Pinnacle Bungee DVD Qual PVR $99NR@CompUSA B&M

[eusebio]

I just noticed in the shelves of my local CompUSA that the Pinnacle Bungee was at $99.99 (shelf price, no rebates, it's not even in the weekly ad), down from $199.99 MSRP (lowest on pricewatch and pricegrabber is over $150)
This is an external (USB) video recorder that will do MPEG @DVD/SVCD/VCD quality captures
I just got one, with corporate discount to make it sweeter

 

[vladgur]

Your money would be better spent on ATI AIW Radeon 7500 which comes with a Remote thats worth $50 alone



Bungee PVR review

 

[eusebio]

I had an ATI AIW (the original) and told myself I wouldn't get another ATI AIW. The drivers were simply awful.
An external box gives you a choice of video card (e.g., Nvidia).
AIWs depend significantly on the CPU for MPEG compression and will limit your capture options depending on your machine.

Is SCSI better than IDE? Depends on what you want to use it for. Is an AIW better than a bungee? Same answer.

 

[vladgur]

dewd, youre comparing cpu usage for AIW mpeg capture with cpu usage for external USB video device. the USB bandwidth is much worse than AGP bandwidth and more cpu intensive.
Ati drivers have drastically improved since their early radeon days. Their catalyst drivers are fast and stable(and im using them with my AIW pci on win2k).

your SCSI/IDE analogy doesnt work. SCSI drives are generally 3-5 times more expensive than ide drives, while AIW radeon 7500 is $30 more, includes video-in-video-out, remote, video card itself. If SCSI drives were only 30% more expensive (as opposed to 300%-500%)than IDE drives, I would use them in my desktop without a doubt

 

[vladgur]

and again, Im not trying to advertise AIW here, but if you have certain needs that allow for spending $99 on such a bad product as Pinnacle Bungee, you might as well get a better product for only $30 more(Ive seen them to go for even less)

 

[jeepers94]

And what if you have a nice video card,like my ti4600,are you going to put that crappy AIW card in?
I have used the Bungee,and the AIW.The Bungee is a decent capture unit.I bought the Canopus
DV100,since I have firewire.It makes the AIW look sick.As for the remote,I never used it with the
AIW,it is a piece of crap.

 

[OnyxBlackheart]

Ok, then the question of the day is:

If you have one of the early shuttle barebones that has onboard video (gag), a single pci slot (not AGP), and USB/Firewire built in. What do you want to use to make it a good PVR box?

 

[Telstar]

From things I read about both the Radeon and Bungee video capture capabilities there seems to be audio/video syncing problems associated with both of these alternatives. Can anyone offer any experience relative to the audio/video syncing problems with the Radeon and Bungee cards? I have considered the Bungee due to its multiple resolution capture capabilities but I am concerned about the audio/video sync issue.

 

[vladgur]

Originally posted by: OnyxBlackheart
Ok, then the question of the day is:

If you have one of the early shuttle barebones that has onboard video (gag), a single pci slot (not AGP), and USB/Firewire built in. What do you want to use to make it a good PVR box?

Your only choice used to be AIW Radeon PCI. They dont make them any more and they go for $150 on ebay.
However, since you already have a tv-out on that box, all you need is a good capture card, something thats supported by showshifter for example
you can find good capture cards for anywhere from $40 to $100.

Try Creative Labs Digital VCR at Compusa for $50 after rebate. Comes with a remote

 

[doneedlove]

is this card any good?? i dont' want the risk of openning up and try it the return for the 15% restocking fees.. ahaha

Doneedlove

 

[necromancyr]

I would be wary of anything Pinnacle. I know their higher end equipment is good, but after the problems/issues with my PCTV Pro I will NEVER buy from them again. The company just doesn't care enough about its customers.


One other thing, I just thought of...unless this is on USB2.0, is there even enough bandwidth to DO DVD quality captures? I can't remember DVD bandwidth right off the top of my head, but I think it might be a bit higher then is possible - esp. if your using any other USB devices.

 

[unsped]

dvd usually hums around 7mbps, peaking to 11/12

so ya dvd quality would be a bit tough, however it has the ability to look damn close.

 

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: jeepers94
And what if you have a nice video card,like my ti4600,are you going to put that crappy AIW card in?
I have used the Bungee,and the AIW.The Bungee is a decent capture unit.I bought the Canopus
DV100,since I have firewire.It makes the AIW look sick.As for the remote,I never used it with the
AIW,it is a piece of crap.

Yes but the AIW 9700 will be here any day now...*drool*
Heh word is that they're going to equip the 9700's with DDRII in an attempt to compete better against NV30...hopefully the AIW9700 will be out soon though heh

And ATI drivers HAVE improved VERY VERY much. I sold my Radeon on ebay for really cheap though but at least the buyer was happy happy =P I loved that card but it just couldn't compare against a Ti4200...*sigh* but I'm counting up the pennies for a 9500...which is out by the way =P

 

[SolderSucker]

I have 3 PCTV pro cards in different machines and they work fine. Then again, I don't use any of Pinnacles software. I use all 3rd party software.

 

[eusebio]

Back in stock, same good price.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it can be easily hacked to capture PAL too (details at the forums at Pinnacle)

By the way, this week the Pinnacle PCTV is also on sale however the PCTV depends on your CPU for the compression, big difference. The AIW's mostly do their compression on the CPU. The 9700 has some compression assistance (read Anandtech's own review of the 9700) but still has over 40% CPU utilization on a 2.5G P4 (which is ok if you do have a 2.5G P4 but if you have something slower...)

 

[eusebio]

Regarding the A/V sync question: When watching live tv I do notice it is out of sync. Recorded and Delayed materials are OK (no sync problem)