Blake:
The Sapphire 9200 VIVO install CD DOES NOT have all the drivers and stuff needed to correctly set up video in.
Solution? Download the latest 25MB mass-driver pack thing from ATI. Then, install the latest MMC DAO extensions (they install a bunch of .ax files needed to properly handle the MPEG/AVI capture). Then do DVD if you can (you need a real ATI CD or new-ish OEM install CD of recent vintage (the Sapphire CD I got with a 9000 and 9500 didn't work but the one from my 9600 does), then, lastly do MMC.
re: ATI - VideoSoap and the hardware MPEG support ONLY works if you're using MMC for your capture application. I don't find it terribly helpful. It's real-time and everything but if a video is at all distorted it is many times better to run it through vdub or Premier to fix it. Much finer control.
As far as best results from capture goes you need two things: A VERY clean source and an assload of bitrate, preferably in a non-lossy codec. I'm to the point where I can tell what the weather was doing the day I recorded a TV show, based on the quality of my caps (er, 'cause I have a satellite).
In my experience, the Conexant chipsets have been all over the place in terms of quality. They *have* to be paired with a better quality tuner (e.g. a decent VCR) if you're using them to record TV. I've used Leadtek, ATI and Phoebe cards. dScaler is a beautiful thing but I've always gotten better quality unscaled caps from ATI.
ATI (AIW/VIVO) - I greatly prefer not having ATI's accursed octopus cables with all the I/O crap on them; VIVO 9100/9200s are easier to deal with than the messes the higher-end cards have, and to be honest Rage Theater 200 doesn't add a whole lot for most people. ATI also has the best remote in the HTPC universe. So...
If you want a remote in your box, get a branded 9600 AIW. They're cheap and all-round good.
If you don't need the remote or hate the octopus cables, look at a 9000-series VIVO.
I find the ATI Rage Theater to provide the all-round best quality for capture at a given bitrate. I use high bitrates (6 - 8kbps typically) and I never do anything else on a machine while it's capping. From my examinations, ATI cards manage a picture that looks a little better than my TIVO, and there's a lot said by that little bit.
The other choice in capture is the WinTV PVR-series. These are three short steps from being the awesomest things ever. 1. All three of the cards I try seem to blur high-motion, no matter how high I set motion prediction. 2. EXTREMELY limited compatibility with Intervideo Soft DVD software, which include PowerDVD. If you've ever had PowerDVD installed, don't count on getting a PVR250 to work (that comes from Hauppauge support as of about 6 weeks ago) 3. Really deeply lousy capture software and VERY limited support for 3rd-party programs.
The hardware-only MPEG2 capture is perfect about 90% of the time, good enough to burn to DVD right on the spot, but man does it suck when I notice that blurring. It drives me crazy.
If I had to buy just one device for video capture, it'd be an ATI. IF all I wanted was to make a TIVO-like device, I'd probably go with the WinTV PVR250.
Windows Media Center Edition is available through MSDN Downloads if you're a partner or an action pack subscriber. I don't care for it. It looks nice, but it records everything in goddamn WMV format, and there's no direct way to play back on either another PC (DRM) or record to DVD. You have to use an editing app that can deal with WMV (movie maker) to change to MPEG (if you're lucky) or AVI and THEN to MPEG. I can post more about it if anyone cares; I think what I've said is probably enough.
Sound: Ditch computer speakers. Get an Nforce2 and a digital connection to an HT receiver. It's so much better it's disgusting. ProLogic2 and Neo6 push most of the Left-Right signal to the center. The DD output on soundstorm makes real use of surround channels and maintains discrete Left/Center/Right. I can't emphasize this enough. If you're going to to an HTPC, get a real receiver for component switching (one cable to your display, and everything else goes to the receiver), real speakers for decent sound and a digital connection to a Soundstorm encoder to make everything that comes out of your PC as awesome as it can be. I am not kidding here. This is Mercutio, evangelizing an nvidia product (to all of you).
Snapstream is awesome, especially with an ATI remote (there are instructions for setting it up in the program, Blake), but it's crashy. I made a bunch of their regulars angry when I complained about it on their forums. 3.1 was bad. 3.4 is somewhat better but still can kill my HTPC, and that's not cool. I wouldn't recommend it for others, yet (specifically, I wouldn't recommend others pay for it. The 21-day trial is worth a look, though).
MythTV - I played with it about six months ago, with a LeadTek card, and I wasn't particularly impressed. Setup was beastly even by Linux standards. I understand there are now a couple of MythTV distros (a Knoppix bootable one, too); it's probably easier now. Still, I think Snapstream will be a better setup, once the bugs are finally worked out of it.
Tivo - I found one on sale for $30 after rebate. A DirectTivo, that is. I think there's a little too much work in its interface, and I don't like it recording random crap ("A Christmas Story" in Spanish, for example), but since my HTPC sometimes dies a Snapstream death, I keep season passes for the couple shows I don't ever want to miss, just in case. Plus it makes a nice second tuner source for my 9700AIW. I despise the fact that I have to do a second encoding pass to record things out of the TIVO to my HTPC, but apparently the shows on the TIVO are encoded in a way that hasn't been hacked yet. If Snapstream worked as reliably as its supposed to, I wouldn't need it.
