[mythtv-users] WinFast TV2000 XP Expert with MythTV
Phill Wiggin
wigginp at mantech-wva.com
Fri May 5 13:40:51 EDT 2006
John Welch wrote:
>>I still use this card but its not in a myth box (used at work in my windows
>>machine for the cable FM). I switched to a 250 and a 150mce a long time
>>ago. I found that with my older amd 2500 processor that the cpu usage was
>>just to high even for a backup in case of conflicts. The only thing I would
>>suggest doing is putting it in a stand alone front end. In the end i would
>>suggest just getting a cheap Hauppauge card like the 150. Its just not
>>worth that cpu overhead to use a non mpeg card if possible.
>>
>>
>>
>Thanks for sharing your experiences with the card. I have an AMD 2400
>in my BE system, so it doesn't sound like it would be worth it. Just
>thought it would be a cheap (free) way to get a backup tuner and a
>remote. I'll look at other options.
>
>
(The following observations are dim with age)
I used one of these for 6-8 months as a primary, and afterwards a
backup, tuner in my standalone BE. I had no problems running it with a
2500+ w/ 512M of RAM. But, the video you end up with is, MPEG4, IIRC.
It didn't make for putting shows on DVD, and I was annoyed by the
compression artifacts. I bought a PVR-250 and relegated the WinFast
TV2k to second-tuner duty and it worked out well, but the 250 had better
recorded quality (albeit larger file-size). Then, I replaced it with a
second PVR-250 and ended up (permanently) loaning it to a friend so he
could get a mythbox started for 'free'.
In short, if you only need a backup tuner, and aren't worried about
archiving the shows it records, it's a fine free method. But, if you
want to archive and/or have good quality, go with a hardware encoder card.
Just my $.03
--Phill W.
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list