Got|Apex? Review: Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP TV Card 04/08/2002

[Leon]

Thanks for reading the review. Please post any questions or comments in this thread.


http://www.gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=tv2000/index.html

[Burzhui]

great review leon, witty as well, good stuff :)

[Hiro]

Cool review. I likey. :thumb:

[LPMiller]

thank you!

[Speedfreak]

So, from what I got reading the review, this DOES work in XP. Even though it is buggy, you got everything to work like it should? The reason I am asking is because the ATI TV wonder that I have right now is crap in Win2k. I got it to work, but I never know when it would freeze up and capturing did not work at all. That is why I downgraded to windows 98. It workes flawlessly in windows 98, though I hate 98 for everything else.

If this thing works fine in XP, then I would get it and put XP on that system. It is nice to know that Leadtek is actually working to better the drivers, unlike ATI whose Windows 2000 drivers DO NOT WORK!

[DoPeY5007]

looks and sounds to be a cool part to have!!!

[LPMiller]

yeah, it works. The TV part never really gave me trouble, the FM tuner needed the updated drivers. The only crash I get is when I close it, which really isn't a big deal. Capturing works fine, though make sure you use NTFS so you can get around the 4GB limit of Fat32.

[revil]

I've actually been considering buying a new TV card. the one i have has piss poor video quality. I was thinking about Hauppauge's WinTV-HD because the image quality is great. I doubt i'll be buying it because of the price. This card seems more viable for me. but what I want to know is how good the image looks. Think i could see some hi res images? thanks.

[Aristo]

<side question>
which TV card would you guys recommend?
</side question>

[point]

I have the WinFast TV2000 XP card that I picked up about two weeks ago... and everything has worked so far for me installation wise..

My question is... I will randomly lock up after/during recording a tv show and have to reboot. I thought it may have been an XP bug, so I tried new drivers, and in windows 2000, and still get it to lock up... Any encounters with this? Its not every time, but it sucks when you try to set up tivo, and it locks up halfway through the show.

Thanks for your time, and a great review :)

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by point
I have the WinFast TV2000 XP card that I picked up about two weeks ago... and everything has worked so far for me installation wise..

My question is... I will randomly lock up after/during recording a tv show and have to reboot. I thought it may have been an XP bug, so I tried new drivers, and in windows 2000, and still get it to lock up... Any encounters with this? Its not every time, but it sucks when you try to set up tivo, and it locks up halfway through the show.

Thanks for your time, and a great review :)

No, but I have NTFS partitions on the drive I record to...could you possibly be hitting the 4GB limit on Fat32?

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by revil
I've actually been considering buying a new TV card. the one i have has piss poor video quality. I was thinking about Hauppauge's WinTV-HD because the image quality is great. I doubt i'll be buying it because of the price. This card seems more viable for me. but what I want to know is how good the image looks. Think i could see some hi res images? thanks.

well, but it will be a hi res image of TV, which isn't all that hi res to begin with, so I'm not sure it will help. But I don't have the card right now.

[TommyBoomfiger]

Originally posted by LPMiller
yeah, it works. The TV part never really gave me trouble, the FM tuner needed the updated drivers. The only crash I get is when I close it, which really isn't a big deal. Capturing works fine, though make sure you use NTFS so you can get around the 4GB limit of Fat32.
great review lp, but what is this 4 gb limit you speak of?
sounds like a good card, but i think ill be keeping my radeon all in wonder and upgrading to the new one.

[EDIT] sorry, i just reread the article and saw where you talked about it

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by TommyBoomfiger

great review lp, but what is this 4 gb limit you speak of?
sounds like a good card, but i think ill be keeping my radeon all in wonder and upgrading to the new one.

[EDIT] sorry, i just reread the article and saw where you talked about it

it's a limit with Windows and Fat32, not the card. Happens with any vid capture program.

[ibuyufo]

I ordered this tv card yesterday from Newegg and I should have it either tomorrow or the next day after. I can't wait to try it because I'm tired of having to deal with all the trouble that comes with the ATI TV Wonder. This card worked great in windows 98. It worked so so in windows 2000. Now it kinda works when it feels like it in windows XP.
Anyone wants to buy this card??

[Lezmaka]

I want to get a new tv card cuz mine was made by STB and there aren't any Win2k/XP drivers that I know of. I want to be able to use VirtualDub to capture because I find that most capture programs are total crap. Plus I can choose whatever codec I want, other settings, etc.

Does anyone know if this card works with the video capture part of VirtualDub (www.virtualdub.org)?

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by Lezmaka
I want to get a new tv card cuz mine was made by STB and there aren't any Win2k/XP drivers that I know of. I want to be able to use VirtualDub to capture because I find that most capture programs are total crap. Plus I can choose whatever codec I want, other settings, etc.

Does anyone know if this card works with the video capture part of VirtualDub (www.virtualdub.org)?

I dunno...you can edit the captured file, but I don't know that it will intercept the card output.

[point]

Originally posted by LPMiller


No, but I have NTFS partitions on the drive I record to...could you possibly be hitting the 4GB limit on Fat32?

No, I also have it as NTFS and the hard drive has 60 gigs free on it so its not a harddrive limitation... It will even lock up if I only record 1 second of it.. :\

Right now its unplugged due to the misses complaining of no cable in the office so I had to plug the cable back into it ,).

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by point


No, I also have it as NTFS and the hard drive has 60 gigs free on it so its not a harddrive limitation... It will even lock up if I only record 1 second of it.. :\

Right now its unplugged due to the misses complaining of no cable in the office so I had to plug the cable back into it ,).

I don't know, I didn't get any lockups recording with it...strange.

[Devhux]

Great review lpmiller. :)

It's nice to see that Hauppauge & ATi aren't the only ones making these TV tuner cards.

[ApltnHkyMutt]

As i was shopping for this card i came accross this page...
http://lhd.datapower.com/db/dispproduct.php3?DISP?1903

Read the comments that these people made.
There are almost no positive commments!

[LPMiller]

that's not the same card, that's the older model. I reviewed the 2000 XP

[ApltnHkyMutt]

Originally posted by LPMiller
that's not the same card, that's the older model. I reviewed the 2000 XP


Oooooops sorry, for the miss info! :(

[ibuyufo]

I got the card yesterday, downloaded the new drivers and installed it. The new drivers are not perfect. It uses 100% of my cpu when the tv is on or at least 90%. The old drivers in the CD that came with the card offers better cpu management using about 49 to 55% cpu cycles. It's still not good but it's an improvement.
I'm using this card with the following machine:

600 Mhz duron overclocked to 800.
sb live platinum
1.5 gigs of ram
abit kt7-raid.

This card also suffers the same problem as with ATI. When the mouse is being moved, lines will appear randomly across the screen. I think this may be more of an issue with this via chipset than with anything else. Newer via chipsets may have fixed this problem. The tv is quite nice. I think the images are better than ATI but when it's in full screen mode you can see some sync(?) lines? I don't know how to describe this.
I hope leadtek brings out some new drivers for XP because this thing has potential.
One thing that was mentioned before is that you can't mute/lower or bring up the volume and I think it's cumbersome.
Another nice thing that it could have would be to place the tv screen where it was at last before it was closed.
But I'm happy that this tv card works under windows xp. At least now I get pictures and sound whereas with ATI I would sometimes get the pictures with no sound.
I did some playing around and found out that by reducing the video quality it significantely reduces cpu usage.

[Speedfreak]

Anyone know how this compares to the AverTV Studio? The one thing I notice is that the AverTV has the "pause live tv" feature.

[Speedfreak]

Well, I got the Leadtek card. I am still in Win98 for the moment, but tomorrow I will install XP seeing as this tuner will work in XP. That way I could use both of my cpus, too. ;)

Everything is great on it. The recording started ok, but the output of video was sketchy. I am hoping it is just because the lack of cpu power (I have a Abit BP6 with a 300a Celeron @ 450Mhz, it will be 2 of those in XP). I have cable TV (soon to get Dish) and I have the line going into my VCR, and then passed through to the tv tuner. I get a better signal using the vcr, than using the tuner card. The signal is quite crappy through the tuner, but through the VCR... DAMN! Never seen it so crisp.

My only complaint... I get motion scan lines. Not that bad, but enough to notice. I notice it probably only becuase I have never had them with my 3dfx voodoo3 3500 tuner or my ATI TV Wonder. Anyone know why this is? I am using overlay.

[LPMiller]

well, what is the framerate you are getting...I think you hit F to see it, don't remember.

[Speedfreak]

29.87

[ibuyufo]

yep, I noticed those motion lines too and it's annoying when I see them. Also another thing that annoys me is the static coming out from the speakers.

[Speedfreak]

Originally posted by ibuyufo
yep, I noticed those motion lines too and it's annoying when I see them. Also another thing that annoys me is the static coming out from the speakers.

I don't know if it would be different in XP (I will find out soon enough), but in 98 I muted the "line in" in the sound setup when the tv was off and it will unmute it when you turn the tv on and then go back to muted when you close the tv automatically.

[LPMiller]

Yeah, I mentioned that in the review...it really should mute that when it shuts off - but I didn't get any static while it was running.

I also didn't notice any lines at all, just a smooth picture, so I'm wondering whats up. Could be monitor resolution?

Your framerate is right on...I dunno, try the latest drivers, and check the connections.

[ibuyufo]

I'm using their latest drivers, 3.12 I believe. I've set my monitor's resolution to 1600x1200 @ 32bits. Like the previous poster I'm running the tv line in from the vcr. It has worked well before with the ATI tv wonder until I switched to xp.
regarding the static when the tv is off could it be possible that the pass through cable is too long and not properly shielded?

[LPMiller]

no...it appears that the program keeps transmitting a signal after the program is shut down - what you are getting is white noise. I think I mentioned in the review that sometimes I'd shut down the radio, and I'd still get sound. It's like once that pipeline is open, it stays open till you mute the line in.