Re: Re: WinTV-NOVA-T USB or PCI

["Matt Squirrell" <msq@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Griffiths" <mike@xxxxxxx>
> No I think your right Keith
> It looks as if it is using the digital stream to record to disc
> The problem with the non free to air I believe is an issue with ITV
Digital
> Doesn't the same apply to TV's with built in Digital i.e. no pay
channels
>
> Having said all that it would free up my TiVo a bit
> I wonder what outputs it has
> My guess is none
> Wouldn't matter to me as I use a computer direct to my Sony TV using
the
> Computer Graphics input
> But it wouldn't help on the distribution stakes
>
>
> Mike
> Antena
> Caernarfon

There are no outputs. The reason there is no mention of NICAM is as has
been
stated it is digital only and so the stereo sound is recieved as an MPEG2
stream. The reason for no pay channels is that Hauppauge decided not to
include a CAM on the UK model. The original version of the card (made by a
German company... Technotrend I think) did have this facility.

I've copied below a review from a guy on an ondigital list of the PCI
version.

Matt

Review:

- Needs Windows 98, 2000 or ME.

- Software doesn't work properly if you're not running IE5 and won't work
with some personal firewall software active

- Recieves FTA channels which you can watch in a window or full screen.
The software will tune in encrypted services but you obviously won't be
able to watch them.

- Seems VERY sensitive to individual machine configuration and setup

- Seems much fussier about signal quality than a regular DTT box (although
it indicated that all my signals were strong and good quality, two of the
recievable multiplexes suffer regular breakup - in my particular case I
could only get near-flawless reception of the ITV/C4 mux.) - I couldn't
tell if my signal was too strong or too weak for the card.

- Software crashes all the time on SOME setups. (I've tried the card
across a few machines)

- Allows recording of channels, although only via a manual "press
record to
start and press it again to stop" (This, at least, is quite funky as
it
appears to record the original digital datastream - however, in some
situations the act of trying to record anything causes the digital signal
to break down to such an extent that the result is unviewable. This
problem can be very subtle - you might be able to record to one hard
drive, but not another one.)

- The software attempts to guess your transmitter based on where in the
country you are, but you can choose to scan all frequencies (slow) or
specify your local transmitter if you know it.

- Comes with support for DVB data services, which is not an awful lot of
use for DTT although it seems to show something funny going on over on one
of the multiplexes.. not sure.

- The software will support DVB teletext, and indeed the software
correctly notices that such a signal is being broadcast on Carlton Cinema.
(Although, of course, there are no pages to view, but the text app viewer
looks very good)

- The main TV view shows the now & next information from the current
channel underneath the video window. Although usually there's not enough
space to read all the text.

- Video services which have multiple languages offer an option at the
bottom of the screen where you can change to another language. (Although
for UK DTT this is just English / Gaelic)

- Takes about six seconds to change channels or languages.

- Automaticaly switches the TV window to the right aspect ratio
(4:3/widescreen) as required.

- Fullscreen TV mode (assuming you have decent reception and the software
doesn't mis-fire on your graphics card) is very nice quality - much like
watching DVDs full screen on your PC.

- The tuning screen is moderately interesting for anoraks, showing you
symbol rates, service IDs and video/audio/text PIDs. This is not massively
interesting but it is at least one way of getting to see the data.

- Comes with a copy of WinDVD so you can play back the recorded MPEG2
files on your PC.

- I suspect that many of the stability problems (as seem to be so common
with Hauppauge PCI cards) are down to PCI issues, motherboard / graphics
card incompatibilities, etc. The USB version might be better in this
respect.

- Don't bother if your graphics card doesn't have direct draw acceleration
and hardware overlay. (E.g. S3 Trio 64, Matrox Millennium 1, Matrox G100)
- The only confirmed compatible graphics cards are: S3 Trio 64V, Matrox
G200/G400, Nvidia GeForce 25.

My verdict: A whole bunch of fun, IF your reception is good enough and IF
your computer is recent enough and IF your computer is powerful enough and
IF your computer is compatible enough. Like I say, I think the USB version
will probably be better in that respect.

There is, also, the immense funk potential of recording programmes to disc
and them writing them out to recordable DVD, maintaining the original
datastream and encoding quality. In theory you should get about 3 hours of
video on a standard 4.7gb disc.

So, nice if it works, a waste of time if it doesn't. If you buy one,
be ready to sell it or send it back soon after. But if you can achieve the
magic combination of compatible PC motherboards and graphics cards and
whatnot, then it's a great card and a whole lot of fun.