HTPC question

[jEnkinsX]

do i really need somethng expensive as a hauppauge tv tuner? or can i just get a AIW card? 9800PRO or something (nothing less)... coz right now its either a 6600GT and a PVR-150 or an AIW9800PRO... then AIW is of course cheaper.. but will i really get better quality with a pvr-150?

[Gee]

do i really need somethng expensive as a hauppauge tv tuner? or can i just get a AIW card? 9800PRO or something (nothing less)... coz right now its either a 6600GT and a PVR-150 or an AIW9800PRO... then AIW is of course cheaper.. but will i really get better quality with a pvr-150?

It is not a question of quality. The Hauppauge cards are hardware based encoders. The ATI one is not. So, you will get dropped frames if your computer is not fast enough or if you are running other applications.

If all you want to do is watch TV. Then by all means, ATI is for you. But if you want to record, then a hardware based card is a must

[jEnkinsX]

but are stand alon 9800PRO better than and AIW? quality i mean in games.. im not quite sure.. i never owned an AIW card.. i owned a 9800PRO..

[Gee]

but are stand alon 9800PRO better than and AIW? quality i mean in games.. im not quite sure.. i never owned an AIW card.. i owned a 9800PRO..

There is no difference between the 9800 Pro and the 9800 All in Wonder Pro

The Graphics Processor is identical (9800 Radeon) but the AIW has an added TV Tuner.

[tmpz]

Just pretend its a tv tuner + 9800 PRO in one. I think in terms of gaming, it should perform about the same. But the temperatures may be different since it has a different heatsink.

I am also interested in this as well. I was planning to get higher end video card and add a tuner. The only AIW by ATI that beats the 6600 GT is AIW X800 which is so expensive. For me, I'd go with xxxxxx and either ATI or Hauppage tuner.

I've never tried PVR tuners, but people said they are good.

[Gee]

Just pretend its a tv tuner + 9800 PRO in one. I think in terms of gaming, it should perform about the same. But the temperatures may be different since it has a different heatsink.

I am also interested in this as well. I was planning to get higher end video card and add a tuner. The only AIW by ATI that beats the 6600 GT is AIW X800 which is so expensive. For me, I'd go with xxxxxx and either ATI or Hauppage tuner.

I've never tried PVR tuners, but people said they are good.

I have been using ATI All In Wonders since they first released them. My first card was a PCI with 4 Megs. Cost me $479. I have been upgrading to the newest card and generally been satisified with not running other programs when I am recording TV shows.

Well, I finally decided to give the Hauppauge cards a try. So I took out my ATI All In Wonder 7500 and installed a ATI 7000 card with the Hauppauge PVR-250

It was like night and day. Suddenly, I was able to use my computer again. With the AIW, if I had a browser running while recording, I would get dropped frames. My machine is not that slow either. 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading and 1 Gig RAM. To top it off I am running SCSI Ultra 160 with 10k RPM drives and I use a different drive for recording and one for the OS.

The Hauppauge cards are worth every penny.

[vladislav]

Hardware decoder is better than AIW, if you can afford to waste two slots go with separate cards if not AIW will do the job. The biggest problem with 'small' HTPCs is the heat actually, I can't put any high-end cards into mine because I'm sure it will fry everything. It's running AIW 8500 and that does the job decently.

[jEnkinsX]

ahh.. thansk for the help guys..s o basically both are good.. so for its just a mater of how mcuh money i got when its time to build the htpc... then that will tell if i can afford to go 2 cards.. or 1.. its going to be in a AMD Athlon XP 2500 and ill OC it to 2.2 (2.2 coz i didnt it b4) 1GB ram.. and 200GB HDD..

last thing, ive been looking into tv tuners and i see 2 kinds of PVR-150
this
http://www.canadacomputers.com/cc/in...803&cid=CC.344

and this
http://www.canadacomputers.com/cc/in...802&cid=CC.344

a lil difference in price.. but will it matter?

[Gee]

ahh.. thansk for the help guys..s o basically both are good.. so for its just a mater of how mcuh money i got when its time to build the htpc... then that will tell if i can afford to go 2 cards.. or 1.. its going to be in a AMD Athlon XP 2500 and ill OC it to 2.2 (2.2 coz i didnt it b4) 1GB ram.. and 200GB HDD..

last thing, ive been looking into tv tuners and i see 2 kinds of PVR-150
this
http://www.canadacomputers.com/cc/in...803&cid=CC.344

and this
http://www.canadacomputers.com/cc/in...802&cid=CC.344

a lil difference in price.. but will it matter?

The cards are identical. The low profile one is designed for slim cases with out a full size slot.

Hardware decoder is better than AIW, if you can afford to waste two slots go with separate cards if not AIW will do the job. The biggest problem with 'small' HTPCs is the heat actually, I can't put any high-end cards into mine because I'm sure it will fry everything. It's running AIW 8500 and that does the job decently.

Try running some other application while you are using ATI's Multi Media Centre to record a TV show.

Dropped frames will happen almost instantly.

If you are worried about Slots, then get a motherboard with onboard video. You don't need a good video card, just one that has TV out.

[jEnkinsX]

thanks !!!!!

[scottyb]

Is the PVR-150 hardware or software based? It is a lot cheaper than the 250. What is the difference?

[Gee]

Is the PVR-150 hardware or software based? It is a lot cheaper than the 250. What is the difference?

Hardware based, it is cheaper because technology has advanced.

The PVR-250 has two encoder chips. One for Audio and one for Video

The PVR-150 uses a single chip to do both. So it is cheaper to manufacture. Also you only have to pay to license one company's technology.

[scottyb]

Hardware based, it is cheaper because technology has advanced.

The PVR-250 has two encoder chips. One for Audio and one for Video

The PVR-150 uses a single chip to do both. So it is cheaper to manufacture. Also you only have to pay to license one company's technology.

Thanks for the info. So, for the average user (say 5 hours recording a week), is the PVR-150 enough? I'm guessing the answer is yes.

[Gee]

Thanks for the info. So, for the average user (say 5 hours recording a week), is the PVR-150 enough? I'm guessing the answer is yes.

The PVR-150 is more than adequate for any recording tasks you may have.

Here is how I recommend you set up your PVR.

40 Gig Primary Master for OS
120 Gig Primary Slave for Recordings

DVD RW Secondary Slave

The 120 Gig will give you over 50 hours of recordings depending on the quality you choose.

[Cafe_333]

I should add that if you ever plan to go MCE with your HTPC, you *have* to go with a seperate tv tuner card as this OS does not (natively anyway) support any AIW cards. Besides, always better to go with a seperate tuner card so that if you ever choose to upgrade your video card you can do so easily. Same for your tuner card if a better one comes out down the road.