Need a TV tuner card

[achn2b]

OK, so the Tour de France is coming up, and I don't have enough space on my DVR to record and save Versus' live coverage. So I'm looking at a TV tuner card for my PC to archive the coverage to my external hard drive. My home theater receiver and TV are old enough that I don't have any HD connections, the best I have would be component video. All I want to be able to do is to record each day's coverage, and then later edit the whole thing down to 8-10 hours to burn to DVD.

Dioing a quick search of Newegg, and I'm looking at these three cards.

Hauppage WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI slot

Hauppage WINTV-HVR 1800 PCIE slot

Asus My Cinema PHC3-100 PCI slot

Leaning toward the Hauppage 1800 for the PCIE slot, and tha ability to connect a VCR or other device and copy over previously recorded stuff, but if there are certain features or benefits of the other cards that would be better for me, I'd appreciate the advice. I'm not that experienced with digital formats and video recording.

Oh, and the Hauppage cards say that a sound card is required. Will onboard sound work, or does that mean an actual separate sound card is needed?

[ConLog]

Yes onboard sound will work fine.

Personally I think Hauppauge hardware/software is excellent.

[achn2b]

no one else has any comment?

[craigap]

I used to own both the 1600 and the 1800. They are the same card except for the PCI vs. PCIe difference. They are good cards. I'd recommend them.

[davids2004]

I bought the ATI all in wonder HD Tuner/Video card. It has worked great for me. Has an HDMI and DVI input only though. I think maybe S Video

[mwmickler]

I use 2 hauppauge usb tuners and they work great. you can record 2 shows at the same time using sage tv.

[achn2b]

I might have to use this Sage TV app, because I'm getting nowhere with the Hauppauge WinTV software.

I've got it connected to my cable box using a composite to S-video adapter and left and right RCA cables for audio. But so far I just cannot seem to get a picture. I've scanned for channels, both analog and digital, but I'm assuming these are for use with an over the air antenna. From what I can see, if I connect any AV device, like a camcorder or cable set-top box, the picture from that should display on the WinTV player on my computer. But I've got nothing so far.

[achn2b]

Ok, I might have something here. My cable comes from an RF connector into the cable box, and from there to my AV receiver via composite and RCA cables. Ancient, I know.

What I did was connect the RF cable straight into the tuner card, and scanned for channels, and right now, it seems to be getting them. I still don't know why I can't get a signal in from the S-video connector on the back of the card.

And now I seem to be getting the composite input to work, but only with a black and white picture. I connected some Y cables in between the composite outs from my cable box to my AV receiver, and connected another set of composites to go straight into the card. I think the B&W picture is due toi the crappy Y cables I've got, as I've got no sound either, but I will get it if I jiggle them around. That's why they've been sitting in the bottom of my junk drawer.

[achn2b]

Nope, not the Y cables. I connected the line-in from my VCR to the tuner card, made sure my "record-out" setting on the AV receiver was 'source', and I do have sound and picture on my computer. However, the picture is in black and white. Bad 'composite to S-video' connector?

[glc]

If you are connecting a cable box via composite, s-video, or component video, you don't use the tuner. That's direct video.

[achn2b]

Originally Posted by glc If you are connecting a cable box via composite, s-video, or component video, you don't use the tuner. That's direct video.

Yes, I understand. If I want to get any of my pay channels, like HBO, into my tuner card, I need to use the S-video in on the tuner card, and tune the station on my cable box.

The problem is, that the picture through the S-video in on the tuner card is in black and white, not color. Since my equipment is so old, and all I have are composite outs, I'm using the 'composite to S-video' adapter supplied with the card. I'm guessing this might be bad, why I have the black and white onlyy picture.

Otherwise, the S-video input on the card is bad. Channels straight from the cable RF in on the card, and using the card's tuner, are in color.

[achn2b]

Well, I don't know why this worked, but it did. Probably just something to do with the way composite video converts to S-video.

But I set up a new input source as a 'composite' source, and the picture comes in, in color. So, looks like everything's working, just a matter of getting the settings right, which me, being a bit inexperienced in the technological world of video, had to get to by trial and error.

[craigap]

The WinTV app from Hauppauge is just garbage as far as I'm concerned. Definitely give a couple of the popular PVR programs a test run. I have been using Sagetv for over 3 years now and it's great. The big 3 are BeyondTV, SageTV, and GBPVR. The first two cost $$ but they include the EPG data. GBPVR is a free download, but if you want to be ablet o schedule programs by name then you will need to supply the EPG data to it. Both sagetv and beyondtv have free trials. Many people use Schedules Direct for GBPVR as the EPG data source. Costs $20/yr. In case you haven't figured it out yet, you need to set up an IR blaster so that the PVR software can change that channel on the STB.

Svideo is the only way (or RCA) that you are going to get video from the STB to the Tuner card. Scanning for channels will only work if you are pluggiing the cable straight into the Tuner card from the wall (no STB). ButI think you already figured that out.