VinPetrol

Has anyone got one of these ?

I know nothing about them, but like the idea of turning my pc into a multimedia jobby, which recieves an records tv, etc.

I found this on ebay...what do you think ?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Twinhan-DTV-Di...QQcmdZViewItem

OllyK

Got a Hauppage one in my PC - Distribution Box in the Roof and Sky on my desk top. Can record etc to Hard Drive. Works quite well really.

VinPetrol

whats a distribution box ?

and when u say sky on your desk, do u mean u have a reciever thing (iv never had sky tv)

will i be able to pick up freeview ?


do you have the option to transfer footage from vhs video tapes to your harddrive ?

cheers

Martin_Aimless

Me too got a PVR 250. Means you can record directly to your hard disc in a variety of formats. VCD is adaquate for TV progs. It stopped working recently but after removing all the driver files and re-installing it it works fine again.

Strangely the PVR 350 I bought to replace it doesn't seem to display realtime too well on my machine giving 'jerky' playback. It does however record to disc fine. Very odd.

VinPetrol

does it allow you to rec from a vhs tape to your pc ?

Martin_Aimless

Yes and yes. Just feed the composite lead from your VCR into the card and the SCART from the Freeview into the SART of the VCR. Works for me anyway. I archived loads of old stuff and got rid of boxes of dusty old VHS tapes, then burned them to DVDs

OllyK

My Card has 2 RF style inputs - standard ariel type connectors and also S-Video etc.

I use the RF out of the Sky box and run a cable up to the loft to a distribution box - basically a splitter and an amp, and all the other ariel sockets in the house run from that, so I get Sky plus normal TV.

I can plug a video in via scart to Svideo and the Phono or use the RF as if playing to a TV, tune in the software and then use the record feature. I use a similar approach to get stuff off my Sky+ box.

VinPetrol

but could i get the freeview channels if i havnt got a freview box already ? the card on the ebay link i posted says it is possible, but iv never heard of the make b4.

good news about the dusty vhs tapes, thats what i want to do.

Martin_Aimless

I've never heard of the make listed on Ebay. It seems a suspiciously cheap price to me

OllyK

It certainly suggests it provides freeview tuning. I know you can get such cards and this would seem to be one - so assuming the info is correct on e-bay, then yes you could get freeview. I'd double check the spec and do some research on the make TBH, not one I have encountered

Iain Young

The official website...

http://www.twinhan.com/product_D%2BA_1.asp

Seems it might be genuine. No idea how good it is though...

bighead

iTrader: (1)

if it a digital tuner .....it will be able to recieve freeview channels

by the way the Leadtek WinFast pvr1000 will do all the task that you ask for and has gr8 software plus twin view as well (ie watch 2 channel at the same time )......only abit more than the one on ebay .

regards..............Mike

VinPetrol

yeah, seems to do absolutley everything, but a little dodgy maybe ...hmmm

hauppage and pinnicle seem to be the 2 main manufactuters of these sorts of cards, is there any other i should know about, or that you could recommend from personal experiance




cheers

ps do hey slow the pc down much ?

VinPetrol

hmm looks geniune enough...


so if the card will decode digital, then i cant tunew into the freeview channels ?


cool !

bighead

iTrader: (1)

read above
well it best if you have a good graphic card , memories and a high cpu

Iain Young

I've not tried the Pinnacle tv cards, but I have had the misfortune to use their other software (studio, liquid edition etc), and that experience combined with their laughable tech support was enough to put me off buying anything from them ever again...

OllyK

TBH much of the work is done by the hardware in the TV card, the PC is only running the displaying software so you don't need a mega spec PC.

Martin_Aimless

Indeed. The video Mpeg compression hardware is on the card so there is no processor overhead. A decent graphics card is useful for display performance though, as is a good hard drive for storage, playback and editing. Bear in mind also that you use up Gigs of space. VCD - about 600 Mb per hour, SVCD - between 2 an 12 Mbits per second you work it out!!!

bighead

iTrader: (1)

yes that is true ....but will not do it any harm to have a hi spec pc

Martin_Aimless

Ok, two observations -

There is no mention of what formats it records or if it records at all.

They say you need a pretty fast PC and the the latest Direct X 9.0C for it to work. This makes me suspect that unlike Hauppauge it does use the processor to do the encoding work and to display the image. That would explain why it's so cheap.