My "dream" Tuner/Cap card

[jphillips]

Why can't someone build a PCI card that has a built in TV tuner, FM tuner, AM tuner, S-Video/Composite Input, and a FIrewire Input, with an on board hardware MPEG-1/MPEG-2 video encoder/decoder? I would also like the hardware encoder to be configurable for various bit-rates, as well as being by-passed in case I want to capture pure video (i.e. DV through the firewire port). I would also like to have the card be able to convert my analog sources to DV for capture if needed.

This shouldn't be too hard...anyone know what the "real" specs are for the Hauppage WinTV PVR 350?

 

[the_Prisoner]

I do not think I ever saw a card with a AM tuner in it. There was probably one in the past. Most new computers do not need hardware decoder cards. Your CPU will do the work. It would be a nice feature on a card but would add extra cost to the card.

It does seem weird that these video capture/TV Tuner/PVR cards do not have firewire, although newer mobos and soundcards do and USB 2.0 is a little faster.

Viedo capture is a analog term so a card that can capture video is fine for converting to DV. Of course the DV will be only as good as the source.Digital video does not need to be captured.

Varible bit rates, well they can record in varible resoultions.VCD is like VHS, Super VCD better then DVD best.So really any good TV Tuner/Video Capture/PVR card can do what you want except maybe the AM radio thing.

The Hauppage and Pinnacle PVR cards are good. Both are new so their are not alot of reviews yet.


the Prisoner


I'm not a number, I'm a free man!