Need recommendations for TV Tuner/Video Card

[Mona13]

I bought Pocket DVD Wizard and have been able to convert movies that I own to wmv. They play great on the x50v.

Now I would like to watch TV shows that have been converted to wmv.

Any recommendations for TV Tuner/Video card would be appreciated. I would like one that will record in wmv instead of mpeg2, if there is one. Mpeg1 or AVI would be OK too. (Pocket DVD doesn't convert mpeg2, but it does mpeg2 and AVI.)

I don't want to install another type of movie viewer on my PPC.

[Sven Johannsen]

The Hauppage ones work well for me. I don't think there is one on the market that records to wma. Since you have an X50v, though you don't have to worry much about the format....IF....you use MP10 on your desktop. Since the X50 has media player 10 in it, if you use MP10 on the desktop to send videos or recorded TV to the PPC, it will be dynamically re-endoded and sesized as it is transferred. Works pretty well actually I've found.

Even Media Center PCs don't record TV in wma. They use dvr-ms, but that too is re-encoded by the MP10 system when copying to a pocket MP10 equipped PPC.

[PDANEWBIE]

If your a gamer AND you want these the ATI all in wonder 9700 pro does it all. If you don't play games in your PC it might be a bit of overkill. The nice thing is this has a good software package as well as a good software for picking what you want to record for the week.

Don't just listen to me check - http://www.ati.com/support/manualpdf/mmc8x.pdf
and go to page 39

[Mona13]

Thanks for the quick response!

(I've never used a TV Tuner/Video card.) But, I do have Windows Media 10. It looks like I would record the TV show to the computer. Pull up the file in WM10 and then it automatically converts it to my PPC CF card? Does it convert all mpeg's? or AVI's? I've seen AVI and mpeg2 to mpeg4's listed on the different video boxes. That's the card that shows up on the portable side of the screen.

Is the Hauppage a PCI connection? My son said I need one that connects PCI. (At least I think that's the initials he gave me.) Like I said, I'm really new to this stuff. I've had my PPC for a long time, but I'm just getting into the video.

Mona

[PDANEWBIE]

Well just an FYI the ATI all in wonders actually can capture directly to 320x240 so really it would be record and then copy the recorded file to your PPC.

As far as a mixed video capture card/display card I have yet ot have any problems with them being integrated (and it saves you a PC expansion slot).

I can't tell you about that other one though as I have only used the ATI's

[debbi8]

I've had the PCI Hauppauge TV tuner card for a while now, and after working out the glitches in the software (there are some great sites out there, but their website isn't very informative) I can go to Titan TV, click on an icon of a program I'd like to record, and voila! I then re-encode the file from raw .avi (big files - up to 10 GBs, but you can change those compression settings depending on the codec you wish to use) to xvid (about 300 MBs) using Divx's free encoder, transfer the file to a CF card, and watch away. I've also used the Windows Media Encoder with pretty good results, but I personally like the quality of xvid. I don't have an IR blaster, nor do I use my digital STB, so I can only record the first 125 channels that come through the analog cable. Hope this helps you out, Good Luck!

[Mona13]

I appreciate everyone's help.

Mona

[sci]

Another option for you, and what I use is an ATI USB 2.0 Wonder. I think thats what it's called. I have a laptop but wanted to record TV. It hooks up to a USB 2.0 port on your PC. It has software that displays TV listings for your area and with just two clicks of a mouse it will record a show for you. I have it set up to save the recordings in WMV format with a 320 x 240 video size. It records a show I like every day, overwriting the old copy and then
when I sync my pda I use Mobsync to automatically transfer it to my SD card. No work on my part at all, except for telling it to record. I also use some other software to record streaming radio so I can catch a talk show that I would typically miss. Automatically syncs on my PDA and I listen to it in my car on the way to work. Who needs one of those new potable media players, I just need bigger memory cards. Oh by the way I usually get an hour long show to be about 150mb.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I've used AverTV (Stereo edition) combined with BeyondTV software. Works extremely well. You can log onto your home machine over the internet and configure recordings and such.

[Menneisyys]

As far as recording analogue sources is concerned, I really recommend AVI_IO ( http://www.nct.ch/multimedia/avi_io/ ) to avoid the inherent descynhronization apparent with almost all cheap (audio is encoded separately from video) TV cards.

[Mona13]

I'm trying out an ATI card ($69-$20 rebate). I would like to record it in a format that I don't have to convert. But the wmv ppc recording setting comes out too small of size on vga, even on full screen it doesn't fill the screen.

When I record in Video CD mode, mpeg1, then convert it via Pocket DVD Wizard to wmv, it plays in full screen perfectly. When I convert it, I choose vga, medium, 256 card, but it takes a long time to convert. Then I use a card reader to copy it to a 2 gig card.

Which ATI wmv software setting would I use for an x50v?

Thanks for all of your help.

Mona

[Menneisyys]

I'm trying out an ATI card ($69-$20 rebate). I would like to record it in a format that I don't have to convert. But the wmv ppc recording setting comes out too small of size on vga, even on full screen it doesn't fill the screen.

When I record in Video CD mode, mpeg1, then convert it via Pocket DVD Wizard to wmv, it plays in full screen perfectly. When I convert it, I choose vga, medium, 256 card, but it takes a long time to convert. Then I use a card reader to copy it to a 2 gig card.

Which ATI wmv software setting would I use for an x50v?

Thanks for all of your help.

Mona

Are you sure you want to use WMV, especially on the x50v? Use DivX/XviD and BetaPlayer. You'll get orders of magnitude better (file size / quality / power consumption-wise) results.

[PDANEWBIE]

Mona,

What I suggest is play around with the resolution of capture but make it your own custom spec. My thought is your capturing at too low of a resolution.

Really if your capturing just to WMV you should not have to run it through DVD2PPC at all.

Needless to say Mona some people like to analyze whats faster and more efficient and may even yield a touch more quality but if your looking for 1 step solution your headed in the right direction.

I'll play with mine at home and tell you an exact capture resoltuion but if you unit is VGA I can only tell you whats good for my qvga device.

[Mona13]

Thanks, I created a setting using the ATI that I really like. It fills my screen & the quality is good too.

For DVDs I use 256.

This is so cool.

Mona13

[x999x]

Anyone have a go with the Plextor TV Tuner that uses DivX as it's default output format?

It's under 200 bux and supports Titan Video, this could be the Power-User's dream.

[Menneisyys]

Anyone have a go with the Plextor TV Tuner that uses DivX as it's default output format?

It's under 200 bux and supports Titan Video, this could be the Power-User's dream.

You may want to read the following pages:

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCardRead=502#comments (the card in question; received a so-so rating)

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCardRead=391#comments (it's no-built-in-TV-tuner version, which is 50 bucks cheaper) - also, mixed opinions