Pc PVR
Author
Discussion

smilerbaker

Original Poster:

4,071 posts

246 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Whats the best PVR for a PC, I have a HD tv 16:9 with pc and hdmi inputs, the pvr I have for my mac will not record in 16:9 and from what I gather the happauge ones also don't handle 16:9

Not bothered about tv schedules eg tivio type functionality, just want a pvr that can record when I want it to, has a good picture, can pause live tv, and records in 16:9

Any suggestions? prefrably from experiance, as all the reviews I can find about them just mention all the tivio type rubbish and not what they are actually like!

ThePassenger

6,962 posts

266 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Dumb questions: What are you using as the capture card in the current PVR? Are you sure the program you're trying to record is Widescreen? Have you told the cards' software that?

smilerbaker

Original Poster:

4,071 posts

246 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
its on a mac, no the software wont record in 16:9 (next release) but I am dumping that and going back to pc's, the pvr on the mac is not compatible with pc's so I have to buy a new one.

ThePassenger

6,962 posts

266 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
smilerbaker said:
its on a mac, no the software wont record in 16:9 (next release) but I am dumping that and going back to pc's, the pvr on the mac is not compatible with pc's so I have to buy a new one.


I see. Elegato EyeTV or some such yeah?
Well, it might be worth picking up a cheapo Hauppage card... not one of the shiney new ones (cost saving for testing) and see if it can do it, I know my PVR-350 can display widescreen... I've not actually tried recording with it in a while as we're overhauling the machine; but I seem to remember it being dumb (i.e. Widescreen picture = widescreen recording).

road2ruin

6,545 posts

247 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Yes Hauppauge cards do record in widescreen. I have a wintv HVR1300 quite cheap at about £50.00 and records in many formats. I have recorded quite a few things and all is well. I have heard though a lot of problems with there own Tv200 software and it isnt very user friendly. I just use MCE's built in software to record and all is well.

smilerbaker

Original Poster:

4,071 posts

246 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
road2ruin said:
Yes Hauppauge cards do record in widescreen. I have a wintv HVR1300 quite cheap at about £50.00 and records in many formats. I have recorded quite a few things and all is well. I have heard though a lot of problems with there own Tv200 software and it isnt very user friendly. I just use MCE's built in software to record and all is well.



MCE?

ThePassenger

6,962 posts

266 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
smilerbaker said:
road2ruin said:
Yes Hauppauge cards do record in widescreen. I have a wintv HVR1300 quite cheap at about £50.00 and records in many formats. I have recorded quite a few things and all is well. I have heard though a lot of problems with there own Tv200 software and it isnt very user friendly. I just use MCE's built in software to record and all is well.



MCE?


Windows Media Centre Edition. XP Home with go faster stripes. It does actually work quite well on a TV screen.

tycho

12,296 posts

304 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
ThePassenger said:
smilerbaker said:
road2ruin said:
Yes Hauppauge cards do record in widescreen. I have a wintv HVR1300 quite cheap at about £50.00 and records in many formats. I have recorded quite a few things and all is well. I have heard though a lot of problems with there own Tv200 software and it isnt very user friendly. I just use MCE's built in software to record and all is well.



MCE?


Windows Media Centre Edition. XP Home with go faster stripes. It does actually work quite well on a TV screen.



Windows Media Centre is a very good application, Vista Home Premium has it built in now and I think it is an improvement to the XP based version.