[ZAGBY]

Hi, I am thinking of buying one of these, what is the best card out there and what kind of price am I looking at? My understanding is that with one of these I could connect my Digital cable box to the tuner card by way of S-video and deinterlace the image with D-scaler and scale the image with powerstrip. Am I correct in thinking this?




Do these cards come with Y Pb Pr input and more than one S-video input?




Thanks

 

[ZAGBY]

I have been looking into the Zoltrix line, can I do better, and how much better?





thanks

 

[rabident]

If you're coming off a digital cable box then all you really need is a video capture card (i.e. you don't need and will not be able to use the cable TV "tunning" option in the card). To capture, process, and display, the Holo3DGraph is probably the best you can get and far better than the typical TV tuner cards.


BUT... it remains to be seen if the Holo3D can record. I've heard maybe there's stuff you can do and I've also heard some of that stuff doesn't work for some people. If that's important to you, just be aware that as of now, recording is going to be a home grown DIY job with that card. They don't ship virtual VCR software like they do with a lot of the TV Tuner cards.


ATI's All in Wonder cards ship with recording software (I think). I had a friend that used one of their older ones a while back and he liked it. I had another friend with the PCTV or something like that - based on the old Brooktree (Bt) chipset that DScaler was designed for. It was PreDescaler days and it didn't look to good. Lots of de-interlacing artifacts.


So to summarize (in my opinion, of course)-

- No "tuner" card necessary for capturing the output from a digital cable box

- Holo3D is undisputed top dog (w/ DCDi & DScaler 4.0 support) - but recording options are unclear

- The generic Brooktree based cards on their own are "bottom of the barrel" in terms of visual quality

 

[ZAGBY]

Hi, thanks for the help.



I just saw of the video processor board that a new algorithm has been made for D-scaler called strangeBOB, and that it handles video de-interlacing as well as the DCDi algorithm used by the Holo3D.




I know that the Holo3D card has both Y Pb Pr and SDI inputs but, I was thinking that because most Digital cable is video and the output is S-video that I should be able to get about the same image with a standard card and StrangeBOB doing the de-interlacing as the Holo3D using DCDi by way of S-video.



Would there be anyway I could get a list of middle end video cards?




thanks

 

[theturtle]

this may and probably has been repeatedly been said, but save the 800$ solution whats the next best. I'd love a holo3dgraph, and i'll probably buy one in a few months but i just bought a pj and i'm building a home audio setup too. I have a pretty old dish receiver, but it has component out, and i'd like to record hd, so those 2 things would be necessary. For the HD end, are the cards on the market of good quality or should i buy an external tuner and route it thru a different capture card.

 

[ZAGBY]

I have a Gefore2 MX card in my PC, will it take the s-video output from the Digital cable box, and let me use d-scaler to de-interlace and powerstrip to scale with?

 

[ZAGBY]

Now that I think about it, I don't think it will, I don't think it can handle overlay.

 

[raj2001]

I have a GEForce2 in my DELL and it does overlay. AFAIK, DScaler does not do overlay though. I use DScaler with it and it works fine for me.

 

[michael lewis]

Zagby,


All you need, as others have suggested is a TV tuner card. We have had good luck with the ATI-TV Wonder VE. That's what we ship in all our boxes. You can pick it up for around $40 at CompUSA, or similar.


Setup's a hassle with XP and the driver setup, but if you are patient, it will give good results. There is no s-vid in, just coax and a stereo out for loopback. I have seen TV in cards with internal audio to soundcard, but they are too big for our case configuration.


Michael

 

[ZAGBY]

Well, I tryed it with my Geforce and D-scaler said my card can not do overlay. I would really like to find a tuner with s-video input.





thanks

 

[ZAGBY]

Well, I guess I need to ask which I should go with, a tuner card or a new capture card?




I really need help here.




Thanks

 

[pdermody]

Well there is the Zoltrix card, which happens to have a tuner and is somewhat usable - but dont use it. It does have modifications which make it one of the cleanest bt8x8 based cards out there, you will be limited to svideo and composite but since you will have an external box with svideo out it sounds like it will fit your bill. I believe there are a couple for sale in the classified sections for around $100.


-pd

 

[gireesh]

Zagby:

There are three next generation cards, that I hear will be supported by DScaler. One is by Asus, other by MSI and the third by a new vendor, and the card is called XCapture. I hear the Asus card has the least noise. There also a Leadtek card... Leadtek construction quality is great, but I am not sure what chipset is on it. You can purchase all of them at www.newegg.com, but for the XCapture. XCaptue does not have a tuner, so it is little cheaper, the rest are $60-80.

 

[Rich L]

I've got the ATI TV-Wonder VE. The reception is fine but I can't seem to figure out how to get audio in through my M-Audio Audiophile. I've got a miniplug to RCA adapter but I don't get any audio input. I end up using my VCR as a tuner and the ATI as a capture card through the composite input.

 

[rbtconsultants]

I am waiting for delivery on a Leadtek Winfast XP 2000 tuner card. It has svideo and composite input. I read about all of the cards and this one looked the best to me for around $60 at Googlegear. It will work with DSCaler. Even has an FM radio tuner and a IR Remote control.

http://www.leadtek.com/mmedia/tv2000xp/tv2000xp.htm


Hope that helps.


Bob

 

[CO1]

So outside of the Holo3D product there is no card that is better than the rest? This can't be true.

 

[ZAGBY]

Thanks for all the help, I think the Holo3D has it's hands full now that the StrangeBOB de-interlacing algorithm has come out for D-scaler.



I am still hearing it de-interlaces as well as DCDi on video mode.

 

[gireesh]

Bob,


Did you receive your Leadtek card? What chipset is on it?


BT878, BT879 or the new generation chip?


Gireesh

 

[tsingh]

I'll vote for the ASUS, followed by the XCapture. These new generation CX881 cards are much better than the old BT878, 879, 848 cards.


They have 10bit ADCs, better video processing and AGC.


Tripurari

 

[ziggyr]

Are the CX881 cards compatible with Dscaler?