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Some opinions on HDTV tuners


red930

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From my research when building my HTPC, the NVIDIA DualTV with Purevideo decoders has the best analog picture quality. I have that one and the Hauppauge PVR-150. For HD, I use the OnAir USB HDTV-GT, and it does a fantastic job pulling in HD signals with my OTA antenna(43 miles from transmitters). It's also a QAM tuner. Any of the newer HD tuners that use the 5th generation chip will work decent. It's all about the drivers after that. DVICO, Hauppauge, OnAir, etc all have their quirks. Building an HTPC is not for the feint of heart. If you try and use all of the above in Windows Media Center, throw in another layer of quirks.

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Thanks for the thoughts guys keep 'em coming.

 

I was going to purchase a MyHD card as it seems a lot of people really, like them - but seeing as how they're hard to find I'm not certain thats the best recommendation. I'll throw it in the guide, but I haven't found any reputable dealers to purchase one from.

 

A buddy (actually 2 buddies) own the Dvico, so I'll give that a shot.

 

The Linux card I'm very interested in, but will it also work with MCE?

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I use a Sabrent TVFM card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16815123001 with Honestech PVR and the tuner is a Philips BT787, this card comes with 1 of 4 different tuners. If you read the egg reviews it didn't get much praise, but I haven't experience any of the issues written about.I can't really comment to much on the recordng, although I do record some TV to playback later which works fine but I haven't done any transfering to DVD or CD with it. The picture quality is pretty good, however I do experience some em raditaion picture distortion, but only on certian channels for the most part I like the card for $24.99 as long as you don't want to use the remote as it is a realy piece of junk.

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I'd be willing to send it to you for testing if you would like.

 

Thanks for the offer man, depending on what happens I might take you up on it. :angel:

 

I've got a buddy with the Dvico FusionHD that I'll try out first, apparently he researched this heavily when he got his and I tihnk that'll be the top player for internal cards.

 

The MyHD MDP-130 is apparently slightly nicer, but isn't in production anymore so is extremely tough to find.

 

Dr_Bowtie has an inexpensive model (possibly the Sabrent previously mentioned) so I'll talk to him about that sometime...

 

Not sure I'm going to test out a lot of them, this semester is pretty busy for me since I'm supposed to be finding a sweet job to support my rediculously expensive hobbies...

 

Anyways, I'll let you know. Thanks again for the offer.:)

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I use a Sabrent TVFM card with Honestech PVR and the tuner is a Philips BT787

 

I personally think the Honestech software is for the birds.

 

My first (el-cheapo) PCMCIA tuner came with Honestech TVR and the interface is horrendous and the scheduler is even worse. It has no option for interfacing with an EPG so schedule entries must be entered manually. Oftentimes the video would lock up for a second then the audio and video would be out of sync (especially the case for recording). The software is also very finicky with the video drivers using any of the Forcware 9x.xx drivers results in the numbers (when changing channels) to flash on the screen.

 

I've since switched to a Compro VideoMate P300 and all these issues are resolved. Also has power-up recording and the remote also works with Cyberlink PowerDVD.

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A few opinions:

I have an Avermedia MCE500 (dual tuner SD) and an ATI AIW.

The avermedia is based on the same chip as the nvidia (so, great hardware), but the drivers lack nvidia's features (no fine tuning of the quality). The quality is good, but could probably be better with the tuning.

The AIW is a poor tuner, especially compared to the avermedia.

 

I also have an ADS HDTV card. The HDTV reception is poor without a great antenna (and I am in a good area for reception). The card does not include QAM, only OTA reception. Anyway, a word about QAM: it is not supported by many softwares, including windows MCE, so having it in hardware is great, but difficult to use.

 

As an aside, does anyone know of a good program to watch HDTV on a computer? The trial version of Beyond TV expired and i could not find anything else for free. For regular TV, yes, but not for HD...

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Frenchy--check www.gbpvr.com --I think sub added the ADS HDTV card to the latest release(0.99.5). It's an excellent program once you get it all set up. I have it on one of my machines. Mapping the digital channels is a pain in the buttocks, but fine once you get it done. It will support QAM tuners too. It will also merge your EPGs from cable and OTA into one guide. Best of all, it's free!

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  • 1 month later...

Here is the next tuner(s) I am looking at getting: http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun.

 

It is called the hdhomerun, which is a networked dual hdtv tuner. It then can be setup to work with various media player products: Windows Media Center, VLC, Media Portal, mythtv, etc...

 

It would be great if you are running low on PCI slots and are looking for more tuners. Again i haven't used it, but it seems like a good product.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Here is the next tuner(s) I am looking at getting: http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun.

It is called the hdhomerun' date=' which is a networked dual hdtv tuner. QUOTE']

Small correction, please.

 

It's a dual OTA HDTV tuner (as you said), but also is a Dual QAM tuner (or one of each). :drool:

For those who may not know, if you have basic, analog cable service, you ALSO have HIDDEN DIGITAL channels - for FREE!

The catch is you need a QAM tuner to use them.

 

The second great thing about it is it connects to an ethernet port (not a USB port).

If that ethernet port is on a ROUTER, any HTPC in the house can use the tuner!

 

But WAIT - THERE's MORE!

As a THIRD, bonus feature for those such as overclockers and hackers ... it's new and said to be "not for the faint of heart", although getting MUCH easer to use now.

But if you've ever worried about a chipset temp, this should be no sweat. :)

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