CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

AFryia · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:58 pm Post subject: HD PVR Cards

Are there any good HiDef PVR cards for HTPCs that come with software that record in HD?

Do they use any form of compression ? The reason I ask is my current std. def card records in Windows format through MCE2005 and the video is poor. I don't know if it is the card or the file format.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:44 am Post subject:

It depends on the card and the software you are using. ATi's old HDTV wonder card recorded in their propriatary .VCR format. Then you would have to export to MPEG2 to have a usefull file for putting on a DVD.

There's a little stand alone program I use called WatchHDTV It's great, it fit's on a floppy and runs rings aroundthe stock ATi MMC software. It has a scheduler too but I haven't used it. IT suports more than just the Ati cards too BTW. It records in WMP format. Not sure if you can port that directly to another computer or not, but, there's a little utility to convert that to MPEG (2?) again haven't tried it.

SOme of the cards record in the .TS ( transport stream ) format. This is just the way they broadcast it. No recompression.

Check out the MyHD 130 cards ( hardware decoders built in, don't think it works with MCE2005 though ) or the Divico Fusion HD cards ( it may work with MCE not sure ). Both are very popular. The MyHD card uses a pass through cable to do video and the Fusion uses your computer video card, so if you have a custom resolution/timmings set for your video card I'd go for the 2nd one.

AFryia · Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:06 am Post subject:

Hey Analog,

I have an older ATI 9800 Pro with DVI out. I use the DVI out to a JohnHWman IFB-DVI card on my PJ.

I don't need the MYHD 130 daughter card to get DVI out do I? Will the video re-route through the bus to my video card? I hate the idea of having to add a DVI/HDMI switch.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:30 am Post subject:

Yep if you want to use the My HD130 card with DVI you'll need the daughter card. It has to use the pass through. Go for the Divico card since you are looking for a single cable solution.

BTW I just hooked my 42" RPTV via DVI from my ATi 9800 AIW card. The DVI conection doesn't look half bad except the colors are over blown, and of course I have to re-do the 1080i setup on my TV now that i have a different input. I've got it pretty close but still have some pin cushion.

Hero's looked great off the HTPC tonight.

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

Look at the Fusion cards from DVICO

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Products/fusion5express.aspx

Ive used it, it works well and looks great!

AFryia · Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:54 pm Post subject:

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5321

AFryia · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

Greg,

I understand the limitations of upscaling low res sources. What I meant is with my current PVR card the live feed looks better than the recorded version on the same display (G70 @ 94"W).

MCE records in *.WMF I think? So I wondered if that file format used a form of compression that reduced video quality or perhaps it's the PVR card at fault. Maybe both, I don't know.

I'm in the market for a HD card and was wondering what the latest trend was.

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5321

So you are saying that the recorded version looks worse than the live version when they are both viewed on the G70? That is strange. There are quality settings in the record settings menu in MCE. Perhaps you have that set to low.

I can hardly stand to watch SDTV at anything over 27". It is pretty crucial. You will not be disappointed by the quality of the OTA pvr cards. I have yet to see any cable cards in real life but that would be neat (although) expensive.

MCE records in .dvr-ms. If you have any recent burning programs I believe it s fairly easy to burn to dvd or convert the format.

AFryia · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:19 pm Post subject: