I am interested in recording educational documentaries from satellite tv. I was in pantip plaza in chiang mai the other day and I saw the 'snazio TvPVR USB2' convertor. The seller told me that this piece of hardware was 3,500 baht and can be used as a tv tuner and convertor (basically a 2in1) so that I could convert and watch those documentaries on vcd. Next to this product I saw the 'snazzi video creator 300' which also does the converting job but does NOT have a built in tv tuner. This one was priced at 7000 baht. Any ideas which one would do the job of converting recording satellite tv programs better ?

so my question is:

are 2in1 tv tuner/convertor devices better than a single convertor devices?

I am interested in recording educational documentaries from satellite tv. I was in pantip plaza in chiang mai the other day and I saw the 'snazio TvPVR USB2' convertor. The seller told me that this piece of hardware was 3,500 baht and can be used as a tv tuner and convertor (basically a 2in1) so that I could convert and watch those documentaries on vcd. Next to this product I saw the 'snazzi video creator 300' which also does the converting job but does NOT have a built in tv tuner. This one was priced at 7000 baht. Any ideas which one would do the job of converting recording satellite tv programs better ?

so my question is:

are 2in1 tv tuner/convertor devices better than a single convertor devices?

If you dont have separate tuner box with outputs, then it would be better to have the combined unit

Price can be a matter of the speed or specification s of the device. Maybe the combined unit is an older model? Maybe one does HDTV and one does not? Maybe one comes with better software bundled?

Why don't you buy a DVD Recorder?

If you have a half decent PC, you can purchase a Video card, such as the: ATI All-In-Wonder

Dependent on your PC, you may need eith the AGP model or PCI Express.

Why don't you buy a DVD Recorder?

If you have a half decent PC, you can purchase a Video card, such as the: ATI All-In-Wonder

Dependent on your PC, you may need eith the AGP model or PCI Express.

well the reason is that I don't have ubc at home but have it at the office. I have to bring my laptop to the office everyday anyway so a usb capture device would be ideal.

also that all-wonder card doesnt plug into a laptop.

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry I was not so clear on my needs to begin with.

Has anyone had any experience with the usb tv tuners? If so, what are your opinions on the picture quality? Are they relieable? (do they cause your pc to crash a lot?)

Thanks

Has anyone had any experience with the usb tv tuners? If so, what are your opinions on the picture quality? Are they relieable? (do they cause your pc to crash a lot?)

Just want to be sure you understand that the TV tuner will be useless for UBC satellite. It will only be useful for regular air broadcast via antennae. For capturing the UBC video, you will need to connect the S-Video or Composite video outputs + audio of the UBC satellite receiver to the video capture card.

//Edit - of course there is an RF output from the UBC box that can feed the tuner at a fixed channel but the quality will be much less. You will still need to change channels using the UBC Box.

Rather than spend 3000 baht plus on a simple converter, you could look at one of these: LG GSA E20N

Around 3000 baht. The quality of the capture will depend on your processor. Plus you'll gain an extra DVD writer.