PCTV

1.Do you use PCTV(watch TV on PC)?
2.Do you like it or not like it? Why?
3.How much do you like it (rate on scale 1-100 1=don't like it, 100=love it)?

I use it, and I really like it.

Yep, use it and like it too. Problem is that I need a faster machine. Really want to use some of the bigger recording formats, but I'll need something around 1GHz (currently 733MHz.)

I use and like it because you can put a little TV screen in the corner while doing other computer tasks (can also watch more then one football game at a time). I also use it to record TV shows occassionally. It's like a cheap and simplified TIVO system or whatever those digital VCRs are called these days. The card I use is a ATI TV wonder which was under a hundred dollars when I purchased it but I forgot the exact price.

Just don't forget the high resolution of your PC screen. By the way I use an old PC(200MHz Pentium Pro), to view it. The trick of saving a show to disk is not hard for a Pentium Pro, as digital TV is already compressed. Decompressing is hard for Pentium Pro, but easy for a good video card. And yes, decompressing and recompressing requires a fast CPU. But you should be happy enough to save it in it's native compression.

Dear geepondy,
What software did you use to get more than one football game at a time?
I can only get one show at a time.

Originally posted by star882:
Dear geepondy,
What software did you use to get more than one football game at a time?
I can only get one show at a time.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">To be honest, I only have the video in from the vcr hooked up so I watch one on the PC and the other on the real TV next to the computer. However I believe if you do have an antenna, cable input, you can watch 16 screens at once with the ATI software. Perhaps someone else can verify this.

I think both of you guys like to watch PCTV as you are waiting for a response on this site(Americans liking TV+high resolution+not liking to wait on candle power forums=using PCTV when using candle power forums).

...if you do have an antenna, cable input, you can watch 16 screens at once with the ATI software. Perhaps someone else can verify this.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Nope. At least not with my ATI Radeon 7500 AIW anyway.

I think the "16 screens at once" is referring to the channel scanning feature, however, only one screen (window) is active at a time.

Ron

I like it (when it´s working). It really fits my needs. Anyone using hauppauge wintv? Lately I´ve had problems with the sound. Sometimes I hear the sounds and sometimes not. It´s really frustrating to never know when it´s going to work. I have checked the cables and re-installed the software but it seems to have it´s own mind.

"I like it (when it´s working). It really fits my needs. Anyone using hauppauge wintv? Lately I´ve had problems with the sound. Sometimes I hear the sounds and sometimes not. It´s really frustrating to never know when it´s going to work. I have checked the cables and re-installed the software but it seems to have it´s own mind."
Update the drivers.
Are you sure it is not a sound card bug?
""...if you do have an antenna, cable input, you can watch 16 screens at once with the ATI software. Perhaps someone else can verify this."
Nope. At least not with my ATI Radeon 7500 AIW anyway.

I think the "16 screens at once" is referring to the channel scanning feature, however, only one screen (window) is active at a time."

It is at least possible to view many channels in theory.
However, you will need the right software, a fast CPU or video card, and lots of video memory.
My 4MB video card barely bulges the load with just one channel, so I can't view 2 channels.
However, it probably is relying on the system memory to work, so I get less than best results(picture breaking into sets of lines under fast movement).
Perhaps I should try viewing several channels on my next computer(I will post the results when I get it done).
You can try opening several instances of the program, but the system will run out of resources(RAM,CPU,VRAM) soon.

I now tried to install a TV card in my old computer with USB speakers, and got no TV sound.
I can play an audio CD just fine.
Why ATI TV wonder cannot output to USB speakers?