TV Tuners

[Sphexi]

Two questions, possibly related:

1) What's the best TV tuner out there? Doesn't matter if it's external/USB or internal/PCI based, but I'd prefer something with two tuners, ATSC/QAM, HD support (1080i is fine), and a remote control. I don't know yet if I'll be using MCE, so it'd need to work in my current XP machine. I've looked at all the ones on Newegg, but the specs are so generic it's sometimes hard to tell which is best and which isn't. I'm up in Canada, in an area without much in the way of OTA broadcasts, so the ATSC won't be THAT useful, I'd rather have dual cable inputs for PIP or recording while watching, etc.

also

2) What if I have a nice HD device of some sort, such as a HD-A30 or something, how would I input that to my computer? At this point I don't have a HDTV, although later this year we'll be getting one. I just decided since they're going to stop making them and that I need a new upconverting DVD player to pick one up locally at a shop that was selling them for $170, still with the 7 movie deal. I have a Samsung 226BW 22" monitor that supports HDCP, and my 7950GT also supports HDCP, so in theory there should be some way of getting the output from the HD-DVD player into my computer, then onto my monitor? Anything with HDMI inputs out there?

 

[heyheybooboo]

HDTV Tuner Card & USB HDTV Tuner Chart

The FusionHDTV7 RT Gold is rolling out - you can pick up a pair of Fusion5s from Digital Connections for around $150 ...

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
HDTV Tuner Card & USB HDTV Tuner Chart

The FusionHDTV7 RT Gold is rolling out - you can pick up a pair of Fusion5s from Digital Connections for around $150 ...

That's a nice looking product, but I'm slightly confused. It shows PIP functionality, obviously you have to have two of those cards in order to take advantage of that, right?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
HDTV Tuner Card & USB HDTV Tuner Chart

The FusionHDTV7 RT Gold is rolling out - you can pick up a pair of Fusion5s from Digital Connections for around $150 ...

Very nice man.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
HDTV Tuner Card & USB HDTV Tuner Chart

The FusionHDTV7 RT Gold is rolling out - you can pick up a pair of Fusion5s from Digital Connections for around $150 ...

That's a nice looking product, but I'm slightly confused. It shows PIP functionality, obviously you have to have two of those cards in order to take advantage of that, right?

That would be correct. And the second card is also necessary when recording one channel while watching another. Some folks at AVS have taken that a step further by adding a third card.

Too bad you are such a great distance OTA. I get about a dozen unencrypted digital cable 'QAMs' and they look great - but the OTAs look even better.

You'll need Tb's of hard disks ...

 

[Sphexi]

Well I'm right in Victoria, BC...honestly not sure what we can get here, but probably not much.

 

[Sphexi]

Okay, so I found this page, which seems to suggest a lot of QAM64 and QAM256 channels, unencrypted via Shaw, my cable provider. Now, some of these come through the analog signal perfectly fine, some are not included in my base 70-channel package.

If I understand correctly, using a QAM supportive tuner will allow me to view all of these channels, and the ones listed at 1080i will come through as HD? For example, KSTW is a channel out of Seattle that they broadcast up here so we can see Fox programming. Are they actually re-broadcasting the HD signal as well, and I can see it from the cable input, rather than OTA?

BTW just looking for clarification, already ordered up one of those Fusion7 cards

 

[Cabages]

That Dvico card is exactly what ive been looking for. Thanks a bunch!

Originally posted by: Sphexi
BTW just looking for clarification, already ordered up one of those Fusion7 cards

Can I ask where you ordered it from?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Wait for the new Hauppauge HD PVR. It will be able to capture 1080p from a component connection. Which means, you can connect the component out of your cable/satellite set top box into this device and record ANY channel as the set top box will do the decrypting of the data. No other device can do this, which means no one can record HD HBO/Showtime/etc..., but this device can! It also includes an IR Blaster so that you can control the channels on the cable/satellite set top box from the computer (in order to let your computer recording software set the channel for the show to record).

Link:
http://blogs.snapstream.com/20...-the-hauppauge-hd-pvr/

http://www.mydigitallife.info/...r-for-consumer-market/

http://www.businesswire.com/po...0110006038&newsLang=en

Might be a month or two away still since they are working on the final case design (it is an external USB2 attached device). But the electronics part of it is complete...

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Cabages
That Dvico card is exactly what ive been looking for. Thanks a bunch!

Originally posted by: Sphexi
BTW just looking for clarification, already ordered up one of those Fusion7 cards

Can I ask where you ordered it from?

That digitalconnection.com place, that's in their Where to Buy link. I was hoping that NCIX or Tigerdirect would carry it up here, but seems very few places sell it yet.

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Wait for the new Hauppauge HD PVR. It will be able to capture 1080p from a component connection. Which means, you can connect the component out of your cable/satellite set top box into this device and record ANY channel as the set top box will do the decrypting of the data. No other device can do this, which means no one can record HD HBO/Showtime/etc..., but this device can! It also includes an IR Blaster so that you can control the channels on the cable/satellite set top box from the computer (in order to let your computer recording software set the channel for the show to record).

Link:
http://blogs.snapstream.com/20...-the-hauppauge-hd-pvr/

http://www.mydigitallife.info/...r-for-consumer-market/

http://www.businesswire.com/po...0110006038&newsLang=en

Might be a month or two away still since they are working on the final case design (it is an external USB2 attached device). But the electronics part of it is complete...

How does that work with copy protection though? What if I were to hook my HD-A30 up to it, would I get the full HD picture, or would the player realize I wasn't using a HDCP connection and output a lower-end picture? For now I think this Fusion card will work perfectly for my desktop, in the future I am going to build a nice HTPC box though, I'll look into this card once I do that.

 

[Sphexi]

Just got the card in the mail today, installed it and it's scanning through channels right now. Seems to be scanning digital by default, has found a bunch of Q256 channels that Shaw carries, after I guess I have to re-scan the analog channels. We'll see how it goes after that


Edit:

Well, analog comes in great, and it supposedly found a bunch of digital channels. Some are encrypted, but others seem not to be. The problem I'm having is when I use the unified decoder that the software defaulted to, it locks up the HDTV/Digital tuner in it and I have to restart. I switched to a software one and that works fine, but none of the digital channels will show up. As I go through them it slowly splits them into the different sub-channels for each stream (63 becomes 631, 632, 633, etc), but they still won't show up, even though it says they're not encrypted. Not really sure why, don't have the time to look at it now either ...it'll have to be a project for after work.

 

[Sphexi]

Alright, so I just ordered up new parts, kind of a mixture of upgrades for my box, upgrades for my wife's, and then some stuff for the HTPC.

Currently I have:
C2D E6300
3GB (2x1 and 2x512) DDR800 OCZ Gold
XFX XXX Silent 7950GT

My wife has:
ASUS P4P800 SE
P4 2.4 Northwood HT
1.5GB (2x256 2x512) DDR400
ATI X800XT


I'm ordering a new Gigabyte P35 board, 2x2GB G.skill memory, a Q6600 quad chip, and a EVGA 8800GT card. My parts will go to my wife's box, along with a new PSU, and one of my harddrives (she has two already), and her parts will go to the HTPC, with the exception of the video card. I also ordered a new Sapphire HD2600PRO card, merely for the hardware 1080p decoding, and HDMI output support. Won't be playing games on this thing, it'll mostly be a server, and something to view and record TV on. It'll also have one of the LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo readers in it, so I can put my HD-A30 into the bedroom.


Any comments, or recommendations on if I should stick with XP, go to MCE, or Vista? I really like SageTV, the built-in guide is awesome, but I can't get the remote from the FusionHD 7 RT Gold to work with it, and I don't want to shell out yet another $30+ for a MCE remote of some sort.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Wait for the new Hauppauge HD PVR. It will be able to capture 1080p from a component connection. Which means, you can connect the component out of your cable/satellite set top box into this device and record ANY channel as the set top box will do the decrypting of the data. No other device can do this, which means no one can record HD HBO/Showtime/etc..., but this device can! It also includes an IR Blaster so that you can control the channels on the cable/satellite set top box from the computer (in order to let your computer recording software set the channel for the show to record).

Link:
http://blogs.snapstream.com/20...-the-hauppauge-hd-pvr/

http://www.mydigitallife.info/...r-for-consumer-market/

http://www.businesswire.com/po...0110006038&newsLang=en

Might be a month or two away still since they are working on the final case design (it is an external USB2 attached device). But the electronics part of it is complete...

I think Hauppague is going to have some legal troubles w/ this device.

 

[neodoc]

hi this is my first post on this forum.dont blast if i post in wrong forum
i am making a new htpc for living room.
i am indian.we dont have hdtv yet.so what tv tuner card i shall put?
my current system config is intel p4 3.06 ghz
1 gb ddr2 533 mhz ram
vista home premium
160 gb internal and 500 gb external hd
lightscribe dvd writer.
this system is from hp it runs on ati xpress 200 chipset
i have one pci express 16 slot and 3 pci slots
it had spdif audio output on realtek driver
now i have set following goals for this htpc.
1)able to record the good quality video from my dth box
2)play the downloaded movies without stutter on 37 inch samsung lcd tv
3)audio output should go to 5.1 channel yamaha speakers which i am about to purchase.my pc has 7.1 audio output in built and spdif out both . so which one to use?
so which tv tuner card shall i purchase.i dont need hdtv support yet.it should have vista media center remote.
my local dealer advised avermedia super007 tv tuner.is it worth it?
kindly guide me.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: neodoc
hi this is my first post on this forum.dont blast if i post in wrong forum
i am making a new htpc for living room.
i am indian.we dont have hdtv yet.so what tv tuner card i shall put?
my current system config is intel p4 3.06 ghz
1 gb ddr2 533 mhz ram
vista home premium
160 gb internal and 500 gb external hd
lightscribe dvd writer.
this system is from hp it runs on ati xpress 200 chipset
i have one pci express 16 slot and 3 pci slots
it had spdif audio output on realtek driver
now i have set following goals for this htpc.
1)able to record the good quality video from my dth box
2)play the downloaded movies without stutter on 37 inch samsung lcd tv
3)audio output should go to 5.1 channel yamaha speakers which i am about to purchase.my pc has 7.1 audio output in built and spdif out both . so which one to use?
so which tv tuner card shall i purchase.i dont need hdtv support yet.it should have vista media center remote.
my local dealer advised avermedia super007 tv tuner.is it worth it?
kindly guide me.

heyheybooboo posted a link near the top to a TV Tuner chart, I found it very useful. Honestly, the cost of a HD capable tuner isn't much more than a non-HD one at this point, and may perform better in the long run anyways. Doesn't make sense to not get one at this point.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Alright, so I just ordered up new parts, kind of a mixture of upgrades for my box, upgrades for my wife's, and then some stuff for the HTPC.

Currently I have:
C2D E6300
3GB (2x1 and 2x512) DDR800 OCZ Gold
XFX XXX Silent 7950GT

My wife has:
ASUS P4P800 SE
P4 2.4 Northwood HT
1.5GB (2x256 2x512) DDR400
ATI X800XT


I'm ordering a new Gigabyte P35 board, 2x2GB G.skill memory, a Q6600 quad chip, and a EVGA 8800GT card. My parts will go to my wife's box, along with a new PSU, and one of my harddrives (she has two already), and her parts will go to the HTPC, with the exception of the video card. I also ordered a new Sapphire HD2600PRO card, merely for the hardware 1080p decoding, and HDMI output support. Won't be playing games on this thing, it'll mostly be a server, and something to view and record TV on. It'll also have one of the LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo readers in it, so I can put my HD-A30 into the bedroom.


Any comments, or recommendations on if I should stick with XP, go to MCE, or Vista? I really like SageTV, the built-in guide is awesome, but I can't get the remote from the FusionHD 7 RT Gold to work with it, and I don't want to shell out yet another $30+ for a MCE remote of some sort.

Alright, what ended up happening is this:

I got the FusionHD 7 RT Gold card, it's alright at best. Decent quality, the remote only works with its own proprietary non-USB IR receiver, so I got a MCE remote which works great. I'm running SageTV with a few addons, nothing major.

I took the P4 2.4, and built the box around that. Basically everything that was in my wife's box, except the X800XT. As nice a card as it is, I need HD hardware decoding. I went out and got an AGP based HD 2600 Pro, decent card, handles HD, but the CPU is really holding things back. If I shut down Sage, and everything else, and only run VLC, I can play 720p content fine, 1080p is just too much. Any kind of rapid movement (such as in Batman: Gotham Knight in the 2nd story, where he's standing in the flames) it just freezes up for 10-15 seconds.

I was thinking of going to a AMD 780g based board, with a 3470 card for hybrid graphics, and a 4850e chip to get down to the 45w TDP so I could run fanless. But the cost of what would've been required (PSU, memory, board, chip, card, etc), is about the same as a standard Gigabyte Intel board, with a E2220 chip, memory, and a 8600GT overclocked card, which would be far more powerful. If I could've used a higher end AMD/ATI card with the 780 I'd be happy, but I understand that the integrated 3200 just isn't powerful enough to work in hybrid mode with higher end cards, at least for now, so I'm happy with this.

Next weekend I should have the parts, I'll put it together and re-image it all. All of my media is saved on a RAID-5 based array, basically 3 SATAII 500GB drives running off a PCI software-based RAID card. Works great, plenty fast enough for recording HD and playback at the same time.