SAA713x Vs. CX2388x

[zilog jones]

I'm planning on buying a TV card. All I'm looking for is a simple enough card - no MPEG encoding or anything - not too expensive or anything. NICAM stereo would be nice but I can live without it (I don't capture much from RF anyway). I don't really care about peripherals - I'll probably never use the remote and stuff like that. I mainly want one for capturing full size PAL (Huffyuv or MJPEG) with 48kHz audio. PAL-60 support would help A LOT, though.

Anyway, I'm not sure which chip to go for, but here's the comclusions I've come to so far:

CX2388x:
- Already had experience with one (Hauppauge WinTV PCI-FM),
so I know what programs it works with, how it works, etc.
- Readily available - I can buy cards that use this locally
- Works fine in DScaler and VirtualVCR
- No PAL-60 support, except in DScaler, but that sucks for capturing
- Works fine full-frame without dropped frames on my lame PC (PIII 933MHz)

SAA713x:
- Proper PAL-60 support - can anyone comfrim this, actually?
- A lot of people seem to report problems with it and DScaler
- I don't know a lot of cards that use this chip, and more importantly I don't know which ones are good
- Can't seem to find them locally, and most online stores don't really state what chip the TV cards use
- Don't know how well it'll work on my PC.

Please correct/enlighten me on any of these points.

[Arachnotron]

Proper PAL-60 support - can anyone comfrim this, actually?Yes, I can :). Works like a charm.
- I don't know a lot of cards that use this chip, and more importantly I don't know which ones are good
Terratec Cinergy
Asus has a few
E-tech
Lifeview
Compro

There is a nice list here:
http://www.chris-tv.com/cards.html#philips

Personally, I don't think there is much difference in quality since the SAA713x have very much everything integrated. What you are left with is the quality of the tuner used. I am happy with my Cinergy 400, but no doubt there are many others that are good too, since most use a Philips tuner. It seems there are a few models with 'silicon' tuners, but I have no idea how good they are.
A lot of people seem to report problems with it and DScalerPersonally I have no problem with Dscaler. What problems are you referring to?
Don't know how well it'll work on my PC.I have had more problems with my CX23881 WinTV card than with my Cinergy. But that doesn't say anything about your PC :D

[zilog jones]

Thanks for the help. The thing I was saying about how it would work well on my PC is because it isn't the most powerful thing around (P3-933) - does the Philips chip tend to use more processing power or bandwidth or anything compared to the Connexant?

Don't suppose you know any reputable European online shops that have any Philips cards and deliver to Ireland? That's the real trouble I'm having - most local retailers I know of only stock mainly Hauppauge and Pinnacle analogue cards.

[Arachnotron]

does the Philips chip tend to use more processing power or bandwidth or anything compared to the Connexant?I tried it out. I have each card in roughly the same machine, a 3 GHz P4-800 with intel 875 chipset.

capping uncompressed is about 0-1% for both, huffy gives 6% for the SAA, 8% for the Cx and switching on the preview took it up to 15% for the SAA and 9% for the CX.

Since the video cards are not identical that may explain the difference between the two chips when capping with preview. But in any case, without preview the SAA is slightly less CPU hungry. Mind, that is using the task manager so not all that accurate. I would say they are the same.

So in short, I would not worry too much about it. It is the compression codec that takes up the most CPU time, not the capping itself.

I don't know any shops that deliver to Ireland. Most Dutch webshops carry one or two saa7134 cards but they only deliver locally. You could try e-bay.

By the way, there is one pinnacle model with a SAA7134. I think it is the PCTV Stereo, but with all those PCTV names I suppose you better check it out first before buying.

[zilog jones]

Thanks for your tests - I guess there's nothing to worry about performance-wise then. I think I'll go for a Philips chip, that's hoping I can find one!

...Actually, I have found that PCTV Stereo, but from looking at the features on their website (here (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docloader_n.asp?templ=10&doclink=/WebVideo/pctvstereoversion5/English(US)/doc/stereo_features.html&Product_ID=1480&Langue_ID=7&loc=spec)) it looks like it doesn't just output to normal AVI - or maybe that's only with the software that comes with it? Anyone know much about this card?