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Software for TV Tuners
Drem
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I recently picked up the Pinnacle HD Pro Stick for $80 on sale at Circuit City so I can use my laptop as my TV at college. It's a USB TV tuner that comes with Pinnacle TVCenter Pro software, an adapter for RCA and S-Video inputs, and an antenna to capture wireless signals. Software worked okay at first; took me some hurdles to get the software installed and the tuner recognized, but I got it sorted out eventually.
I have horrible reception with the antenna from my house, but I got a fuzzy picture of some soap opera on CBS and a little bit a Dr. Phil on some other channel. I played some PS2 games through the adapter, and it was okay. A little bit a lag, but it was bearable for the most part. Picture quality was fine, though a bit on a bad side (After recording video and applying de-interlacing though Virtual Dub Mod, it looked a hell of a lot better. Maybe TVCenter pro's de-interlacing is horrible or doesn't work at all?). Anyway, I recently got this weird problem where when I start playing a cable channel, the video will distort after a few seconds and tun completely black, giving me only audio. I'm not sure what's causing it and I'm still trying to fix it, but needless to say, it's frustrating to deal with.
So I'm curious as to if there are better programs out there for the same functions of watching TV and capturing screens and video, and if they'll work with this device. I'm new to this whole TV tuner business, so I'm not sure what's good and what's not, or how it all works, so please forgive my ignorance on this subject.
P.S. I've still got 12 more days to return it if needbe!
I have horrible reception with the antenna from my house, but I got a fuzzy picture of some soap opera on CBS and a little bit a Dr. Phil on some other channel. I played some PS2 games through the adapter, and it was okay. A little bit a lag, but it was bearable for the most part. Picture quality was fine, though a bit on a bad side (After recording video and applying de-interlacing though Virtual Dub Mod, it looked a hell of a lot better. Maybe TVCenter pro's de-interlacing is horrible or doesn't work at all?). Anyway, I recently got this weird problem where when I start playing a cable channel, the video will distort after a few seconds and tun completely black, giving me only audio. I'm not sure what's causing it and I'm still trying to fix it, but needless to say, it's frustrating to deal with.
So I'm curious as to if there are better programs out there for the same functions of watching TV and capturing screens and video, and if they'll work with this device. I'm new to this whole TV tuner business, so I'm not sure what's good and what's not, or how it all works, so please forgive my ignorance on this subject.
P.S. I've still got 12 more days to return it if needbe!
Drem on
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Try DScalar, I use that with my TV Tuner Card and it works great!
Firewire would be the preferred way to view it, but that card probably doesn't have firewire on it, since it's a USB one.
Not sure if it works with USB tuners.
Best program I have found for watching TV in win and free, but for some reason I don't get as good picture as I get from TVtime (the program I use when in Linux).
edit:beat
By the way, do you have any suggestions on the best de-interlacing filters and recording settings?
Edit: Oh, and does it always have to be ontop of all other windows?
I prefer Greedy high motion with detect Pulldown checked. Configures it to my liking for most video.
There is not much to change in the recording options, but recording is not what the developers focused on.
You can select Full frame, half frame or blended frame (only full frame will record the full 60 frames a second). And you select a video codec (Audio is always full uncompressed form). Xvid is a nice and free codec.
Menu bar > View > uncheck Always On Top (Window) to make it behave as a normal window. Uncheck other stuff you don't think you need in the View menu to make it look less cluttered.
And Aspect Ratio > Automatically use aspect data embedded is nice.