people looking for tvtuners or winfast owners must read!!

[vivekbabbudelhi]

leadtek WinFast TV2000XP Global tv tuner now supports windows vista 32bit "media centre" i.e now it works in vista with vista "MCE" !!

actually WinFast TV2000 XP Global Media Center Edition was released to work with vista MCE but since both models have same tvtuner card so now both models support vista "MCE" with these drivers..

i have tried these drivers yesterday only, vista MCE was able to detect tv tuner with fm support, as well as EPG can also be sourced but since this is first release of drivers they are buggy....but be assured it would be rectified with future release!!

cheers
VIVEK

 

[Choto Cheeta]

thnx for the news

 

[fun2sh]

hey can any1 suggest a tvtunes card for laptop. my Lappy has expresscard/54 support. i need a good tvtune card with good FM.
is it possible to use fm of mobile on Lappy.

 

[Choto Cheeta]

There are PCMCIA solutions, also Pinnacle offers USB solution for Notebook segment too,

*www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/.../PCTV+Analog+PVR+(cable_antenna)/PCTV+Pro+USB

 

[vivekbabbudelhi]

Indeed it’s a very positive development that finally some moron developers have acknowledged the fact that in this world of C2D & X2 hardware mpeg2 encoders are no more mandatory to work with vista MCE….


Here is my short experience with that tvtuner & vista MCE
I spent a hell of a time yesterday in making that tuner work with vista MCE & was finally able to do that!!!


Setup: 3000+ 939 Venice on a Gbt. 6150/430 mobo with a GB of kings. Dual channel DDR 400, SB audigy2 hooked to altec lansing MX5021 & system connected to a 22” DELL E228WFP running at 1680x1050 and of course tvtuner winfast tv2000 xp global…...with vista ultimate 32bit


After installing drivers vista MCE detected this tuner & as well as added function for fm radio.


Second thing was to scan for cable tv services. Mce detected most channels but still they were less than what winfast pvr could do!!
Now coming over to tv usage….. since this TV tuner does mpeg encoding in software so a little higher cpu usage was expected but instead MCE was whipping my humble cpu’s a$$ …a shocking 72-85% cpu utilization with aero turned off!!!!!! OMG software mpeg 2 encoding isn’t the culprit for this, its vista MCE‘s VMR9 rendering that is doing this…I don’t know why MCE is not using overlay rendering, otherwise cpu utilization must have been some where near 30-35% with overlay!!



With winfast pvr cpu utilization is 29-35% with VMR9 with aero on & with overlay its just 12-15% with aero off!!!!! Now what should I say………he he either winfast drivers for MCE are buggy or MCE itself is a crap for not giving options to use overlay rendering!!!!



Now picture quality with MCE has no improvements over winfast pvr, instead it’s worse sometimes because of MCE’s use of VMR9.


Since my cpu usage was very high I cant even think of recording!!!


Now for fm there is no option of scanning but instead we have to add presets manually &then there is an option of manually fine tuning it..


For EPG, since currently I don’t have antivirus & firewall installed in vista so I can’t connect to internet & so I didn’t tried EPG now but would do it very soon!!


Until better drivers are provided as I have earlier said vista MCE would suck a big time & is In My Opinion & In My Experience not worth the hype!! A good tvtuner with good PVR software would do the job perfectly..Rather than using vista MCE I would currently stick with winxp & winfast pvr …as an insanely powerful pc would be required to do all that recording & other things currently in win vista!!


PS: I see a lot of MS MVP’s here so it’s perhaps a good place to ask a question: HOW TO FORCE VISTA MCE TO USE OVERLAY RENDERING FOR WATCHING TV .I HAVE A NVIDIA 6150 GPU???

Any help is appreciated..


Thanks
vivek

 

[BULLZI]

Offtopic

@Vivek

Can u plz suggest a decent 30 " LCD Plasma monitor with the price? Dont need any hifi one but one with best vfm.

 

[vivekbabbudelhi]

Can u plz suggest a decent 30 " LCD Plasma monitor with the price? Dont need any hifi one but one with best vfm.

i think u meant 30" lcd monitor?? if so then not many vendors sell 30" panels in INDIA or i must say not many people here have money to be able afford them

i believe only one 30" monitor is there in our market & its dell ultrasharp 3008WFP having a resolution of 2560 x 1600 @ 1.1 lacs & IMHO not vfm anyway....l it's quite overpriced in INDIA as its predecessor 3007WFP was available in hongkong for 60k,so I think 3008wfp can be easily negotiated for about 85-90k in INDIA..

 

[Choto Cheeta]

large display ?? why not apple

 

[BULLZI]

i think u meant 30" lcd monitor?? if so then not many vendors sell 30" panels in INDIA or i must say not many people here have money to be able afford them

i believe only one 30" monitor is there in our market & its dell ultrasharp 3008WFP having a resolution of 2560 x 1600 @ 1.1 lacs & IMHO not vfm anyway....l it's quite overpriced in INDIA as its predecessor 3007WFP was available in hongkong for 60k,so I think 3008wfp can be easily negotiated for about 85-90k in INDIA..

1.1 lakh.
didnt have the idea abt tfts being such highly priced. sorry for asking.
Anyway whts the best I can get within 40 K range ?
Usage is mainly for PS3.

 

[Choto Cheeta]

Anyway whts the best I can get within 40 K range ?

Large CRT TV

 

[hailgautam]

29" is as big as it gets with crt and would cost 15k...
but you can get 24" tft from dell for that amount.

 

[BULLZI]

Large CRT TV

Hey when did I say I need hugeeeeeeeeeeee crt monitor??

 

[vivekbabbudelhi]

Anyway whts the best I can get within 40 K range ?
Usage is mainly for PS3.

now if u dont plan to use this panel as a primary pc monitor for some browsing work or something like that & sole intention is PS3 then u can better get a 32" lcd tv...

panels to look are bravia 32" S series & samsung R81...
bravia 32" S is for 38-40k grey market & R81 is somewhat for 35-42k grey market depending upon location....both these panels use samsung S-PVA'S, look both of them side by side & then its ur call....

 

[BULLZI]

now if u dont plan to use this panel as a primary pc monitor for some browsing work or something like that & sole intention is PS3 then u can better get a 32" lcd tv...

panels to look are bravia 32" S series & samsung R81...
bravia 32" S is for 38-40k grey market & R81 is somewhat for 35-42k grey market depending upon location....both these panels use samsung S-PVA'S, look both of them side by side & then its ur call....

Thanks for ur reply. I will check them out this weekend. .