Advice on inexpensive graphics/video card for PVR

[EricBlair]

Hello,

Wondering if I might get some tips on a good inexpensive ($50-60 range) graphics/video card.

My situation is I'm building a PVR (basically a home-made Tivo) and I need a card to output the movies/TV signal to my TV. My TV is a normal non-HD CRT TV. It does have Svideo and composite video inputs.

I would like the card to have HD out also for when I do get an HD TV.

I will not be gaming with this card.

Any ideas out there?

Thanks!

 

[Grebuloner]

Sounds like you want an ATI HD3450/HD3470. Any recent ATI/nVidia graphics card with DVI and a multifunction S-Video port will do just fine. I use an HD3650 on mine, got it for $80 so that it will have a bit of extra power over the next few years.

If you get an ATI card, when you pull it out of the package, make sure the little jumper on the board is set to the correct TV output (NTSC or PAL)...your TV will care greatly. Mine came set to the wrong one.

 

[EricBlair]

Thanks!

You've given me a good starting point!

Will that work on XP Pro?

 

[Shadow703793]

^You need PCIe to run a PCIe it is not backward compatible with PCI. You are probably out of luck on finding a good performing PCI card for a reasonable price that will perform good. You are probably limited to 6200/9250 or smiler. If you don't game and just want to run Windows a Nvidia 6200/ Ati 9250 should be fine.

 

[EricBlair]

Yeah I just found out my board does support PCIe x1 and x16 as well as regular PCI. I have the DG965ot Intel Board.

Thanks!

 

[EricBlair]

Would this do the job?
ATi Radeon X600XT VIVO 128MB PCI-Express x16 Video Card

 

[dagger]

Would this do the job?
ATi Radeon X600XT VIVO 128MB PCI-Express x16 Video Card

If it has the right video port, then yes. Check the specs for it. What you do requires hardly any processing power, so anything with the right port will do.

 

[Andrius]

It would (VIVO means video input video output) but it's an old model (heat dinosaur). You still need a tuner for recording TV programs.

The HD3450 produces less heat and has better video processing enhancements. Also for future HDTV you might want to get a card with a HDMI connector. Spending a bit more might sound silly now but it will save you an upgrade down the line.

I don't know what features AMD/ATI cards have for offloading video streams to the GPU but NVIDIA makes you pay extra for PureVideo (which I think stinks).

 

[fatcat]

Sounds like you want an ATI HD3450/HD3470. Any recent ATI/nVidia graphics card with DVI and a multifunction S-Video port will do just fine. I use an HD3650 on mine, got it for $80 so that it will have a bit of extra power over the next few years.

I agree, that's what I have done and bought a 3470 and I am happy with that purchase. I am not using it on a TV yet, I am simply using it on an old LCD monitor.