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Cross-Platform Video Capture Cards And TV Tuners?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the xawtv-works-for-me dept.

ePIsOdEOnline writes "This Christmas reminded me of the times when you were a child and your parents bought that new toy that says on the packaging "Batteries Not Included". Post-Christmas rituals always turn into spending sprees to get other things that will be compatible and complementary to the gifts we recieved. This past Christmas, I recieved a PS2 along with a mini-dv camera set. Well, now I'll need something to view these with since I don't have a television in my apartment. So, I was looking into picking up a TV-tuner card for my computer. What kind of cards has the slashdot crowd been successful with, and which ones should I steer clear of? I'd like to be able to use the card in linux and sometimes windows, to watch and record off of. What kinds of software/hardware should I invest in, and is it an easy, accomplishable task to delve into?"

8 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Hauppauge PVR-250/350 by cepler · · Score: 5, Informative

    Includes hardware MPEG encoder/decoder.

    http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr250_datash ee t.htm

  2. Leadtek Winfast by tourettes · · Score: 5, Informative

    I purchased a Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 XP Deluxe tv tuner, and I enjoyed it alot. It is not as expensive as other tuners available on the market, but works for all my needs. It has a stylish and easy to use remote control, as well as an FM tuner built in.

    I have written a TV Tuner Guide for linux that focuses mainly on this tuner (but can be used for most tuners under linux.

    For the price, and the quality you get, in my opinion, this is one of the best tv tuners out there.

    --
    tourettes
  3. PVR 250/350 by rask22 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Under linux you really can't beat the hauppauge PVR 250 or 350. Both include hardware mpeg2 encoding, the 350 includes hardware mpeg2 decoding. You can find drivers at ivtv.sf.net. It's nice to record tv shows at 640x480 at 2% cpu load.

    The card is also well supported by mythtv.

  4. Windows by Doomrat · · Score: 5, Informative

    For people trying to get a strange video card working with a later Windows OS such as 2000 and XP, these generic drivers are life savers.

    http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/
    http://www.iulabs.com/drv/index.shtml

  5. Try Goodwill or Salvation Army by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can find a reasonable TV set for $15 at the local thrift shop. Make things easy on yourself.

  6. TV tuner for ... what? by nomso · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would not recommend a TV tuner for anything other than watching TV.

    Your DV camera should have a digital output (IEEE 1394 (FireWire)) - use that. Additionally, if that DV camera is a nicer one it may have video input; meaning that you can connect your PS2 to your camera, which is connected your computer, which is connected to your display.... you may not need to buy anything?

    --
    there is no spoon
  7. Not good for video games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Hauppauge 250 is a great card to watch and record TV, but because of the 2-3 second delay as the video stream is encoded into MPEG-2, it makes playing any sort of video game system through it virtually impossible. Beware.

  8. Multi-tasking. by servasius_jr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just get a TV for fifty bucks at a pawn shop. It'll probably either be stolen, or have been hocked by someone in desperate straits, so in a sense you'll be trafficing in human misery, but hey, can't beat the prices. That way you'll be able to surf porn while you're watching Letterman.