WildBillm's Full Review: Hauppauge WinTV GO-FM (191) Video Capture
It has been a while since I first purchased a WinTV card. This is the card I got with a remote control upgrade. Yep, that is right! A remote for your computer, a lazy man's dream. The only problem is that the remote is for your radio tuner and your TV channel flipping.
Anyway, let me fill you in on some details on how I got this card.
Where did I here about this card?
A few years ago (before digital cameras were cheap), a friend of mine emailed some pictures to us of his little girl. I had been looking into getting a digital camera and wanted to know which one he had taken these really nice pictures with. He told me that it was from his camcorder. I couldn't believe it and he told me more about his WinTV card by Hauppage. He told me the only regret he had was not getting the card with a remote.
After that statement, I was sold.
What can the card do?
I was pretty impressed with the various functions of this card. It is both a TV Capture card and an FM radio tuner. The upgrade gave me the dbx-stereo sound and the remote control over the base model.
When we had cable, I ran the cable TV to the back of this card that has a coaxial cable plug for TV viewing. When we got rid of cable, I connected the rabbit ears to the card to get local stations (A computer with rabbit ears, isn't that high tech :) ). The card has both video and audio input for either vcr or camcorder plug in. I have used both and they both work very well. More details on this provided below under "Video Recording".
Listening to your favorite local radio stations. There is also a coaxial connection on the card for your radio tuner. A cable used as an antenna comes with your card for FM radio stations. It is a thin flat cable that I tacked to the wall behind my computer desk to keep it out of site. The software that comes with the card has a radio tuner that looks like a regular tuner on your screen that you can preset channels to your favorite radio stations. This may or may not be a good feature now if you have broad band connection and are able to use the internet radio through your browser, realplayer, or windows media player. If you do not have high speed internet service, then this would definitely be for you if you don't have a radio in your office.
I have also connected my VCR to this card, played a movie in the living room and also had it playing on my computer through the wintv card. Why would you do this? I did it just to see if I could. I then did it again to play a video for my kids in the living room and displayed it (periodically) on my computer just to find out if the movie was almost over.
Technical Jargon and Definitions fps = Frames Per Second. A unit of measure. This term applies to film and digital video. It measures how many still images or frames can be displayed in one second.
avi = Audio Video Interleave. This is a Microsoft standard and the file size is fairly large.
mpeg = Moving Picture Experts Group. This is a digital video compression standard developed by this group. It produces better quality video then AVI and in compressed form (Meaning it takes up less space on your hard drive).
--- There are 3 standards of MPEG
--(1)MPEG-1 = standard video compression for the resolution 352X240 at 30 fps
--(2)MPEG-2 = standard video compression for the resolution 720X480 and 1280X720 at 60fps with CD quality type audio.
--(3)MPEG-4 = is a graphics and video compression standard based on the the previous two and Apple Quicktime and designed to transmit video and images over a narrow bandwidth.
Dropped Frames = When recording video, this term is used to give you an idea of the quality of video that has been recorded. When a frame is dropped, that means this particular frame or image was not recorded due to some problems with either hardware or software. I am not too sure why a frame would be dropped, but it is very common to have a few dropped frames during a recording session.
Bill's Recommended Video Recording System Requirements
1.) HARD DRIVE = First of all, you need to have a pretty decent sized hard drive. I would recommend a 20gb hard drive. If you happen to have 10-12 it might do, but you will have to either burn your newly recorded videos to a CD or move them somewhere else before recording new videos.
2.) Video Compression or Encoding Software = Hauppage has recording software and this software captures your video as a .avi file. A two minute video clip can take up well over 1GB or 1000 MB of space on your hard drive. Compressing the video to a .mpeg file can reduce that 1GB file down to about 350MB. So there is a substantial decrease in the amount of space these files can take up. I have used the Xing MPEG Encoding software before and it works fairly well on a friends computer, but it is pretty pricey at about $245. If someone knows of a cheaper compression program that works well, please post it.
I don't do a lot of video compression because I give it to my friend on a spare hard drive to compress for me.
3.) Some type of Video Input Device = Before you capture video with this card, you need to have a vcr or camcorder with the appropriate cables to connect to your card. You definitely want to read the manuals to become more familar with what you have before attempting to record your video to a disk. I have used some software
4.) Optional - Video Editing Software = If you want to be able to crop some video, add text or background music, you need video editing software. I have used Windows ME and Windows XP movie maker and it works fairly well and have also used VideoWave 4. With video editing software, you can add transition pieces to blend 2 different clips together smoothly.
Video Recording
If you have a camcorder or vcr you can setup video recording. The Hauppage card comes with WinTV Capture. Which is a basic video capturing software. This program, as mentioned above, captures video in a .avi format. Which takes up a bit of room on your harddrive. You then need to compress the video so that it is a little easier to handle.
I would give it to a friend who uses Xing MPEG Encoder to compress the video down for me and it also converts to an MPEG file which is much smaller and easier to handle.
One more thing worth mentioning when capturing video with the WinTV Capture program is it does not tell you how big the file is as it is recording. I have recorded a 15 minute video before and it filled up the hard drive and crashed. So you need to pay close attention to your recording. I had about 4GB of free space on the drive that I was recording too. I have also noticed that the longer the video recording goes on, the more frames that are dropped. This is a terminology that is explained above. It is not uncommon to have a few dropped frames during recording.
If there are any “computer video recording experts” out there that would like to comment about any improvements to my video recording techniques, please post. I would like to be able to transfer vcr tapes to CDs, but since the files are so big when they are recorded, I haven't had any success and have kind of pushed this off to the side for now.
Hardware Included
-PCI WinTV Capture Card
-IR unit (for the upgrade)
-Flat ribbon cable for FM Tuner
Software Bundle
-The Hauppauge card comes with the drivers for Win98 and NT. XP and 2000 drivers can be downloaded.
-Video Recording Software (wintv capture)
-FM Tuner SOftware (WinTV Radio 32)
-TV Viewing Software (WinTV2000)
-Remote Software for upgrade (IR software)
What does the latest WinTV Card offer?
-Digital TV Receivers (WinTV-HD, WinTV-D, and WinTV-DVB-s) Visit
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm#digital
-Tivo Alternative - Here is a glimpse of their ad and the
link:http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr_datasheet.htm
"Watch and record your TV shows with instant replay and program pause
Burn your favorite TV shows onto CD-ROM and play them on your home DVD player"
~$249
Price Paid
I paid $95, but this was a couple of years ago. You can probably find this card for less than $70 now.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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