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PC-TV TUNER CARDS
(Continued....)
RUNNING TWO OR MORE
TV TUNER CARDS AT
THE SAME TIME ON
ONE PC-TV SYSTEM
(CONTINUED....)
With the right set-up, you can watch live TV on one channel and record live TV on another channel if you install two (or more) TV Tuner cards. This may not work for everyone because you will have to experiment if you want more capacity on your PC-TV system.
Using two TV tuner cards at the same time:
The ATI TV Wonder card in full-screen mode
along with Picture-in-Picture (PIP) window
for the WinTV-GO in lower-righthand corner.
And after some experimenting, I found that under Win98 that I was also able to get what you could call an actual PIP when using the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card in full-screen mode after coming out of standby mode while the ATI TV Wonder was on in the smaller PIP-like TV picture. Under Win98, the TV picture from the smaller TV window for the ATI TV Wonder card shines through so to speak or overlays the full-screen TV picture for the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card to provide the PIP effect -- but the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has to go back to standby mode if I want to change channels on the ATI TV Wonder card. I've since upgraded to WinXP and I can still watch live TV on one channel while recording another TV show on completely different channel so I can watch the other TV show later. Most people nowadays will be using WinXP and will most likely be satisfied with being able to watch a live TV show on one channel while recording another TV show in background on another channel for watching at a later time. And with the right software, you can watch that recorded TV show later while still recording yet another TV show at the same time.
Two TV tuner cards are being used simultaneously:
Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card in full-screen
mode with the smaller Picture-in-Picture (PIP) in the
upper-righthand corner for the ATI TV Wonder card.
PERSONAL TV RECORDING
WITH ONLY ONE OR MORE
TV TUNER CARD(S)
And if you want to use your PC-TV like a VCR (and if you have a huge harddrive), then go hog wild in using your PC-TV as a personal video recorder for home television watching purposes. There is a growing bunch of people who want to use their PC-TV systems as VCR-like personal video recorders for the home. (Also see footnote for a related video recording question1.) Most TV Tuner cards are packaged with some sort of recorder software included with the cards. For instance, the ATI TV Wonder is packaged with a basic recorder function in its software but you may want to try using third-party software such as the Cyberlink PowerVCR software. (Also see another footnote about some of the various versions of the ATI software2.) The WinTV-GO that I got did not come with a recorder but you can download recorder software from the Hauppauge website although you may want to look elsewhere for third-party software such as the Cyberlink PowerVCR software and the Honestech TVR software. The Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has a recorder function providing PVR record-and-playback, pause-and-instant-replay capabilities -- I really like the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card since it provides more than some other cards without having to buy any third-party software. For any recorder software you may get with any TV Tuner card (except for cards like the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card which has a more complete package), expect the software to be at least for basic simple recording.
IF YOU ARE BRAVE ENOUGH
TO INSTALL TWO OR MORE
TV TUNER CARDS ON
YOUR PC-TV SYSTEM....
Note on drivers for using two TV cards at the same time: If you are using WinXP, you should be able to run multiple TV Tuner cards on your system at the same time. All of the new drivers that you will get with TV Tuner cards for use with WinXP will be WDM (Windows Driver Model) drivers which is what WinXP is intended to primarily work with. Under Win98, you can use all WDM drivers -OR- you can have only one TV card with an "older" Bt878 VfW (Video for Windows) driver while the other TV Tuner cards have WDM drivers. You cannot have VfW drivers on all of the TV cards under Win98 or else Windows will crash and freeze all of the time. You will also have to see if your video card can handle all of the TV cards on your system. Some video cards will only allow you to play one TV window at a time while other video cards will let you have several TV windows for each of the TV cards on the screen at the same time. The ATI video cards and the SiS video cards should let you have multiple live TV windows on the screen at the same time. Geforce/Nvidia cards may not. But you will have to see what actually happens with the video card on your system to see what happens. Whether you can have multiple TV windows appearing on the screen at the same time, you should still be able to at least record one TV channel in background while another TV channel is being shown live on the screen at the same time depending on the software you are using. If you have the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card running the default software for the Creative card or if you have a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 (or 350) card running SageTV, then you should be able to record in background standby mode while using another TV Tuner card to watch a completely different channel for live TV. You should be able to do this under WinXP, Win98, or whichever version of windows you may be using. However, you will have to simply try it out to see if this can actually work for you.
For those using WinXP, if you have a fast system that is at least 1.x Ghz (preferrably 2.x Ghz or more) with a Pentium 4 with a lot of memory such as at least 512 megabytes ram, and with a good 4x AGP video card with at least 32 megabytes of ram (64 megabytes or more may be preferably), then you should be able to run the multiple TV Tuner cards without any stuttering problems that you may have on less powerful PCs. In other words, the more powerful your PC is, then the more capable and more stable your system may be. But if you have an older PC, and for those using Win98 and other versions of windows on other PCs, then you can still tweak the available software and hardware on your systems to get the best performance that you can out of the PC such as for running a multitude of TV Tuner cards and recording functions on the PC. It can be done with whatever you PC system you may have, but you may have to tweak your system if it doesn't immediately work the way you want it to work right out of the box. What follows for the remainder of this section (the next three long paragraphs) is a discussion about how I was able to get a lot of good performance out of a Pentium III running Win98SE. (And there may be some nuggets of info in the remainder of this section for those using other versions of windows including WinXP.)
For those using Win98, in order to use two TV Tuner cards on one PC at the same time, at least one of the cards will need the "new" WDM (Windows Driver Model) drivers installed since you cannot use the "older" Bt878 VfW (Video for Windows) drivers for both cards at the same time or else you may freeze up and crash your system. The WDM drivers which were first introduced with Windows 98 (and which would be the type of drivers you would expect for "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo compliance for WinXP3), you will need a really good video graphics card as well as a lot of memory so that you can get a good TV picture and to avoid the internet-like stuttering delay that you may get when trying to use the WDM driver with an old PC video graphics card. The "older" Bt878 VfW drivers provide for a superior TV picture under Win98 if you have an older or modest video graphics card and you can still use VfW on newer more powerful systems under Win98. WDM can be just as good in terms of the picture quality under Win98 if you have a really good video card (be sure to set your PC's video to the "true color" 32-bit setting on the Settings tab for the Display Properties when using WDM drivers to avoid the latent blurring you may get at lower settings when the picture moves horizontally) and you will also need WDM for interactive channel changing using interactive program guides for PC such as Gemstar GUIDEplus+ for PC and Microsoft Windows' "WebTV for Windows" for interactive channel-changing listings of television schedules. Note on full screen, overlapping pictures, and playing your recordings: After making a recording, if you play your recording full screen on top of a TV window running the WDM driver (WDM TV), you may see residual pixels from the WDM TV in the video from recording showing through -- don't worry, just turn off that TV. The TV running VfW (VfW TV) shouldn't interfere with the picture for the recording if you play the recording at full screen on top of the VfW TV at the same time. Also note that the quality of your TV picture is also dependent on your TV signal -- so make sure you have a good connection to cable TV, satellite TV, or that you have a very good TV antenna which is, needless to say, pointed in the correct direction for best reception. For those with cable TV and if the signal strength is not strong enough to be split from your single cable wire to your two (or more) TV Tuner cards, and if have the cable also connected via the splitter to a TV set, a VCR, and whatever else in one room, then you may want to remove the other devices one by one from your split cable connection or you can use an additional splitter with a switch that you can flip back and forth for sending the TV signal to one device or another. Or, in the alternative, you may want to try using a coax amplifier which you should be able to find at Radio Shack. Also, for those with cable internet, you may need a highpass filter to prevent interference to a cable modem from the TV card when connecting to the same cable that provides both cable TV and the cable internet.
Digital camera snapshot of actual PC monitor showing
three TV windows on the screen for the Creative Video
Blaster Digital VCR, ATI TV Wonder, & WinTV-GO cards.
(Go to the previous page for a more recent screenshot
which is also showing three multiple TV windows.)
Under Win98, with the cards that I have been using on one PC-TV system, it took a little experimenting and some trial-and-error to get the ATI TV Wonder, Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR, and WinTV-GO to simultaneously run at the same time. Under Win98, you can mix-and-match both VfW drivers and WDM drivers as described above. But under WinXP would involve converting everything to WDM drivers and losing the ability to directly use VfW drivers. However, for those using WinXP, you may want to try using a VfW-to-WDM wrapper in order to indirectly use a VfW driver under WinXP. (Those non-WinXP users may want to make Win98 / Win98SE / WinME look exactly like the WinXP, may want to consider using WindowBlinds and ObjectBar from Stardock.4) Under Win98SE, I could have installed WDM drivers for the ATI TV Wonder card, but I had the ATI TV Wonder card using the VfW driver from the "older" ATI version 6.3 software. The default software that comes with the WinTV-GO card has a VfW driver but I installed the WDM driver for the WinTV which is downloadable from the Hauppauge WinTV website. The Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card is using its default software which uses a WDM driver -- I previously thought it was VfW because I could not get the ATI TV Wonder card and the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card to work together at first. But after some trial-and-error, I got three TV windows for all three cards to run at the same time under Win98. It is a little easier under WinXP since all of the TV cards would be using WDM drivers, but you may only want to run two TV cards at a time depending on however many available PCI slots you have in your PC. If you are still using Win98, you should either use all WDM drivers and maybe only one card with VfW driver if you want a card using a VfW driver at all. Two cards running VfW drivers would crash Win98. Again, for those using WinXP, you can only use WDM and cannot directly use VfW.
For those running Win98, a VfW-WDM combination of two cards seemed to work well. And a WDM-WDM combination of two cards also seemed to work well. Under Win98, I was able to run three TV Tuner cards at the same time with three open TV windows that you can see all at the same time on the one screen (a VfW-WDM-WDM combination on my PC-TV). I was also able to run the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card in standby mode recording a TV channel in the standby mode (in background mode so to speak) while the ATI TV Wonder card and the WinTV-GO card had two open windows on the screen. Or the ATI TV Wonder card could be in full screen mode and the WinTV-GO card in the PIP window while the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card was in standby doing nothing or recording in background with no problems. In the three-card combination, I had to turn on the WinTV last AFTER turning on the ATI TV Wonder and the Creative Video Digital VCR cards. You may have to click through some error messages if you try to have all three TVs in three open windows on at the same time on the screen (click through the error messages to bypass them). But you shouldn't get any error messages if the Creative Video Digital VCR card is in standby mode doing nothing or recording in background. I have no idea what would happen if I were to ever have four or more cards in the PC-TV. Your actual results may vary if you choose to mix-and-match TV Tuner cards.
CONNECTING SOUND FOR MULTIPLE
TV TUNER CARDS ON THE PC-TV
Note on connecting sound for two TV cards at the same time and if you want to record: For the audio sound, you will have to plug the sound for each card into different sound inputs if you want to record one show while watching another show at the same time -- if you plug the sound into the same input then you may end up recording sound from both TVs at the same time. So, if you are connecting the sound, you could try pluging the sound from one TV Tuner card into the sound LINE-IN jack and the sound from the other card into the MICrophone jack. For what I have, I first have the sound for the WinTV-GO card plugged into the sound LINE-IN jack (that's the only way you can do it with the WinTV-GO card and with many other TV cards). And second I have the sound for the ATI TV Wonder card using an internal connection (like the one you use to connect the CD sound) going from the TV card to an AUXillary (AUX) sound input for the built-in sound card inside the PC on the motherboard. The built-in sound on my PC's motherboard has three internal sound inputs with one for the CD, another one for a voice-modem (or that could be used for another CD or for a DVD), and yet a third input for a TV card or for another device that has sound (or that could be used for yet another CD). Many motherboards with a built-in sound card (the chips and circuits are built into the motherboard) will have at least two connection inputs. If you have only one internal input connection for the CD drive, you can try doing a daisy-chain piggy-back connection where the sound from the CD drive connects to the TV card and then the TV card connects to the internal conneciton input on the sound card if you have the right connections on the TV card (you can do this with the aforementioned ATI card). If you DON'T plan on recording one show with one TV card while watching another show on the other TV card, then you can plug the sound for both TV cards into the same sound input such as plugging both into the sound LINE-IN jack using a dual stereo jack adapter. But if you ever do record while the sound from both cards are plugged into the same sound input, then you will have turn off the other TV you are not recording with (you could try turning off the sound on the other TV card but you may possibly end up turning off the sound for both). As for the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card, there is not too much to worry about since the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card doesn't require any separate wire / cable to connect the TV card to the sound card -- and there shouldn't be any sound conflict problem with the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card while also watching TV with another TV card since the TV sound from the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card is being processed as a separate WAVE sound. Again, your results may vary if you choose to mix-and-match TV Tuner cards and you will have to experiment. (Of course, if you only choose to have only ONE card, then you won't have to worry about all this simultaneous mixing-and-matching of cards).
One more note on if you want to mute the sound for the recording TV while watching another show on the other TV card: For cards that where you have to connect the sound, you may possibly find that you shouldn't mute the sound or turn down the sound on the recording show using the volume control on the recording TV card's software -- otherwise you may possibly end up not recording the sound for the recording show. Again, you will have to experiment with your different sound controls. For instance, you may have to instead mute the sound using the Windows Volume Control -- you may have a little volume control speaker icon by the time on your windows taskbar. Double click the speaker icon and mute the LINE-IN, or the MIC, or the AUX, or whichever is the windows control for the sound for the recording TV window. If you have problems recording the sound, be sure to check the recording side of the windows volume controls (click Options | Properties etc.). I've found that this muting sound issue does not matter with the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card -- so go ahead and try muting the sound for that card using the mute button on the remote control for the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card when recording with that card while also watching live TV with another card (or you can keep both sounds on if you want to watch both by doing PIP or side-by-side TV windows). As always, you will have to experiment because your actual results may vary with whatever mix of TV cards you may try using with your PC-TV.5
REMOTE CONTROL AND CONNECTING
THE PC-TV TO OTHER DEVICES?
So, you too can have your own "Power PC-TV Box" or "Media Console PC" (others would say "Convergence PC," "Entertainment PC," "Media PC," and other similar terms) that you can use for watching television on your PC while also having immediate access to the more traditional desktop PC functions at the same time. As a PC, you could use your PC-TV in the more traditional desktop PC situation -- that is, a PC (with a built-in TV) on a "desktop" of some sort. And if you wanted to, you could use your PC-TV with a
wireless keyboard with mouse in a home theater entertainment environment such as in a cabinet connected to various audio-video entertainment consoles.
Even if your TV Tuner card came with a remote control,
you may want to get a wireless keyboard with mouse to
control your PC-TV media entertainment system. Ruel
learned from using internet set-top boxes that you will
want a wireless keyboard in addition to a handheld
remote control to manage your PC-TV system.
So, for those asking about specific connections, think of the PC-TV as something like a component in an audio-video component system where you would use the PC-TV as a central component or in combination with a stereo audio-video receiver component. Just go into anyone's home and the chances are that you may see a wall cabinet filled with various audio-video components which would include an audio cassette player, a CD player, a DVD player, a videocassette player, and other components which may all be connected to a central audio-video receiver component box which may output to speakers and a TV. A PC-TV would be like another important component in your audio-video entertainment system. You can click here for more information on connecting your PC-TV to different connections such as to your VCR, DVD player, your antenna, cable TV, digital TV set-top box, etc. You can have the PC-TV as a standalone unit for just PC functions with the TV function -- or you can use the PC-TV as a component in an audio-video system. And you could even expand from this into a home network system controlling not only your audio-video system but also other appliances in your home using X10-like controls where you are using your PC-TV as a gateway box for the home -- click here for X10 and home network automation solutions.
(Continued: More on components....)
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PC-TV TUNER CARDS
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YOUR VERY OWN PC-TV PVR
1 A related video recording question I've received asks whether there are any "private" websites that provide online recorded copies of broadcast TV. This sort of question is really asking about illegal online video-swapping activities. Folks, please don't send me that sort of email because I HAVE NONE OF THAT INFORMATION. Sorry.
2 There is a version 7.1 of the ATI software which can be downloaded at the ATI website. However, I personally prefer using the "older" 6.3 version -- I've also read many user complaints about the version 7.1 software. There are also a version 7.5 and a version 7.6 that are talked about in the newsgroups, but they haven't been officially tested and approved for distribution for all ATI products (apparently only officially approved for the ATI All-In-Wonder Radion 8500DV card). For the ATI TV Wonder card, I would suggest using the "older" 6.3 version unless you can get 7.1 to work satisfactory for your system and don't hassle with any of the other 7.x versions until a subsequent improved version is officially released by ATI. As always, your actual results may vary.
3 Windows XP also introduced the Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA) driver for digital TV Tuner cards and the Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) for better mixing and playback of video streams. You can click here for a video control overview for WinXP. Although you may not see much in these areas today, you can expect development in these areas in the future. For now and perhaps for some time to come, PC-TV users running WinXP will be more concerned about making sure their TV cards will at least run under WinXP in order to at least watch some sort of TV on their PCs.
4 You can CLICK HERE to find out how you can use Stardock's WindowBlinds and ObjectBar to make Windows 98SE look like Windows XP.
5 If you are asking if there is a TV Tuner card that has two tuners built into the card instead of having to buy two separate TV Tuner cards, well, there is a card that was recently released in Japan called the MTV3000W. You can click here and here and here for information in Japanese with pictures about the dual TV Tuner card. As far as I know, the MTV3000W is not available in the U.S. or in other countries yet. For another similar TV Tuner card that has dual TV capability but still requires that you buy an additional TV Tuner card for the secondary TV source, there is the ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro which when combined with an ATI TV Wonder card will give you a "MultView" capability which is the picture-in-picture (PIP) capability.
If you have followed the news page on this website, then you would know that you should keep your personal TV recordings of TV shows and movies OFF the internet or else you will incur the wrath of the Hollywood legal machine. News reports indicate that Hollywood will actually go after both the big and small unauthorized video-swapping websites. I would suggest that you should visit to the officially-sanctioned websites of the TV networks and the movie studios for official TV broadcast video on the net.
NOTICE: Ruel provides many free links seen on these pages. If you buy anything, your purchases would be from a linked third-party website(s). The links are for your convenience since everyone asks for suggestions about products. The products should come with their own guarantees and warranties. As for return policies, the various online vendors who are linked should have return policies -- look at the specific vendor information carefully and decide for yourself what card, device, or other product you may want to get.
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For Visiting
Ruel.Net
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