HiPix

464 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by arpad, Oct 22, 2001

arpad

Discussion Starter · Oct 15, 2001

Hello everybody,

I'm new to this forum, and I like what I've seen so far; seems like a great bunch of people.

I ran across a link to this forum while researching HDTV-tuner cards. I researched them almost a year ago, and I could hardly find any information so I gave up. The cards I wrote down as potentials at the time were the Hauppauge WinTV-HD, Telemann Hipix DV-200, accessDTV, and Sigmacom. A while has passed, yet I still haven't been able to find much information besides a review or two, and a few sidenotes here & there. It looks now that the WinTV-HD is out of the question because of poor software support, and the accessDTV is also unacceptable to me because it is a subscription-based service. I've been able to find the most answers to my questions about the Hipix in this forum, yet I still have a few questions that I was hoping somebody could answer. I will be using the Hipix in a WindowsXP-pro athlon/kt133/sblive5.1 system and viewing it on my 21" Hitachi cm828 monitor that I use with that system.

1. Does the software allow you to view tv in a rescalable window? If so, are there many buttons and such that cannot be removed? I like browsing the web and doing other stuff with tv rescaled to a small window in the corner of the screen, and not being able to make the controls/buttons disappear hinders my navigational abilities...

2. Are there any signal degradation issues from using the loop-back cable?

3. Is there an option to pause the live feed, as with the TiVo and accessDTV? If not, does anybody know if this is a feature that will be integrated into 2.4?

4. I don't understand what the VIP connection is for... does this relate to #1? Is the Picture-In-Picture what I refer to as rescalable window? How would this feature be useful? Do any nvidia-based cards have VIP connectors?

5. Are there any other cards that I don't know about, or that will come out shortly, which may be better than the Hipix?

Any help would be much appreciated...

-Arpad

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mikem01

· #2 · Oct 15, 2001

Quote:

1. Does the software allow you to view tv in a rescalable window? If so, are there many buttons and such that cannot be removed? I like browsing the web and doing other stuff with tv rescaled to a small window in the corner of the screen, and not being able to make the controls/buttons disappear hinders my navigational abilities...

The HiPix card does support this, although I havent heard of many people using this feature. You have to have a VGA card with a compatible VIP adapter (see the user manual on the HiPix site for more details).

Quote:

2. Are there any signal degradation issues from using the loop-back cable?

I have not observed any nor have I heard any complaints from anyone else.

Quote:

3. Is there an option to pause the live feed, as with the TiVo and accessDTV? If not, does anybody know if this is a feature that will be integrated into 2.4?

I may have missed this feature, but I don't believe it does that. And I'm not sure anyone knows what will be in the next SW rev. Keep in mind though that the HiPix 2.3 software can only record DTV (ATSC) not NTSC.

Quote:

4. I don't understand what the VIP connection is for... does this relate to #1? Is the Picture-In-Picture what I refer to as rescalable window? How would this feature be useful? Do any nvidia-based cards have VIP connectors?

Yes, its the same question. Sorry, don't know about nVidia cards, but you can check their website.

Quote:

5. Are there any other cards that I don't know about, or that will come out shortly, which may be better than the Hipix?

No one has heard of any. I've owned the HiPix card for about two months and really like it.

-MM

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shodoug

· #3 · Oct 15, 2001

I know this is not a solution for everyone, but I like having two display devices for the HiPix. One for the Hipix video, and one for the video card for surfing, etc. Sometimes I have my laptop going too.

I do not have a final arrangement yet. My HTPC is backwards, so that I can easily change where everything is plugged in.

So far, two screens is the way I spend most of my time.

Best Regards,

Doug

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arpad

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 22, 2001

Thanks for all the info, I went ahead and bought one.

So far I like it, except for the absence of PIP since my gladiac doesn't have a VIP slot. I couldn't find any gf3 cards that have it, either... it looks like VIP was a passing trend among video cards.

I do have one problem that I haven't been able to figure out. I have MediaOne/AT&T cable (I'm in LA) and I tried every single combination of input 1/2 atsc/ntsc antenna/cable, but I couldn't find any way to receive the channels without having the cable box plugged in before the tuner and feeding the channels to it (ATSC: input 1, NTSC: input 1, input 1: ant, input 2: ant). I'd rather not use it in this configuration if I don't have to... seems kinda redundant to me. Are there any solutions to this?

Do I even receive hdtv and 5.1 in this configuration?

Also, I have the hipix connected to my soundcard with the internal cable. Does this cable also support 5.1? It seems to only have two channels... Should I resort to using an external cable from the hipix ac3 out to the Live! Drive SPDIF input?

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