"Mattrixx" <someone@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:zII8h.14060$Sw1.7597@newssvr13.news.prodigy.c om...
>
> "Paul" <nospam@needed.com> wrote in message
> news:ejvji8$uoi$1@aioe.server.aioe.org...
>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> At this point, I'd suggest having a look in rec.video.desktop, for more
>> practical experiences. Either use Google and look at people's past
>> choices,
>> or ask your question there, and see what they would choose as a solution.
>>
>> The PVR350 is cheap enough, that you don't have to torture yourself. You
>> can set the quality high (least compression), and get as good a picture
>> as possible, at the expense of slightly higher disk utilization. That
>> way,
>> the card is almost behaving like an uncompressed card, since the losses
>> aren't very great. And at least with a card like that, you know you
>> aren't paying a price for compression or decompression. (A card like that
>> can still use CPU, and the "why" is a great mystery.)
>>
>> (The manual has a section on the quality options)
>> http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/manuals/m-pvr.pdf
>>
>> (The hardware requirement is "733MHz P3", which will load one core a
>> bit.)
>> http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...ta_pvr350.html
>>
>> Since the uncompressed cards are so cheap, you could buy one expensive
>> card and one cheap card, and experiment with both. I guess it really
>> depends on how many days you want to spend with a search engine,
>> digging up articles and reviews for the various approaches. If the
>> cheap uncompressed card doesn't pan out, you can still find other
>> uses for it. For example, if you need to set up a surveillance camera,
>> and have it take a snapshot when there is a scene change, the
>> uncompressed card could be used for that (with, say, a dedicated PC).
>> So you don't have to throw the card away, if it turns out to be too
>> resource intensive to be unnoticed on your 3800+ X2.
>>
>> I've given up on recording TV at home here, because I don't have
>> cable, and I don't have a data source good enough to capture.
>> Some day, we'll get OTA digital here, and maybe then I'll give
>> it another shot, with a newer card.
>>
>> Paul
>
> Once again, I thank you for your knowledgeable reply.
> I might add that my experience with (DISH) Sat. capture has been quite
> rewarding.
> I will typically record video using the DISH box`s PVR, and from there (if
> desirable)playback to my "AIW" for capture to HDD.
>
> Matt

My one slight disagreement with "Paul"s reply is the idea there is
any real performance hit with software decoding for preview. The
most that I see when looking at the Windows Task Manager
Performance display, is a 7% max and 1% min change in the CPU
Usage. ( And that is while I'm typing this.)

I have been using a hardware MPEG (compressed) capture card
for several years now, to archive TV shows off my DirecTiVo
DVR. The main benefit to this approach was that I could capture
to DVD compliant MPEG, ready for DVD authoring.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will not be using
"uncompressed" video once you are done processing it. You
will want to store, distribute, and display in a compressed
format. It will take a goodly amount of time to go from
"uncompressed" to compressed.

Native MPEG editing, while still limited, compared to
editing in a less compressed format, is well suited to the
minor cut & paste editing that is useful in dealing with
material that has already been professionally edited for
dramatic effect. Tools like www.VideoReDo.com
and the www.womble.com products, make such work
fast and efficient.

The design and chipset used does make all the
difference, but I am not so found of the Conexant chips.
The Philips SAA7114H A/D chip and Broadcom
BCM7040 (Kfir-II) encoder chip combination has
worked flawlessly for me. (Check out the data sheets
for these chips on the maker's web sites.) The Kfir-II
Broadcom BCM7040 chip is the one TiVo selected for
their "Series 2" TiVos.

The card I use is no longer available, but the
www.snazzishop.com has one model that still uses
the same reference design:
http://www.snazzi.com/dvdcreator_specs.asp

Another factor is the great capture program "Movie
Mill", which allows direct access to the main property
pages. Also, you can access DirectShow filters for the
card that provide access to all the property pages.
( This is a direct result of it using a software preview.)

There are other cards that can work both ways, they
can provide both an uncompressed and a compressed
output.

Luck;
Ken