[cmf76]

I haven't really been concerned with recording, but saw this

advertised and thought it sounded like a deal.


The Hauppauge card can be had for $139.95.


It looks like Hauppauge has released a newer version, is this

one still worth the money?


Does the newer version have component out? The website says

HD output, but doesn't specify component.



Here's the link:

SSD Hauppauge

 

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

That's no deal - only a hard-to-find beta version of the software can record to disk and playback is limited to 480i. If the price were $30 it might be worth picking up a couple to try to reverse engineer, otherwise don't waste your money.

 

[GaryHDTV]

And the new version (WinTV-HD) is on the bottom of the list of currently available HDTV PCI cards. Look for something else.

 

[pcdvdguy]

Earlier this year, I bought a WinTV-D card from ebay for about $160 USD (I missed the $50 blowout sale the previous year.)


The 'record HDTV to hard drive' is NOT a product feature. As other people have said, Hauppage briefly had a beta/experimental Windows-app which let you 'capture' the ATSC bitstream to hard-drive. The beta-app was prone to crash, not user friendly, and not schedulable at all (i.e., you have to operate it with your mouse, so you can't set it up to make unattended recordings.) Finally, the program *only* works under Win98SE/Me. Due to the quirky way the bitstream is transported over the PCI-bus, the DTV-capture doesn't work under Win2000/XP. Even under Win98SE, the program would only work with a specific device driver-revision (newer or older drivers would just cause a BSOD!)


Late last year, Hauppage removed the program from their website (and their ftp-site, apparently.)


...


If you don't care about recording, the WinTV-D card *might* be a good card for you. Since it uses a Connexant chip, the card works with DScaler. If you watch a lot of primetime-TV shows, Dscaler lets you those TV-programs in progressive-scan (on your PC-monitor.) There is no component-video output, only an S-Video output (and the S-video only works for ATSC stations, not regular NTSC stations!) Oddly, the WinTV-D has 5.1 analog audio output (for ATSC AC-3 audio), but no coax/optical digital output.


Sometimes I use the WinTV-D's S-video output to record to a VHS VCR. (For most TV-stations in my area, the digital-broadcast is better than the analog-broadcast.)

 

[jamoka]

I Ebayed mine long ago, but there was one unique software feature that may be of value to some. I recall being able to take a captured ATSC stream and split out the separate components, for example, an individual SD or HD stream. But, I don't remember if the individual programs ended up in MPEG2 program or transport stream format. If it will convert to MPEG2 without screwing up the timing info some people might find that alone to be worth the cost.


Joe

 

[GaryHDTV]

Jamoka, the seperated PID's are still in a transport stream format.

 

[jamoka]

Not worth wasting a PCI slot then, I guess.


Joe

 

[Erik Garci]

Quote:

Originally posted by pcdvdguy The beta-app was prone to crash, not user friendly, and not schedulable at all (i.e., you have to operate it with your mouse, so you can't set it up to make unattended recordings.)

It is not schedulable by itself, but there is a way to make it schedulable, as explained in another thread .
Quote:

There is no component-video output, only an S-Video output (and the S-video only works for ATSC stations, not regular NTSC stations!) Oddly, the WinTV-D has 5.1 analog audio output (for ATSC AC-3 audio), but no coax/optical digital output.

The S-Video output can also be switched to a composite video output by attaching the included adapter and running the registry file to turn off S-Video. I think that the analog audio output may be Dolby Pro-Logic at best (not true 5.1), but I have not confirmed it.

 

[stevec50]

The component stereo output of my WinTV-D doesn't work. (The remote control has never worked either but I don't care about that.) The sound output on the mini phone plug to the sound card works to play sound through the PC speakers but there is nothing on the L, R or center channel RCA plug outputs. I wonder if there is some way to turn this on or test it?

I'm using it in a 1500Mhz. P-4 running XP Pro with the newest W2000 drivers. I've noticed the newer software has other problems besides no sound, for instance, clicking the Radio button makes it freeze and it didn't do that in the Win98 version that I was using prior to upgrading to XP.

I've tried emailing tech support at Hauppauge several times but they aren't any help and I just get back stupid suggestions like "check that the source is in stereo"! They are all TV stations, I assume they are in stereo.

Does anyone have an idea how to get the sound working? Thanks.