Click here for more information Ok my system specs are:
Gateway DX4200 1.8GHz QuadCore with ATI Radeon HD 3200 video card with 4 gig ram running windows vista x64
The card installed easily, it takes a pci-e slot so make sure that you do have a pci-e slot available. I also made sure my ATI video card had the latest drivers installed.
First, there is no windows Media Center (mce) interface offered for this card, they advertise that fact so no surprise there but dont mistake their Avermedia Center software for any resemblence of proper gui experience if you have used other media centers (MCE, XBMC, Mediaportal, Boxee, etc). It works but its lack of windows media center capability, its garish and harsh colors that burns the retina and lack of documentation (the included on disk user manual leaves much to be desired) makes the experience awkward and puzzling at times. You can eventually figure it out via trial and error...this effort however is on your time and dime.
Avermedia's defense for no windows mce interface is that Windows MCE only uses tuner devices and this is a capture device, but other products seem to have jumped that divide quite successfully (ex. Monsoon Hava product, Hauppauge HD PVR). I also understand that not all customers use windows media center or have access to it. But to limit your market potential (because thousands of mce users out there are looking for a reliable and robust high definition capture device) for lack of mce capability and having to rely on their proprietary bothersome and totally lacking software, I have to drop them a star on the review.
When I installed the software and ran the application, Live TV is fine, but I beleive they just dump that video stream straight to the video buffer, however when recording at 1080i the software playback was slightly jerky especially on camera pans in the scene. I reinstalled the shark codecs for vista to see if that made a difference, tried various resolutions in both the software and in the set top box (STB) and even down to 480p the video was jerky on playback and played with these differnt configurations for a few hours, but no joy even at the lowest of resolutions. After a while, when I tried to change the resolution back to higher value it was stuck at 480p and eventually the application froze and I could do nothing more. Couldn't change it and trying to rerun the wizard it just wouldnt reset, the software has no reset to default settings, I was essentially locked out. So I uninstalled the software and reinstalled it.
Voila! It worked fine then after the 2nd reinstallation...
I did have to set the resolution down to 720p with this second reinstall and that seemed fine for my hardware. If you consider this capture card you really should ensure that you have a pretty strong cpu if you want to record at 1080i....like a dual core 3 Ghz. I plan on no timeshifting or PIP functionality so that doesnt require stronger cpu. As the video encoding is handled via software you must use fairly strong pc.
I tested recording scheduled program and it started recording within a few seconds of the set time...just a little off by a few seconds. So you can schedule a day, time and duration of recording. But with no tuner interface or channel changing capability you must make sure that your STB is pre-tuned to the desired channel.
Overall the card performs as advertised...if you have a powerful enough pc and can stomach their software. I think it would be easy enough for them to include a color change palette capability in a future release...and hopefully a generic non-proprietary api driver that can be accessed by other windows programs.
I think most purchasers of this product should expect to record in 720p resolution unless they really have the cpu with the guts enough to handle this card. For my own reasons, it was my initial intention to record only in 720p so I am satisfied with that capability.
Update 3/22/2010
Been using this card now for over a month and with the setting of recording at 720p its recording movies off my cable box just fine. It seems to interfere with the Windows Media Center (MCE) running so I must ensure that MCE is disabled when setting up a recording. And also you need to be sure when recording that you have the Avertv Media Center up and running or the recording wont take place. I take the recorded mpg file in 720p format and run it through Windows Movie Maker to create wmv format file, its smaller size and the picture looks great. I still wish for MCE integration but this works ok as long as I run either the MCE or the Avertv Media center but not both at same time.
Also as a hint you may want to use smaller bitrates...you can use the reference bitrate standards either in Windows Movie Maker or google on the web. For example, I record at 720p at 6900 bitrate which matches Windows Movie Maker XBOX 360 720p High Definition. With this bitrate I can stream via wireless G to some media center extenders in remote rooms that dont have wired ethernet (aways try to use wired ethernet for streaming hi def) and the picture is not too bad.
Update 3/28/2010
For some reason the Avermedia Center screen goes blank for the video source, you see the Avermedia center, you can access the controls and there is audio, but no video. Seems that I toggle the source selector from component to composite to s-video to component and so on a few times and that straightens it out. There is no rhyme or reason to this occurring, I have not installed any new software. Once I get it working again, it stays working, and is ok after that, but do not schedule a recording without confirming that you have video and are on the right channel, probably time for me to uninstall the software and reinstall it.
<Note: Edited the above for minor clarifications, additional comments and some typos (attribute that to late night typing with netbook with tiny keys) > Avertv HD DVR High Definition / Analog Video Capture Card PCIe MTVHDDVRR - Avermedia - Capture - Hd Pvr - High Definition
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