PVR Primer - The basics of recording TV shows on your PC

Learn about how video recording with your PC works, and what different recording formats mean to the quality of your recordings.

WinTV2000 Flash demo

This animated demonstration shows the WinTV2000 application with the 'Record' feature for both HardPVR and SoftPVR.
Note: this demo is about 10MBytes, so it might take awhile to load.

WinTV-PVR-150 DVD standard play sample video clip

This sample video clip is a few seconds long, and was recorded from live TV using a rooftop antenna on the WinTV-PVR-150 using the "DVD Standard Play" format (MPEG-2 datarate approx. 8 MBit/sec).
Note: this file is 2.7MBytes and requires an MPEG-2 player to be installed on your PC. It may take several seconds to buffer this video before it starts to play.

WinTV-PVR SVCD sample video clip

This sample video clip was recorded from an S-Video source, and was compressed with the WinTV-PVR-pci using S-VCD format (MPEG-2 480x480) This file is 2.9MBytes.
Note: Windows XP MediaPlayer can play this file.

Digital TV information

Digital TV (WinTV-D) and High Definition TV receivers (WinTV-HD) for the U.S. are coming from Hauppauge. Here are sources of information on the U.S. Digital TV broadcast standards.

• Learn more about DTV's exciting new technology with our Digital TV white paper.
  Note: you will need an Adobe Acrobat reader to view this document.
  
• Jeff Cadet is beta testing the WinTV-D. Click here are some screen shots of Digital TV channels he can receive from his house in MaComb, IL.
  
• Click here to see a list of Digital TV broadcasters in the U.S.
  
• Click here to see another list of Digital TV broadcasters in the U.S.
  
• Get the latest information on Digital TV channels in the U.S. from TitanTV.

Digital TV images

Sample TV images from U.S. digital TV - captured off the air with the WinTV-D and a Radio Shack roof top antenna, about 35 miles from the transmitter. Analog TV channels from this distance are unwatchable.

Sample TV image 1
Sample TV image 2