Avermedia A180+Sage TV Bundle

[alijiwani]

This shows my utter ignorance for how HDTV works on these cards - if I get this card, will it work with my regular cable TV or will I need the PVR-150 for that? I was thinking of the future (and broadcast flags) and attempting to avoid buying multiple cards.

[Narflex]

I'd suggest getting one of each. The A180 is best for digital TV only; it doesn't have a hardware encoder for analog TV like the PVR150 does.

[willgill]

Whoa.. wait a second. I must have missed the fine print. I've got a digital cable STB feeding composite to the A180. So I'm not getting any hardware encoding?

If so, can Sage do a A180 to PVR150 swap? I have a PVR150 in another SageTV box and when I "upgraded" decided to get a new bundle for the new rig. Since the A180 was about the same price, I thought, what the heck.

[mlbdude]

The A180 is a software SD tuner and a Digital HD tuner. Neither of those functions requires hardware encoding though we all love the hardware encoding for SD.

[alijiwani]

So unlike the 150 that does Hardware encoding for SD meaning I can use a lower end processor to encode and it uses only a little more processor to play the video back via software decoding -

you're saying the A180 cannot do any type of hardware encoding meaning it requires a lot of processor power and exclusive drive access to watch/record HD shows?

do I have that right? if so, is there any HD card that will do Hardware encoding of an HD stream?

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

So unlike the 150 that does Hardware encoding for SD meaning I can use a lower end processor to encode and it uses only a little more processor to play the video back via software decoding -

you're saying the A180 cannot do any type of hardware encoding meaning it requires a lot of processor power and exclusive drive access to watch/record HD shows?

do I have that right? if so, is there any HD card that will do Hardware encoding of an HD stream?

HD just comes in already encoded so it is more like straight capture and little CPU is needed. There is currently no HD card that does HD encoder to a lower bitrate right now.

For SD the A180 would work just like a software encoder. I have never tried this myself in Sage but it must be working for you?

[willgill]

Speaking for myself, I get occasional jerkiness even on the beefy system listed below. If you're not pulling in OTA HD programs, I'm not seeing any benefit to getting the A180 over the PVR150.

One thing totally unrelated to DVR'ing that may make me keep the A180... When I had Pinnacle Studio 8 and the PVR150 it couldn't use it as a capture device properly. I switched to Studio 10 and the A180 and it works fine. I'll have to check the Pinnacle forums to see if Studio 10 works with the PVR150.

[alijiwani]

thanks for the help and clarification guys.

The reason for my asking was I am putting together a Sage system for my dad and was going to use a cheaper Celeron D 340 machine with only 512MB RAM and a cheap video card. The machine will be solely used for SageTV. He has a Sony HDTV (KV34XBR910 - widescreen, supports 1080i) and I was going to use a component output on the video card to go to the TV. Guess I will need to use ATI now that I think about it since they are the ones with the little convertor to go to component for HDTV. Any suggestions on what video card I can use? Like I said no gaming, no other use, just TV, and of course my dad's yelling budget at me everytime we talk about this. :P

corrected to Celeron D 340 (there is no 370)

[blade]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

He has a Sony HDTV (KV34XBR910 - widescreen, supports 1080i) and I was going to use a component output on the video card to go to the TV. Guess I will need to use ATI now that I think about it since they are the ones with the little convertor to go to component for HDTV.

Most newer nvidia cards come with a component connection as well.