Buy a PVR TV Tuner Card For Your PC
With the rise of TiVo, many users are enjoying the benefits of using a digital video recorder device. With the new class of PC peripherals known as PVR cards, also known as DVR cards, PC users can now get the benefits of TiVo at a much lower price using their own PC. Here are the steps to buy the right PVR card for you.
Contents
Steps
- Decide whether you need a PVR card or just a TV Tuner. If all you want to do is watch TV on your PC monitor or LCD display, you probably do not need to purchase a card that includes the specialized hardware accelerator chip used for PVR. If you want to pause live TV or record shows on your hard drive for future viewing or burning to CD, you should spend the extra $50-$75 to purchase a card that includes an MPEG-2 hardware accelerator.
- Decide whether you want PCI or USB. If you don't mind opening the case of your PC to install a new PCI-based card, you will save $30-$50 buying a PCI version of the product. If you have a laptop or you would rather not open your PC (which in some cases voids the warranty), you should purchase a USB device. There is no difference in performance. (Note: this is not true of USB 1.x devices that have a paltry 1.5mb/sec bandwidth. Far too slow for high quality full screen video. Buy a USB 2.0 device if your PC supports it.)
- Decide which software interface you want to use. Once you have decided whether to purchase a PVR card vs a TV tuner, the hardware is very similar from product to product. The biggest difference will be the software interface you use to access the product. The main applications available are SnapStream Media Beyond TV, CyberLink PowerDVD and smaller generic programs. Beyond TV is the PC Magazine Editor's Choice award winner and is a superior product. Cyberlink is an acceptable all-purpose PVR application. Most generic 3rd party applications have limited functionality are less visually appealing.
- Look for the best deal. PVR products can range in price as much as 50% for the same technology. A PCI TV Tuner with no hardware acceleration should cost $50 or less. A PCI card with hardware PVR will cost from $99 to $149. The USB equivalents of each of these products will cost $30-$40 more. Just because a product costs more than another one does not necessarily mean it offers greater functionality, so read the labels carefully.
Tips
- If you want to record (capture) video rather than just view it, take into account 2 things. 1: Does the device capture in high enough quality for what I am trying to record? These specs, both for the device and your media source can be found online. 2: What encoding method the device uses. Many low end models steal your system resources to encode while more expensive ones tend to have onboard encoding. This is the main disadvantage to the lower cost models, is that even if they record at a high enough resolution to do what you want, because they use system resources the duties can be split up within your computer and this can lead to video/audio mismatches on long encodes (where the audio is off from the video.)
- Advise: Buy the video capture card with the onboard encoder. Save your CPU cycles for things that only a CPU can do.
Warnings
- Beware of external USB 1.x TV Tuner devices because they have poor bandwidth.
