What i am trying to do is connect my Virgin Media cable box (UK) to my Pc so i can capture stuff in an ideal world either an internal capture card or an external one will do but as i have no working knowledge of these things i am in the dark. i do not want to burst the bank in case it does not work out.I am led to believe that these capture cards can also encode source to other formats ie (Xvid,X264)but that is an option not a great selling point.
i hope this makes sence
once again i thank you for your help
running vista Home premium
PC Specs
Processor - Intel(R)Pentium(R)4CPU 3.20GHz
System : Windows Vista SP2
Memory : 1GB
Video card : 256MB Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
There are 2 type of tuner cards. software encoders(less expensive) and hardware encoders(more expensive).
If you just want to watch TV on your computer and occasionally record a movie, the software encoders will work good. These cards use your cpu to record the video, and will slowdown your computer when it's recording.
If you want to mainly use your computer as a PVR (video recorder) then the hardware encoder tuners will work better. These encode the video on the tuner card and won't slowdown your computer. Also you can install multiple "hardware encoder" tuner cards with each recording seperately at the same time.
All tuner cards record in mpeg1/mpeg2, there are some that can record in realtime divx but are more expensive.
I use the PVR150 on my mediapc (I have 4 of them installed), a similar card would be the hvr1600.
What jony said is very true for 6 years ago, but modern TV tuners (the kind designed for Digital TV and HDTV) don't need encoders because the signal is already encoded. All these cards do is to capture the signal, and to decrypt it if necessary. If you only want to record at SD resolutions, then something like the HVR1600 would be just fine (although overkill, as you are paying more for a ATSC tuner that you will not use).
If you want to tune digital and/or HD cable, you will need a cablecard ready tuner. ATI makes the only ones I have seen for sale by themselves, and they come in an internal and an external version. Both versions are USB...one version is just designed to fit inside the case, while the other version sits next to the case. I'm posting an amazon link, you can use google to find a store that has them, or buy the used one from Amazon. Before you buy, confirm with your cable company that they offer cablecards...they are required to by law here in the states, but I don't know about abroad.
