Warm: Leadtek TV2000XP TV/FM tuner card @ newegg

[shlevy1]

I bought a TVView99 from pricewatch, and even though it's a no name card, it works pretty well, especially with my digital camera. I'm running XP, and the only error I'm getting is "PCI BIOS Not found." Normally, I'd be pretty worried about it, but it quickly closes the prompt window and executes the program just fine. And I only spent 29.99 for it. So if you don't want to spend 600, consider this an alternative.

 

[spartacuskzm]

This is just great - I came over to Hot Deals looking for a Tuner card on the off chance I might find one, and here is one w/ TV, a remote and FM - what a bonus - all on the first page! Like I've heard said here before - this place is saving me into bankruptcy!

 

[Chudilo]

Pinnacle have just released new drivers. Not officially yet, but they supposedly work for a lot of PPL.

But don't get me wrong if you don't already own one of pinnacle's cards, avoid them like the plague.

 

[alyosha]

I got Winfast card from newegg.com and been using it for a week - under w2k, athlon 1.5. I use an older Diamond MM MX-300 sound card and there is definitely a conflict of capture and sound card. Anyway - tuner card is pretty nice, software is easy to use and offers a lot of freedom in choosing the caprute settings - it does mpeg1 and mpeg2 real time capture with resolutions from 320:240, to 720:560- so potentially good for anything from VCD to XSVCD. It does sound capture in mpeg1 layer 2 (VCD and SVCD) and also in mp3 and other codecs (I think - didn't check). However - there are some strange things involved - first consider this - it doesn't need a video passthrough cable to show the captured stuff on screen - that is normal- however it uses a audio passthrough from tuner card to sound card (I didn't even thought that was necessary) but without that cable - the sound is not being captured and played- that was a surprise. However with the cable the sound quality is not that great - there is substantial hissing even at low volumes, not terrible- but I hear it - it is less clean that sound caputerd by my old, trusty DVC Dazzle I or Dazzle II which I used. And sometimes - when it finished recording - it crashes the sound driver- so that my audio has to be reinstalled - really annoying, granted I use MX-300 is pretty old, uses beta Aureal win2k drivers- anyway - they were working well for everything else. So thats my first impression - sorry - no XP testing.

 

[Sandor]

Hopefully my card will be in within the next couple of days, so I will post a review next week sometime (I'm using Xp)

alyosha- I'm not sure if this will help, but I read a few threads on the web that had the same problem with audio. One person solved it by putting the audio pass through into the "line-in" rather than the "microphone". I'm not sure how you set it up or what you have tried, but I figured I would throw it out there.

 

[tydas]

Can anyone comment on how the WinTV-PVR by Hauppauge compares to this leadtek? The Hauppauge seems to have built-in hardware MPEG encoder but i have no idea if thats a real plus or not?.,?

 

[tydas]

ANYONE??? I really want to buy this card but my primary use will be video capture from an anlalog vid camera...If this card does compare to the WinTV-PVR by Hauppauge then it is really a hot deal since the hauppauge card is $250!!!!!

 

[fengpc]

I have not used WinTV-PVR by Hauppauge but if you were to ask me about the quality of VCR conversion (tape to MPEG I/II) thru this card, I will say it's pretty good except one thing, like some other posters had mentioned, the sound quality through Line-in is not ideal so it needs a little tweak (lower the source volume...)

 

[Ziptar]

<< Can anyone comment on how the WinTV-PVR by Hauppauge compares to this leadtek? The Hauppauge seems to have built-in hardware MPEG encoder but i have no idea if thats a real plus or not?.,? >>



I have the WinTV-PVR from Hauppauge, I don't have this card though. Based on the review posted here earlier, the Screen Shots of the TV Look awsome, as good if not better than the WinTV-PVR. here is a Wintv-PVR Sample Capture from HopHog's site.

I Like the WinTV-PVR, It works very well under XP and the captures turn out very good. I did turn on advanced features and tweak it a bit though. I have captured and burned about 8 hours so far and have yet to loose audio Synch, or Drop Frames. (However I have mine running in a Dual Duron system and dump the MPEG capture directly to a 120GB IDE RAID0 array dedicated to nothing but video capture (no OS or Paging file.)

If your Goal is to just watch TV on your PC then get the Leadtek card, There is no reason to waste your money on something more expensive.

However if You have Video Tapes (especially if you have many.) that you want to Capture and then encode onto VCD or DVD than get the WinTV-PVR. The builtin Hardware MPEG encoder will save you MANY HOURS (and Disk Space) encoding after you capture. With the WinTV-PVR I can capture Directly to MPEG and the Burn Directly to VCD using Nero.

 

[braxthnc]

my hauppauge 401 card uses the pass-thru cable to the line-in on my sound card. it works fine, no hissing or anything. i wanted to hook up my ps2 to the line in two, i had only one port, so i used the microphone in. i had to lower the volume to just barely over the absolute minimum and althought it's not as clear as the line in, it still works good. also..hauppauge drivers aren't that great..i used it under xp and win2k and couldnt get the video-in to work, just distorted or no images would show up. then after a ghost restore of winxp the video-in now works..dont know what i did differently though.

 

[Keen314]

<< however it uses a audio passthrough from tuner card to sound card (I didn't even thought that was necessary) but without that cable - the sound is not being captured and played- that was a surprise. However with the cable the sound quality is not that great - there is substantial hissing even at low volumes, not terrible- but I hear it - it is less clean that sound caputerd by my old, trusty DVC Dazzle I or Dazzle II which I used. >>

That's normal. My TV Wonder works the same way.

 

[LarryJoe]

I have the AverMedia TV Studio and after closely examining the Leadtek TV2000XP (card, cables, remote, etc.) and the specs, I would bet that this is a rebadged Avermedia TV Studio.

 

[jasonroehm]

Does anyone know if this card includes the FM antenna that is shown in some of the product materials on Leadtek's web site? I wasn't able to find any place where it said whether it definitively came with it or not.

 

[NxFlash]

jasonroehm, yes, definitely comes with antenna. Just got the tuner from newegg
and I am impressed with the accessories and the way leadtek put this together. Just
building new box so will be a bit before I can give this card a trial run. The manual
is copyright version b March, 2002 so very current.

PS could be wrong, but I think the price just came down another dollar at newegg...

 

[jasonroehm]

Excellent. This is bad, I'm becoming increasingly prone to these hot deals. How do you file chapter 11?

 

[Flashram]

Is this card stereo or not? I don't really see anything that says it is. I'm probably just overlooking it...

 

[NxFlash]

Flashram99, although they don't come right out and say it I believe, yes,
this card is stereo. The manual states the inputs and outputs are "stereo",
but it is a single prong (not two, you know "left", "right"). The manual highlights
the FM reception as "stereo", the TV gui has a "stereo" marker, and the
remote control has a button to switch between "SAP", "Stereo" and
"Mono".

Someone more "geeky" will probably rip me a new one for not being
more knowledgeable but, hey, just trying to be helpful. <grin>

 

[mcdull]

Anyone knows any good and cheap external, e.g. USB, TV tuner?
I prefer it because I want to use it in 2 computers and switch between them easier.
Anyone knows any issue in video capture thru the USB TV tuner using MPEG2, will it be limited by the USB bandwidth?

 

[necromancyr]

All I can say is after getting the PCTV (and the new drivers are worse then the last set - DON'T update to them unless you want more headaches) is that anything that works with VDub/Avi_IO and Dscaler is worth ~50$. Any higher then that and it damn well better have a built in VCR capability and ReplayTV type stuff.

Sorry, I'm a Jaded pinnacle person and Leadtek has not done the best job with their personalized drivers (GF2Pro that I have - the utility for it - comes to mind. Refused to acknowledge it didn't work, then finally released an update a few months later).

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

Does it have one of the Brooktree (now Conexant) chips - including bt848/878/879 - on it and which one? Anyone who has one please look.
Thanks..

Also, does anyone know or have tried this with SnapStream software?

 

[DorkBoy]

Thanks for post

 

[NxFlash]

GetInMyFatBelly,
yes, this has a Conexant chip:

(On Chip):
Conexant
Fusion 878A
25878-13
E185909.1
0205 Taiwan

I bought this card with the hopes also of using
it on Snapstream but cannot find definitive answer.
(I found a sample clip using what I believe is this
card by doing a forum search of "Leadtek" at vcdhelp.com).

Like you, GetInMyFatBelly, hoping someone will
weigh in on this card's use with snapstream. Will
be a while before I have the rest of the components
for my new system and my current system PII-233
doesn't meet minimum requirements. (Darnit, Newegg,
how can you be out of stock on the motherboard I
want?!)

Anyone using this card with Snapstream?

BTW, Snapstream seems way cool. Watched the clip
from the NY XP rollout with Regis Philbin and the snapstream
used to show his "Millionaire" show recorded and able
to be put on a PDA....but going to the Snapstream forum it
is obvious doing this TV/Show recording is, for now, for
serious hobbyists and not for the faint of heart.

All the same, it looks like great fun and worth the pursuit!

 

[Bluefront]

I got my Leadtek installed ok and it works pretty well except for a few things. I'm using it on a computer with a K62-533, 512 ram. The video and audio never sync, either through a soundcard, or directly to the speakers. Live video lags about .5 sec behind the audio. Also I cannot capture any video. If I try the computer crashes after a few seconds. This is running XP. I think I exceed the minimum specs. Any ideas?

 

[uwannawhat]

<< Anyone knows any good and cheap external, e.g. USB, TV tuner?
I prefer it because I want to use it in 2 computers and switch between them easier.
Anyone knows any issue in video capture thru the USB TV tuner using MPEG2, will it be limited by the USB bandwidth? >>



Buy.com has the USB TV Tuner/Video Capture for around $70.

 

[Stardog]

Wow, was getting ready to go to bed and thought I'd check here for any deals on a TV capture card after fighting with my suck HopHog USB card and Win2k all evening.

Newegg has it for $66 now with $6.95 Fed Ex express saver shipping. Cool beans deal for $73

Thanks guys!