I then can convert to any other format.

Thanks very much for your help
El_sr_al

[John2002]

IMO the best option is to get an ATI All-in-Wonder because it gives the best combination of quality, flexibility and ease of use. When considering the choices a starting point could be the AIW 7500 if you don't play video games or higher models if you do. The advantage of the AIW over the Hauppage card is it has a TV-out which you can hook up to your TV.

A better option for PVR is to get a Tivo. I split my daily TV recording half-and-half between my Tivo and my AIW. If you don't want to pay the monthly fee you could just get a used first generation model (with initial OS 1.3) and schedule shows manually. Just sign it up for the first month to set the channels and its clock. It's easy to add a big disk to these. The disadvantage is you can't easily archive what you record with a Tivo.

In terms of quality any PC TV card won't capture anything close to broadcast quality and their TV-outs tend to be slightly fuzzy. However, if you're only hoping for VHS quality you're going to be pleasantly surprised. At a good quality setting captured TV looks about as good as S-VHS although the quality isn't comparable. Personally, I like the appearance of S-VHS recorded at standard speed over captured video. Captured video doesn't have the tape image noise and artifacts but the captured image looks a bit flat and colors are a bit muted when compared to the image from a S-VHS VCR.

If you build a faster PC you'll be able to capture at higher quality settings. An overlooked quality feature is to install a DVD writer. If you're like me you may capture everything at higher quality in case you want to archive it, and getting a DVD writer would allow you to use higher bitrates for shows you routinely save.