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Hauppage PVR - A Reasonable Alternative?

Posted by Cliff on from the better-than-TiVo-and-Replay? dept.

mkrosky asks: "I purchased a new PC recently, and also got a Hauppage PVR USB (http://www.hauppage.com/). This seems much more desirable than Tivo or Replay TV, because I control the hardware (no subscription fees). If Hauppage went broke or chose to stop supporting it, I can still use it in its present form (not true with Tivo). However, the software and drivers that ship with the hardware are beta-quality. I was wondering if anyone reading this owns the hardware. Are there any alternative drivers?"

"I have the following problems with Hauppage's software:

- When I set the "pause buffer" to 5GB, it doesn't work properly after 1 hour (1GB per hour, set at coarsest resolution). It works fine at 1GB, the default setting.

- There is a +10 second button, but it is not configurable. I would also like a +30 second button and +2 minute button.

- Sometimes, when using the +10 second button, it freezes for awhile.

Does anyone else out there have this hardware, and have reproduced these problems? I'm using Windows XP and have the PVR USB version of the hardware. I tried contacting Hauppage technical support, and they said that they may someday attempt to reproduce and fix the bug, if they feel like it. Yes, I downloaded the latest driver and software from their website.

Except for those problems, I'm really satisfied with the hardware. I recommend it to anyone considering a Tivo. I just wish Hauppage tech support would fix the obvious reproducible bugs. They are obviously software flaws, and not hardware flaws, so I'm looking for alternate drivers."

33 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Where did you get the idea...? by .@. · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Where did you get the idea that a Tivo is useless if the company goes under? You "control the hardware" just as much with a Tivo as you would with a PC-based PVR. The only reason there's a subscription is to provide the box with accurate, regularly-updated program guide information.

    The box functions just fine without it. You just lose the ability to schedule recordings based on that program guide data.

    And just like you would with a PC-based PVR, you have the ability to roll your own aftermarket program data solution and feed it to the PVR for use, should Tivo go under. However, it's the program guide data that keeps Tivo in business. And as one of, if not the most successful embedded Linux product ever to make it to market, it's in the community's best interest to support Tivo. That includes paying for the subscription that keeps the company alive.

    --
    .@.
    1. Re:Where did you get the idea...? by Sentry21 · · Score: 2

      And as one of, if not the most successful embedded Linux product ever to make it to market, it's in the community's best interest to support Tivo. That includes paying for the subscription that keeps the company alive.

      I approve of embedded Linux as much as the next guy, but I can't see your logic here. As I understand it, you're saying that TiVo makes an embedded Linux device and sells it, so it's our duty to buy it?

      That makes no sense at all. I'll buy it if I want it (I do) and if the pricing is reasonable (it's not). Not tying up a phone with long-distance calls (if they cut off any toll-free numbers they have in my area) is also a huge factor.

      When TiVo has a lower subscription fee and/or they give the box away for free, and when it uses broadband access to download program listings and/or can get the listings from my digital cable box or satellite reciever, then maybe I'll consider it. At the moment, however, I'm not going to buy their product and pay their fees just because they used Linux when they made their product. When TiVo provides good hardware and good service for the price, then I'll buy into it. And before anyone brings up the idea of 'help and help alike', remember that they're not giving anything away, they're selling the boxes and the info. They're not sharing, and neither will I.

      --Dan

    2. Re:Where did you get the idea...? by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 3, Informative
      That makes no sense at all. I'll buy it if I want it (I do) and if the pricing is reasonable (it's not). Not tying up a phone with long-distance calls (if they cut off any toll-free numbers they have in my area) is also a huge factor.

      The price I paid for my Tivo, new with warranty:
      $170
      I don't tie up the phone with long distance calls, or even toll free calls (I don't subscribe).

      When TiVo has a lower subscription fee and/or they give the box away for free, and when it uses broadband access to download program listing and/or can get the listings from my digital cable box or satellite reciever

      The subscription price can't get any lower than the $0 I'm paying per month. Giving away the box for free, is well... ridiculous. You can download anything you want over your broadband link, including tv listings from tvguide.com. The DirecTivo actually does use the satellite signal.

      When TiVo provides good hardware and good service for the price, then I'll buy into it.

      The hardware is outstanding. And in circumstances like these, dedicated embedded hardware will always kick the ass of generic trying-to-do-everything PC hardware.

    3. Re:Where did you get the idea...? by fishebulb · · Score: 2

      there would be a way to unkill it then. plus the fact that you own the hardware and they are effectivaly breaking it, that would be considered destruction of property.

  2. Comparisons to TiVo by tswinzig · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This seems much more desirable than Tivo or Replay TV, because I control the hardware (no subscription fees).

    You're paying a subscription fee for the program guide data that is downloaded, and upgrades to the software running on the TiVo. Where are you going to get your program guide data, how hard will it be to get it into your system and use it, and how correct is it going to be? I never have a problem with TiVo's guide data.

    Besides, you may have control over the hardware, but my TiVo is incredibly cool and easy to use. I prefer that trade-off.

    If Hauppage went broke or chose to stop supporting it, I can still use it in its present form (not true with Tivo).

    Well I could still use TiVo, but it would be just a big VCR until someone comes along that can send guide data updates to it. Since so many other hacks have been done on TiVo already, I would be VERY surprised if a new hack wasn't released to allow this to happen somehow (scraping guide data from some other service). The main reason no one is working on this for TiVo now is because most of the hackers that mess with TiVo respect the company enough to leave things alone which would cause TiVo to lose money (and go out of business).

    And if TiVo ever does go out of business, you can bet your sweet bippy there will be companies lined up to take them over. Imagine being able to buy TiVo for pennies on the dollar at a bankruptcy sale, and have all their subscribers and technology, without any of their debt?

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
  3. More anti-FUD by jspayne · · Score: 3, Informative

    TiVo Inc. has made it clear that they would release some unknown (not yet public) backdoors that would allow you to set the time on TiVo and continue to use it as a digital VCR. In spite of that, TiVo made changes in the 2.5 software which made it easier to use the box without service. Beyond the call of duty, if you ask me. Check out the post by TiVoPony in this thread that confirms this policy is still intact. I wish people would do some research instead of guessing. Jeff

    1. Re:More anti-FUD by Anonynnous+Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
      TiVo Inc. has made it clear that they would release some unknown (not yet public) backdoors . . .

      That's nice, but I can think of two problems:

      1. The people with the backdoors would probably be legally enjoined from releasing them if TiVo were to die, say, by a bankruptcy court. If you were a creditor that was going to own the remnants of TiVo, wouldn't you want control of the boxes? There's no revenue without that control.

      2. TiVo could be taken over by a more rapacious company, which could, say, triple the subscription fees. (The "lifetime" subscription isn't an option, since it's only for the lifetime of the box--deceptive advertising, IMHO.) There is no danger of this with a non subscription-based solution like the Hauppage PVR.

      I have been hesitant to buy a PVR because I don't watch much TV to begin with, and because I don't want to become a lifetime cash cow for one of these companies, only to have them remove features (30 second skip, for example) and force updates (like the one that removed the 30 second skip) at their whim. They have a right to use that business model, so long as they're honest about it--I'm just not interested myself.

    2. Re:More anti-FUD by TTop · · Score: 3, Informative
      Hey, you added a little FUD of your own here -- you said
      The "lifetime" subscription isn't an option, since it's only for the lifetime of the box--deceptive advertising, IMHO.
      Tivo is very up front about what "Lifetime Subscription" means. Go to their website, look at their FAQ under "Lifetime Subscription," check out the first sentence:
      What is product lifetime service? A product lifetime subscription to the TiVo service covers the life of the recorder or receiver you buy - not the life of the subscriber. The Product lifetime subscription accompanies the product in case of ownership transfer. The subscription remains in effect even if you upgrade your recorder, for example, to increase storage capacity (please contact an authorized dealer or the manufacturer) or if the recorder needs to be repaired or replaced due to a malfunction (see manufacturer warranty details). Because a Product lifetime subscription is linked to a particular recorder, it cannot be transferred to any other recorder (unless the recorder is replaced due to a malfunction covered by the manufacturer's warranty). Each recorder purchased requires its own service subscription and activation. Of course, hardware products don't last forever and their lifespan will vary. TiVo makes no representations or warranties as to the expected lifetime of the product aside from the manufacturer's warranty.
    3. Re:More anti-FUD by uradu · · Score: 2

      > TiVo made changes in the 2.5 software which made it easier to use the box without service.

      Give some specific examples. From what I've heard, the opposite is true.

    4. Re:More anti-FUD by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      Not only do they put it in the not so fine print, but when you call to subscribe (at least when I called), they made sure I understood clearly that lifetime meant life of the box. There's no conspiracy here. Move along.

      (BTW, I think this lifetime arrangement it better then most other 'lifetime' things, that don't transfer to a new owner. What 'lifetime' contract or guarantee have you ever heard of that continues on to something new you buy?)

    5. Re:More anti-FUD by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      Well, you get your wish. All their marketing material says "Product lifetime". Also, this is way different then a warranty. If a lifetime product waranty ended with the lifetime of the product, you would get nothing. With a service you use all the time, you get the benifit of the service for as long as you maintain your unit. I think that "Product lifetime" is a better name then "unit subscription". You can tell what "product lifetime" means without ambiguity.

      http://www.tivo.com/get/tivo_service.asp

    6. Re:More anti-FUD by unitron · · Score: 2

      They may not have meant to mislead, but the use of the term lifetime for anything other than the life of the person paying for the lifetime "whatever" is a mistake because you make some people think that you're trying to scam them and have to go to a lot of extra trouble to make sure that everybody knows what your own particular definition of lifetime is. Also, if the hardware goes bad after the manufacturer's warranty has expired but you find a shop that can fix it, do you have to report that to them and buy another subscription? If you get it fixed and plug it back in without notifying them that it was down, can they get you for "theft of service"? It's just too big a can of worms.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    7. Re:More anti-FUD by unitron · · Score: 2
      "...TiVo "nags" you with "warning" messages every time you try to do something."

      Tell me again which brand Microsoft is associated with?

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  4. Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2, Interesting


    The thing about these products that concern me is that they are USB based-- I suspect that the MPEG2 image quality will not be that nice.

    I'm wondering if there's a market for a good quality computer based PVR. One that encodes in real time to an advanced format (say MPEG4) from a high quality image stream.

    This would result in a much better recording ratio-- more hours to a gigabyte and better video quality. (And it can be done in real time in software on good hardware)

    The problem with people making PVRs in the past has been lack of acces to hardware drivers for All In Wonder cards, etc. This seems to be the insurmountable problem so far. (Though I think I have a great solution.)

    So, what do you think? Know of any open source projects trying to do this?

    If my solution works, it will result in better video quality than you get from Tivo or the USB product in this article, both because its compressed in MPEG4 rather than MPEG2, and because the source signal is much better . (At least in the USB case, the advantages over TIVO would be codec choice and flexibility of being an open platform-- you can easily move video in and out, etc.)

    Would such a product be valuable to you? Woudl you buy it? You'd probably be spending about as much as to buy a TIVO for the hardware & software solution I'm thinking of-- but your capacity, ability to move the files around, ability to share the video to other TVs, etc, would be greatly improved.

    Or put another way, my hypothesis is that the TIVO solution is pretty good- decent quality, all in one box, fits like a VCR and controlled by remote. The PC solutions have not been so good- bad Windows software, or lack of access to drivers or poor shovelware to bundle with the cards. So, I think a solution that provides the advantages of using your PC to do the recording, with better format, and high quality imaging (As well as the other features of Tivo- speculative recording, IR control, etc.) is a market opportunity... Am I right?

    --
    Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    1. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      What makes you assume that the video quality would suffer due to MPEG2 over USB? USB can easily stream DVD quality MPEG2 video with bandwidth to spare, and MPEG2 can encode to quite high quality. Where's your source video coming from if that quality isn't high enough?

    2. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2

      That's not an assumption. The specs for the USB video devices tell the tale. They cut the resolution in half, and then do very quick realtime encoding. This is necessary to keep the price down. TIVO does a better job because they can afford better encoders, and they don't cut the resolution down.

      Most of these USB devices are for people dealing with VCR tapes or for web streaming, so 320x240 is fine for them.

      Back of the envelope, USB can- just barely- fit a DVD video stream in it, but I wouldn't try to ship a product that was trying to do it for an hour without dropping frames-- highly unlikely that would work reliably. USB is only 12 megabits (not Bytes) per second. I think its also not isochronous.

      Not that I'm knocking USB- its perfect for Modems, keyboards, joysticks and floppy drives-- what it was designed for.

      MPEG2 does not mean "DVD quality". MPEG2 can encode to high quality (not "quite high") but you certainly can't then get that stream thru a USB buss!

      At any rate, the USB video products that I've seen, including the one this thread is about, aren't even trying to do high quality video. That is my point.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    3. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      A full DVD video feed with 5.1 audio only uses 80.4% of USBs available bandwidth. If you're going to blame the poor quality of existing devices on manufacturers trying to save a few cents per unit, then that's one thing, but there is no reason you can't reliably stream DVD quality content over USB. That is, in fact, what USB was designed for: streaming media.

      If you want to assume that a USB video device will be low quality based on available products, don't pin the blame on a perfectly capable technology. If you do that you'll just end up with the same crappy devices that plug into a more expensive bus.

      I dream that one day future PCs will be designed based on technological merits instead of marketing doublespeak. Unfortunatly that day will likely never come.

    4. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by zemkai · · Score: 2, Informative
      Know of any open source projects trying to do this?

      There are several in various stages. Hit freshmeat and search for "PVR". Also check out the mjpegtools for enough of the basic kit (recording, editing, etc) to get going (lacks only a nice integration with a scheduler).

      The last bit of kit I'm looking for is something to do the "pause live TV" thing. I suppose one could tweak lavrec (part of the aforementioned mjpegtools) to record to a circular buffer, and dump it as needed...

      -ZK-

    5. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2



      80.4%? Really? Did you know that %100 of statistics such as this are made up on the spot?

      Seriously, though. USB has trouble streaming just audio thru hubs- that's why Griffin Technology made an "audio hub" so that their USB microphones would work.

      From what I know the standard doesn't even support time sychnronous communication... it was NOT designed for streaming. It was designed for keyboards and maybe modems.

      Please, if you're going to disagree with me, point to some evidence. Feel free to read Griffin's description of the audio hub issues on their website.

      You love USB? Great. From what I understand, USB 2.0 will fix most of the issues I have, though its bandwidth will only be 480Mbits/second. Certainly enough to run DV over it if its compressed (not D1 video).

      But the point remains-- there are NO decent quality USB video solutions. The evidence points to this being because USB wasn't designed for this, and you can argue about whether it can get "DVD" quality video or not-- the simple fact is that there are no devices that do this.

      Given that USB is far more prevalent on PCs than FireWire (which *does* do it, and far better than DVD quality, in fact) if USB could do this, market forces would make it a desirable thing to do.

      This isn't marketing, this is technology-- the protocol wasn't designed for streaming media. The new version apparently takes it into account, and maybe that will solve the problem. But there exists no good quality USB video encoders at this point.

      Which is unfortunate.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    6. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      80.4%? Really? Did you know that %100 of statistics such as this are made up on the spot?

      While that may be true, this is not a statistic, it's math. Maybe you should do some math before you shoot your mouth off.

      A 9.4GB (byte, not bit) DVD holds 133 minutes of full quality video with a 5.1 audio track.

      (((9.4*1024*1024*1024*8)/133)/60) = 10118469 bits/sec

      USB has a sustained bandwidth of 12Mb (bits, not bytes) per second.

      (12*1024*1024) = 12582912 bits/sec
      10118469/12582912 = .804 = 80.4%

      I agree that there are no quality solutions on the market at present, but I happen to work with USB all the time, like writing actual code, and creating actual devices. I'm not talking out of my ass. The bus technology is not to blame. There are issues, and they can be overcome.

    7. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2


      USB does not do *sustained* 12Mb per second.

      The reports I've seen is that USB offers, at best, 6Mb per second, sustained.

      And, of course, USB is not isochronous. As I've pointed out twice now.

      Furthermore, I did do the math, and provided it in my post.

      I really don't think there's much point in continuing this debate. You are using marketing numbers to make a claim, rather than taking into account real world numbers and the real world experience of the companies providing USB solutions.

      And, while you continue to claim that it "can" do this, nobody is able to *show* it doing it, and I've repeately pointed out reasons why it probably *can't*.

      You really haven't addressed my point, actually.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    8. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2


      Thanks. it looks like mjpegtools provides some of what I need, but more specifically I've found a codec component to do it. Now I just need to get the code written.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    9. Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? by BitGeek · · Score: 2


      I disagree. USB is a great low-bandwidth protocol. I think they should just stop trying to compete with firewire and use firewire! Its not like its expensive or anything.

      That way we'd have USB and FireWire everywhere and both would be better supported.

      Instead we have USB bringing a knife to a gunfight. Its never going to beat firewire, without trying to become firewire (which its unsuited to) and the "comparison" only detracts from the standardization we need.

      FireWire is ready to go at 3.2Gbps over very long runs...

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
  5. Another Comparison by ConeFish · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you are happy with the hardware, keep bugging Hauppauge support for better software/drivers. But, I just wanted to throw a little techical detail into the mix for other people that might be deciding between the 2. The Tivo records at full D1 resolution (720x480, actually, which is cropped from "true" D1 of 720x486, but close enough). The Hauppauge product records at half that resolution. It is necessary because of the limited bandwidth of USB (Maybe they will do a USB2 product in the future). So, if you just want basic PVR features, and not stunning resolution, the USB PVR might be a good product for you. But, if you want to record things and watch things later at the best quality, you should save for a Tivo.

    --
    The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they are when you kill them.
    1. Re:Another Comparison by stienman · · Score: 2

      I'll throw even more info into the mix. Hauppage has 4 PVR products, only one of which is the USB version. It's true it only records at 6Mbps compression (which is a half frame) but you can get one of the three PCI PVR cards from them which do full frame 12Mbps streams. (USB is rated at 12Mbps, but that's not guranteed bandwidth per device including overhead)

      I've been looking at the product without an FM radio for $145. I'm turning in my mileage report for the last seven months (2300 miles) so maybe I can convince my wife to let me splurge on one. I'll write a review here if it happens...

      BTW, anything has got to be better than the all-in-wonder software from ATI on XP.

      -Adam

    2. Re:Another Comparison by .@. · · Score: 2

      For good reason: that's the resolution of broadcast TV. TV and cable don't do 720p, unless you're paying for high-def content.

      --
      .@.
    3. Re:Another Comparison by BitGeek · · Score: 2



      This solution does produce a high quality image-- "broadcast quality" in fact.

      However, DV, while compressed, is a very high bandwidth signal. With DV you can get -- wait for it-- 4 minutes of video stored. A tivo gets something like 1 hour per gigabyte.

      But this is really an unfair comparison- the TiVO "hours per unit" calculations are based on their lowest quality video, not highest, and that DV example is EXTREMELY high quality.

      The Formac site implies slightly better-- 4 hours in 48GB or 12GB/hour.

      Still, even at best quality - a fairer comparison- TiVo is a much better storage deal.

      So, encoding to some compression format is a good idea-- but as far as getting the signal into your computer in digital form- the DV format is a great one. And the one you quote at $399 has a tuner built in. If you don't need a tuner, you can get them for $299. (Dazzle and one from a company I can't remember the name of. Maybe Dazzle is $399, but the other one is $299 w/o tuner.)

      Is a tuner really necessary? Don't most people have composite video out, or cable systems that won't let you directly decode the signal (ie: you need a proprietary box.)???

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    4. Re:Another Comparison by BitGeek · · Score: 2

      Brzt. Thanks for playing! Oh, well, partial credit -- I don't know what the USB does I admit. But the PCI version recorded at full NTSC D1 (which tends to be 704x480 in actual use) in multiple bitrates.

      You guys are misusing the term "D1". D1 is an uncompressed video stream in digital format. What you mean to say is "SD" and the particular form of standard definition television. SD talks about resolution. D1 means no compression.

      For instance, on a hundred gigabyte drive, you can get 58 minutes of D1 signal. (At NTSC SD resolution and framerate)

      Your card is encoding into MPEG2 at some resolution and framerate-- might not even be 30fps. So, what you're talking about is an MPEG2 stream, not a "D1" stream.

      Not flaming- just trying to correct mischaracterizations- there's enough confusion out there already.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
  6. The pause buffer by JediTrainer · · Score: 2

    Clearly a software problem - the programmers didn't take the 2GB file size limit of most OSs/filesystems into account. Obviously they also never tested how 'pause' behaves over a long period of time.

    I've seen this same issue with video capturing software, or other software which might record large amounts of data. The solution would be that they would have to split the pause buffer into smaller files, each under 2GB. If their software is designed intelligently enough it shouldn't be a big deal to fix this.

    --

    You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  7. pvr's by isorox · · Score: 3, Informative

    I looked at this card a few months back when I was looking for a video capture solution. I deided to go for a little external box that converted analog video (pal or ntsc) and audio to firewire, and back again. It was a little more expensive, but I figured the flexibility of a standard interface (looks like a firewire dv cam, without software controls (duh)), outweighed the extra £40 it cost. It'll also work with a mac should I get one in the future, is easily movable from one computer to another, hot pluggable etc.

    No fancy pvr software, but it shouldnt be hard to write a program that compresses dv to mpeg 2/divx, and writes to the hdd. Interface with an oline tv directory and you have no problems with your computer, architecture, os, company, service provider etc going bust, as long as you still have a firewire port somewhere.

    It works great too.

  8. Try asking this on arstechnica by thegrommit · · Score: 2

    The audio/visual forum on arstechnica is probably a better place to ask this.

  9. No need for the PVR model by AirLace · · Score: 2

    the Hauppage 'PVR' is just a standard TV card bundled with additional encoding software for Windows. As long as you have a codec like DivX or VP3, 'vcr' for Linux can do the exact same thing with commodity hardware. I'm surprised noone has pointed this out yet.

  10. I got one and have had a few issues... by weave · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I mainly wanted it to cap TV shows on schedule, edit out commercials, save to VCD and watch in living room in DVD player.

    I've had a few problems with it. First, when recording in mpeg-2 mode, if I play it in other mpeg viewers, the aspect ratio is opposite, like 480x640 instead of 640x480.

    If I cap to VCD (mpeg1) format, it's fine. But if I use any mpeg editing tools like Power Director, the audio and video get out of sync. Very annoying. Hauppauge has a "cuts only" mpeg editor on their site, but it's not the best. While the a/v stay in sync, for some reason, the frames where I make the cuts get off sometimes. So if I'm real careful to cut at the start and end of commercials, sometimes I'll get the first 5-10 seconds of a commercial and then miss the first 5-10 seconds of the show after it.

    Overall, not real happy. I'm kinda of wishing I got a standard WDM capable capture card and used software-based encoding...

    The other thing that ticked me off is I recently bought a dvd iMac and expected to be able to cap in mpeg2 on my PC, transfer to the mac and write out to the mac's DVD-R drive, but the damn iDVD software that comes with the iMac will only work with DV or quicktime movies (and qt pro won't import mpeg-2)

    I just can't win it seems...