PCs Match Capabilities of TVs with DVRs

The line between computers and television is being further blurred by Hauppauge Computer Works Inc. Its WinTV-HVR-2250 PCI Express board is a dual hybrid PC TV tuner that lets users watch one TV program on their PC while watching, pausing or recording a second program. Consumers can use Microsoft Media Center's TV scheduler to automatically record their favorite TV shows and play back recordings at any time on their PC screens. The single-slot board, based on NXP Semiconductors' SAA7164E dual-channel PC TV system-on-chip, supports all analog and digital TV formats used in North America. It offers native hardware encoding to reduce the CPU overhead demands on the PC.