[28seven]

hey im thinkin of gettin the Asus TV Tuner Card/Video from new egg its a bit more then some of the low end cards but it has STEREO audio wich is a big factor (i figure why get something to record digitaly when i cang et better audio quality on my VHS) any way would you guys recormend this thing or are there any other low end stereo cards to choose from

 

[Willem]

Hi 28seven,


I have the Asus TV card and it works fine...


- Picture quality is much better then what I had with my Ati TV Wonder

- S-video/AV in works with both NTSC and PAL

- Tuner works only with NTSC as far as I know - I haven't tried using it with PAL yet although I recently moved to EU.

- DScaler works but without audio - upto 3 weeks ago - not sure if that has been solved in the mean time

- Included PowerVCR works fine including Audio - I'm still playing with the VCR functions... they work fine but the pic quality could be better - not caused by the card though but by the software

- Remote control works but I couldn't get the receiver to work with a Philips Pronto and the remote software coming with the card (the remote uses "funny" code sequences). So I tossed away the remote and use Pronto with Girder and IrMan now. Much better.


The stereo capability will only be usefull if DScaler will support it. At the moment I mainly use it for the S-video/AV in and route my sound directly to the amplifier. Or you use PowerVCR but the picture quality isn't as good as with DScaler (although better then my Ati TV Wonder with DScaler!!).


Willem

 

[Scotty L]

28seven- excellent card, I use the same one daily for capturing (and archiving) Conan O'Brien and other shows. I also bought this card over the popular LeadTek and other brands because it specifically records broadcasts in stereo. Here are some tips to keep in mind when using it:


- The inlcuded program Cyberlink PowerVCR2 is quite good but like most other programs it won't let you record in any codec you want, you're limited to mpeg-1 & 2.


- Virtual Dub can capture video from this card in any codec you want but NOT audio for some weird reason. It may be possible to run Sound Recorder in conjunction with VDub as you can hear the audio but not record it.


- When using PowerVCR, the MPEG audio is crappy plain and simple. I use to capture everything in its highest bitrate (384kbps) but it was still very lacking, expecially for a musical performance. What I do now if the audio part is important is disable mpeg audio recording in PVCR and simultaneously record with Windows Sound Recorder in uncompressed PCM. I later convert the mpeg to Divx5, the PCM to LAME mp3, and use AVIMux to put em together. Wish I did this sooner!