Creative Labs Digital VCR TV Tuner $50 AR

[Pete888]

Here's the link to the tv tuner - http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?product=222&category=5&maincategory=5

It has features like mpeg-2 recording and pausing live tv.

It's $100 at Compusa with a $50 mail-in rebate.

 

[Hgabriel]

Repost.

Original deal

 

[robsdeals]

Hgabriel, your link brings you to the subscriber section. Nice deal.

 

[huesmann]

LOL!

 

[RogerL]

Does anyone know how this tv tuner compares to the Leadtek tv tuner card Newegg sells for $66 that someone posted in another thread

 

This card looks nice. Not bad for fiddy bucks.

 

[AnMig]

dam this is hot!!!!!
its got a hardware decoder (mpeg2)
meaning you can convert your camcorder or vhs tapes to mpeg2 and then burn into a cdr , no more encoding for 12 hours for two hours worth of video.


Problem is ITS SOLD OUT

nice post though

 

[lnaComputer]

This looks great! It is still available in the Chicago are. Are there cables that analog camcorders without composite can use with this this card. My Sharp camcorder only has two simple ports one for audio and one for video not an S port.

 

[McCarthy]

I was interested, but couldn't find a single decent review. The only thing I did find was someone saying that when you record to mpeg2 it's some proprietory Creative Labs codec, which didn't make much sense, but whatever. Also the audio is 32khz, not 44 or 48. Still easy enough to grab via regular soundcard.

In the end I passed, even if it were back in stock I think I'd have to again.

--Mc

 

[puppyfriend]

Go to www.avsforum.com. There was a lot of good discussion about it a few months back when it first came out.

David

 

[lnaComputer]

I just picked it up this afternoon. Not installed yet. Seems to come with the cable I need. Here is the link to avs forum

 

[Morpheux]

Anyone have a link to the rebate? I was just there and didn't see one.

NM - http://www.cusarebates.com/coupons/0220032.pdf

 

[lnaComputer]

linkified

 

[Bad Dude]

So how is this card just as a TV Tuner? I already have the Radeon 64DDR VIVO for capture. Any more comments? How is this card compare to the IOMagic card?
Thanks.

 

[Sachmho]

hey, i got this card this past weekend... installed it, worked fine; first tv card that ever worked for me... i tried to update teh software, and it simply didn't play dat. Screwed around a few more days to make it work, and i have it going again... overall, i'm content with it for 50 bucks...

 

[mralex]

Could anyone tell me that if I can use the built-in encoder to encode files stored in my hard drive? Also, does it work under XP? Thanks.

 

[Bad Dude]

So is there a card that has stereo and good drivers software for Windows XP? Anyone card that does not require so much time to get it to work?
Thanks.

 

[huesmann]

Got this card. It worked for me right out of the box. The exported mpeg-2 files are a little wonky, but useable. Apparently the audio is 32khz though.

 

[tedinde1]

I've had this card for 4 months now works great, doesnt drop any frames. barely uses the cpu., You can be recording and rewind ff whatever pause and it will keep recording and not skip a beat. Blows a TIVO away. the remote works great. it can record all the way up to 6mbits second max. and down to a terrible picture if you want also.

I cant believe it's not been in the stores sooner. The hell with an all in wonder ati, and software encoding. THis card rules. only bad thing is you cannot use it to convert what you already have to mpeg 2. The interface is downright simple. The remote is too, No manual needed.

 

[puppyfriend]

For those still pondering, here's my humble pico review.

Just for reference I'll be comparing it to my BT848/PowerVCR combo setup which is what I've been using. I'm running XP.

Installation was not a breezy as other people have had. I had to try 3 different slots before the card would work. No biggie. My first impression was "Yuck!!! I'm taking it back." Compared to watching live TV on PowerVCR it's blurry. This is understandable though since it encodes everything and "live" TV on the Digital VCR is just it decoding the stream back. But I don't watch live TV with these setups, I use a TV for that. What I use them for is to record shows for later playback. Here the Digital VCR shines. I like that fact that when you change your encoding setup, the "live" TV reflects the quality. This is better than the record a little and then play it back under PowerVCR. Encoding at the same bit rate., about 1.9 GB for an hour of programming. The Digital VCR looks much better. To be honest both are blurry compared to real TV. But the Digital VCR clearly has less artifacts. The image is much less grainy. At first I had a little trouble with playback quality on the Digital VCR. The image had combing artifacts and was jerky. It turns out that my little 900MHZ Athlon just didn't have enough horsepower for it. I cranked down playback quality from "best" to "fastest". That did the trick. So it probably would look even better if I had a better CPU in my HTPC. That brings up an issue. One of the big selling points of this card is that it's hardware and hence should offload your CPU. It does that. But if you have the VCR app running and are watching anything, your CPU usage will spike. So if your thinking about putting this in a Celeron 450, think again.

Hands down the interface is much better for use as a TV recorder. The PowerVCR interface really requires a desktop and a mouse. The Digital VCR interface works great for kicking back and watching TV. To me it's much more of a "consumer" grade interface. Love the remote. I may have to put away my wireless keyboard.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm capping on PowerVCR. I think it's a great program. In fact I was hoping to keep both my BT848 card/PowerVCR combo and the Digital VCR on the same machine so I could use them at the same time. But for some reason the BT848 card makes my machine lock up after about a minute of having Digital VCR open. So it's yanked.

The one thing that sucks about Digital VCR is that it preallocates the disk space that it uses for storage. They probably did this to make implementing time shifting easier. But if ShowShifter can do it without preallocating, why can't Digital VCR?

All in all though, it's a keeper.

David

 

[Bad Dude]

So, is this card thumbs up or down?

 

[puppyfriend]

Here's my summary of my review:

Thumbs up.

David

 

[BillyBatson]

sold out at my compusa

 

[Peter007]

IT IS NOT WORTH IT!

I just bought it yesterday (look around in 3 CompUSA locally before I got one)

My installation was a Nightmare, nothing work! I installed it one 2 machine: (1) WinXP and (2) WinME both are Celeron 700 with Abit BX6-rev2 and BH6 with 192mb ram.
All I see was BLANK! screen on the TV-Tuner, after much adjustment and tweaking still couldn't get the Tv-Tuner to come on. The channel programming is really really SLOW!
It took 15minutes just to scan all my cable channels and still no image shows up.

The good news is the Remote Works like wonders, in fact, the remote function is faster and more response than the mouse input? I decide this isn't worth the $99 with $50 rebate (that I'll probably never see).

Well I return it TODAY, and CompUSA had the nerve to CHARGE me 15% Restocking Fee! on a product that never work.

I'm sure this PVR may work for some people, and judging by the response here, some people really really love it.
However, I just want to WARN Everybody that there is a 15% restocking FEE!

So make sure You will really love it or you will eat $15

Does anyone have any good experience with I/O Magic PVR with Power VCR II???
Also I heard that here is a PowerVCR III out there, any good?

 

[huesmann]

Peter, you might need to use a different PCI slot or something. Mine worked right on the first try; maybe I got lucky and picked a good slot to start with. Also, it's possible that the card doesn't like to share IRQs or something, dunno. Check on that, too.