# TV Tuner Card



## Nithin (Oct 23, 2003)

I recently purchased a mercury TV tuner card, but the software that comes along with it is not good enough for capturing. Can anyone suggest any other software.

I have so far tried Showshifter(was somewhat good but was too slow to start for my liking), PowerVCR(which did not start at all), Virtual Dub(which sometimes start but mostly gives a error that the device is already in use,even if it not in use while using WinXP), Snapstream PVS(average but did not like the interface which is web based)


Can any suggest a good software which is a mix of Showshifter and Snapstream.


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## badjag (Oct 24, 2003)

*ULEAD might be the one...*

Maybe you should try Ulead's Media Studio. I'm not sure of the exact product name, but several product reviews of Ulead's line have been carried in Digit's Bazaar section over the past 6 months.


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## Anonymous (Oct 24, 2003)

Mercury cards are very picky in third party softwares....

I tried the Ulead one long time back....the drivers supplied by mercury and the Ulead software somehow didn't jell well.. The software kept giving me lots of errors.

The Windows 2000 drivers for Mercury are pretty good, the capture software for 2k is also good.

98, and all other 9x flavours are pretty dumb when it comes to capturing videos.

i have had better results under 2k.


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## Nithin (Oct 25, 2003)

Thanks everyone, but I tried Ulead Media Studio and certainly agree with outpatient and it doesn't seem to run so nicely with my card.


			
				OutPatient said:
			
		

> Mercury cards are very picky in third party softwares....
> 
> I tried the Ulead one long time back....the drivers supplied by mercury and the Ulead software somehow didn't jell well.. The software kept giving me lots of errors.



Any other choices available??


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## Anonymous (Oct 25, 2003)

try Btv...its too not that stable...but i was able to manage it for sometime and then after a while i gave up. I am now using the tuner in w2kpro since that has no problem capturing pics with mercury tv capure s/w(downloaded updated drivers from Kobians website).

its demo btw.

*www.borgtech.org/btv/


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## pankaj (Oct 26, 2003)

no offence but who the hell recommended a mercury card to u ... my friend..

i bet the price diff is marginal..
so try a exchange with the dealer...  (hopefully he'll agree)

i have got a pinacle PCTV pro card... no probs as yet.. but one thing .. the soft thats bundled is sick.. cause whenever i try to use total recorder to record songs from mtv, channel v etc it says the device is in use although i have a sb card (duplex).. power vcr has no probs whatsoever..


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## Nithin (Oct 29, 2003)

*Three Cheers for Outpatient.*

Three Cheers for Outpatient. The suggestion of updating of the drivers from the Kobian Site really helped and it is working a little better in Windows XP now.

But I still am not happy with it and the dealer has disagreed to exchange it for a pinnacle one(Pankaj's suggestion. As of now I am sticking with using Showshifter which is really good as it captures directly to Divx format and also have the pausing feature with a lot more options(revind, forward,etc) and uses far less resources than Mercury software.

Any other software suggestions invited.


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## kapeed1986 (May 10, 2005)

*Compro*

I think Compro VideoMate PVR provides Best Pic Quality (DigitMay 05 Test)
For PVR Software , try winDVR or BeyondTV, showshifter or there is even a Winamp TV plugin


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## gxsaurav (May 10, 2005)

Hmm, i got a Pinnacle PCTV Stereo, & have used a lot of PVR softwares, for a compleate MCE 2005 like interface use Media Portal, for simply watching & recording nothing beats BeyondTV it rocks


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## Keith Sebastian (May 10, 2005)

Nithin said:
			
		

> I recently purchased a mercury TV tuner card, but the software that comes along with it is not good enough for capturing. Can anyone suggest any other software.
> 
> I have so far tried Showshifter(was somewhat good but was too slow to start for my liking), PowerVCR(which did not start at all), Virtual Dub(which sometimes start but mostly gives a error that the device is already in use,even if it not in use while using WinXP), Snapstream PVS(average but did not like the interface which is web based)
> 
> ...



Virtual VCR is free and gives you full control. Initial learning curve may be a bit steep.

I suggest you get the Pinnacle card and download and install Mediaportal (free and excellent PVR software) for viewing, and scheduling captures.

*mediaportal.sourceforge.net/

More info on TV Cards and software - 
*www.tv-cards.com/

Keith


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## quad master (May 10, 2005)

Compro VideoMate PVR/FM is the card to get 
The best one of my friend has it excellent video quality capturing

For Video capturing use [in Divx+Mp3]
Chris TV
iuVCR

Hey bro if you are getting a replacement just get the compro pvr/fm


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## Keith Sebastian (May 10, 2005)

Compro's are cheap and great for their price, better than Leadtek Winfast TV  Expert. If you're looking for quality hardware with on chip hardware mpeg encoding, look at cards by Pinnacle and Hauppage.

And just give *mediaportal.sourceforge.net/ a try. I bet you'll be impressed.


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## cvvikram (May 13, 2005)

You should have tried with pinnacle one which is just 1000 bucks ahead of it ...........


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## Polter (Dec 18, 2005)

i bought snazio...pretty great


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## allmighty (Dec 18, 2005)

when it comes to viewing tv nothing beats "dscaler" hard to configure but when it comes to picture quality its awsome and far better then anything else.only for pro if u want to try it then *www.cyberia.in/Forums/viewtopic/t=44.html 
for adcom card chose lifeview card in setup card menu (in 3 step)

has any one tried "chris tv" and "media portal"???


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## birbal (Dec 29, 2005)

I have tried many program & found kastor TV is the best to view TV. *www.kastortv.org/

FREE, FAST, LESS CPU Consumption, BEST QUALITY.


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## Vyasram (Dec 31, 2005)

I own a pixelview playtv pro 2    

THe software bundled (HT TVR 1.5) suxxxxxxx
Whenever i try to scan and store channels , it scans 90% of the channels , but stores only 20 channels

I got irritated and bought ht tvr 2, same problem those honestech guys haven't even given an update to solve this


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