Graphic card recommendation

[Claymonkey]

Dogbert, I definetly think the best course of action would be to get say a 8500 and a good tvcard.. together that should be under $200. You'd be very happy with the results

[az]

I would ask terratec again - I can't believe there is no NTSC version of this card (I guess you use NTSC in israel?)

AZ

[Dogbert]

No, we use Pal

[az]

Great - then I'd get a Cinergy 400 TV, if btwincap and dscaler won't work better.

Terratec lists http://www.5exits.co.il/ and http://www.halilit.co.il/ on their "where to buy" page for israel.

AZ

[Indiana]

Another program worth to try with your BT878 based card would be MoreTV - that's the program I like the most. Unfortunately it's only available in german, but the usage should be pretty self-explanatory nevertheless.

MoreTV is a really small program <<500KB and doesn't need any driver installed at all, cause it talks to the BT878 directly.

[az]

Is it used for watching TV or for capturing?

Can you tell us more?

AZ

[Dogbert]

All I need is for watching TV and playing Sega DC games.

[Indiana]

It's only for viewing TV, but there it is MUCH better than Hauppauges crappy WinTV32/2000 applications. It has none of the overlay problems you'll get with WinTV32 on most gfxcards, has integrated great and very speedy Teletext, doesn't need any drivers, works flawlessly under Win98, Win2000 and WinXP, even has a great quality RGB mode (for those who still have problems with overlays, e.g. on dual monitor systems with cards with only one hardware overlay), can decode certain encrytion systems with a CPU >1GHz, is a small and lean application,....

[shopping_chang]

how about a 9700 or parhelia ;/(if you are not stick on you heavy game)

[az]

He said his budget was 200 $

AZ

[Dogbert]

AZ, I guess I'll keep my PCTV and try these drivers and programs you posted

Once my bank account gets more or less stabilised I'll upgrade my G400 to something better at around $200.

[Dogbert]

Does anyone know which TUNER brand pinnacle use for their PCTV ?

[az]

Should be the Conexant/Brooktree bt878.

AZ

[Indiana]

The Pinnacle does have the BT848 or 878 on it (depending on the model), but that's NOT the tuner, it's just for decoding the analog PAL/NTSC/... signal. These cards have an additional tuner chip on them, Hauppauge uses a Philips one, but even there, there are several different chips/revisions used.

Just try MoreTV if you only want to view TV, it needs no drivers, has presets for several cards you can try and if none of these work you can still choose between many different tuner types/manufacturers and you should be able to get it to work nevertheless.

[az]

Sorry, my bad

Just tried MoreTV, and it's great The simple TV application I always wanted.

AZ