ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB thoughts?

[hokuto]

Just noticed at BestBuy this device is on sale for $69 regular $99.  Does anyone know how well it works and if it has a hardware decorder, or do USB devices generally not?  It's mainly right now just to record OTA HD channels and will very rarely be used for live TV.  I've used the WinTV HVR-1250 which doesn't have a hardware decoder and I didn't notice any different from it and the WinTV 550 I had later.  Should I avoid USB though?

[The Dude]

For OTA HD content you don't need a hardware encoding device because it's already in a digital format therefore there is no encoding to be done. No OTA HD or Digital tuner is a hardware encoding device. The only time you need hardware encoding would be for analog content such as the output from a STB.

[hokuto]

Ohh okay I see.  Putting OTA aside, how is USB then for Satellite to SVideo since it does have to encode?   Do you know if this one has a hardware encoder or?  I'm going to assume not but like I said it wasn't really that bad when I had a PCI card without one and it's rare I'll use it, just curious if USB though is worse than PCI.

[The Dude]

I'm not sure you'd have to look at the documentation for the device but in general most of the USB devices aren't hardware encoding. If you're capturing analog content from a STB then you definitely do want a hardware encoding card it will put a lot less demand on your PCs resources to do the recording.

[hokuto]

Great thanks for your help!  Right now I'm looking at a few ones since you said OTA doesn't need an encoder.  There's ones like the KWorld PlusTV HD PCI 120 which is only $39 here and has an ATSC tuner and pretty sure no encoder.  Right now I only have OTA connected to my media centre PC and it will be awhile before I even move the satellite in there since doing so cuts off my wiring for my OTA.  For $39 I might just buy it just to record the odd show and do PVR on the OTA channels that I do get.  Then when I move the dish in there, get a better one, since spending $39 on a cheap device is going to be more worth it.  They have the USB version for $49 but one person's review said you need a faster PC for that so I'm not too sure..

[The Dude]

You can usually get an HVR-1600 for about $70 then you have both the hardware encoding card and the digital OTA card all in one and a higher quality one at that. If you think about it you're spending the same amount or more to buy two devices. But that's just me.

[hokuto]

Seems to be $89 everywhere I check here in Canada, but the HVR-1600 looks like a full height card?  My desktop is a low profile case...

[The Dude]

You can get either a low profile or full height version.

[hokuto]

Oh okay maybe I'll check it and see all the pictures I seem to find at BestBuy and other places show the full height one.  Again my thing is that it may be several months before I move the satellite into this room if at all, so just thinking $39 is an inexpensive way to record some HD in the meantime but will see.  Thanks!