Cheap PVR card that works?

[cjolley]

Originally Posted by wkulecz

I think its a better idea than one that only works with Windows as at least it won't be orphaned when windows 8 comes out.

One that works with both would be best if you can find it.

I've Ubuntu Linux setup as a samba file server and it no trouble at all to share to Windows2000, XP and Windows7 systems

Just add a Linux account for each of your windows login IDs with the same password and you are pretty much there.

--wally.

I agree with all of that.
OS independence is one of my criteria.

The Samba thing really only applies if you have a lot of users.
Then it's just WAY too much trouble.
It doesn't seem to pick that stuff up from a windows domain controller correctly.

Originally Posted by VJ

I agree that a linux-only card is not a good idea. My suggestion is to get a good, well known brand (hauppauge, compro, avermedia, ...): the cards supported by linux are usually the most common cards (that will have good windows support by default).

Finding a PCI card shouldn't be too difficult, but beware of hybrid cards. IIRC, xp and vista mediacenter require you to choose as what type of tuner you want to use it, and you can't easily switch. I don't know if this is due to a driver limitation, or merely a media center limitation. It has been fixed in Windows 7: my Compro e900f shows up as 4 tuners (dual hybrid), but some are disabled if others are in use.

The hauppauge pvr-250 pci is sounding better and better.