Computer replacing VHS/DVD recording

[Mic26]

I want to able to record TV to DVD, so I can finally throw away my VHS-recorder. I can do this in 2 ways:
1. By stationary DVD-recorder directly connected to the cable signal
2. By recording to DVD on my computer using a TV-encoder and DVD-recorder, with the cable connected to the TV-encoder
Either way, the DVD will be replayed on the same player connected directly to the TV (no TV-out will be used) and the highest recording quality will be used in both methods.

Question: Will there be any viewable quality reduction using method 2, i.e. does the TV-encoder reduce quality compared to the encoder in the stationary DVD-recorder (which is more expensive)??

 

[Crashman]

TV Encoder? You mean a tuner card? Hauppauge makes their PVR series of tuner cards with hardware MPEG2 compression (real time compression) and those files can be converted directly to your choice of SVCD or DVD.

Some tuners are better than others.

The standalone DVD recorder also uses a tuner, it's basically a simplified computing device serving the same function and using many of the same parts.

The nice thing about a computer is that you can use it like a TiVO unit and then only record stuff after you've watched it and decided it's worth wasting a $2 disk on.

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[Mic26]

----> Crashman

Yes i mean a TV-tuner. I am considering buying the ATI all-in-wonder 9600 pro for that purpose (need a new Graphic card anyway).

I will now definitely go for method 2 as it has a lot more options than a stand-alone-recorder and now that I know that the quality is just as good with a PC TV-tuner as a stand-alone build-in tuner (of course depending on quyality of tuner).

Thanks