Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Looking for a TV Tuner Card
Hey guys, I'll be moving into my first apartment soon and don't have the money for a lcd tv and don't have room for a big old school tv. I have a new samsung 22" lcd that I would like to use for my tv also.
I've been looking at tv tuner cards around $100 and would like to get some recommendations on which ones to look at and work well.
Thanks!
--
WAR DAMN EAGLE!
|
|
Ken Peterson
Premium
join:2000-12-08 | You can't go wrong with the Hauppauge cards. Take your pick - they have them in analog, HD, etc. |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | What are the top models made by Hauppauge? |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | Also I will be using this on XP Home if that makes any difference. |
|
DKS
Damn Kidney Stones
Premium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON
clubs:
 ·Bell Sympatico
| reply to Cop
said by Cop  :What are the top models made by Hauppauge? I have the HVR-1250. Nice card, easy install. Basically it gives you a "picture in picture" ability.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care. |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
4 edits | reply to Ken Peterson
Broadcast 1080i (1920X1080) screen grab | 
HVR-1600 HDTV in Vista Media Center | 
720p Screen Capture |
said by Ken Peterson :You can't go wrong with the Hauppauge cards. Take your pick - they have them in analog, HD, etc. I'd agree. I recently purchased the dual-tuner hybrid HVR-!600 and it lets you watch/record HD broadcasts (720p, 1080i) in addition to regular cable. I'm quite happy with the quality and there's even a beta plugin that allows you to watch and record Clear QAM broadcasts in Vista's Media Center. 
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs: | howie, what resolution monitor do you need for HD? I only have a 19" CRT. It will do 1600x1200 though. |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
2 edits | I have a 1280X1024 19" LCD. It looks great, though, even scaled/letterboxed. It should look fine on yours as well. You'd need a 1920X1080 display to view it fullscreen without scaling (1080i widescreen broadcasts/recordings).
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | reply to Cop
Will I be able to use this if I have XP Home? |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
| said by Cop :Will I be able to use this if I have XP Home? Yes, as long as SP2 is applied. The Hauppauge cards come with the "WinTV" application and although quite acceptable, I personally prefer Windows Media Center's TV functions.
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
Pyrion
Liquid Metal Nanomorph
join:2001-12-01
Poway, CA
clubs:
 ·Verizon BroadbandA..
·Cox HSI
| reply to Ken Peterson
said by Ken Peterson :You can't go wrong with the Hauppauge cards. Unless you run Vista x64. I'm the proud owner of a WinTV PVR-500 that's a fancy paperweight since Hauppauge can't seem bothered to write functioning x64 drivers for it.
--
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | reply to Cop
I've read a lot of reviews that suggest using Beyond Tv or Sagetv with these cards. Is either one better then the other? |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
| reply to Pyrion
said by Pyrion :said by Ken Peterson :You can't go wrong with the Hauppauge cards. Unless you run Vista x64. I'm the proud owner of a WinTV PVR-500 that's a fancy paperweight since Hauppauge can't seem bothered to write functioning x64 drivers for it. Sorry to hear that. I had the same issue with ATI's AIW 9600 card. No Vista support at all except for some lousy "Unified Stream Driver" which is almost as bad as no TV at all with the AIW.
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
1 edit | reply to Cop
1080i HD video playback. |
said by Cop :I've read a lot of reviews that suggest using Beyond Tv or Sagetv with these cards. Is either one better then the other? I used BeyondTV a few years back with my ATI AIW tuner and XP and it seemed to work just fine, but IMHO, Windows Media Center (at least the Vista incarnation) is better.
[EDIT] I'm most impressed with Media Center's recording abilities. The dvr-ms MPEG-2 files it creates are just superb. One thing to be aware of, though, is that 1080i HD videos use about 15 megabytes (not megabits) per second of HD video. A large HDD is recommended.
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | Is there a big difference between the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 and the 1800? |
|
Jahntassa
What, I can have feathers
Premium
join:2006-04-14
Conway, SC | Just curious..what are you planning on using as a source? Cable? Antenna? Satellite? |
|
Cop
Premium
join:2001-09-05
Auburn, AL | Just plain regular cable from Charter |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
1 edit | reply to Cop
SD Recording Capture |  |
said by Cop :Is there a big difference between the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 and the 1800? The 1800 uses a PCI-Express slot and has an FM tuner connection.
Shown above are regular SD digital set-top to tuner captures. Not bad, but definitely not HD.
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
|
howie
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
1 edit | reply to Cop
Duplicate post. |
|
Octavean
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY
2 edits | reply to Cop
I agree that a Hauppauge tuner is a good way to go but an Avermedia tuner can be good too. If I were going with Hauppauge I would probably go for the new WinTV-HVR-2250:
»www.hauppauge.com/site/products/···250.html
If I were going with Avermedia I would probably go with the AverTV Combo PCIe X1 M780:
»www.aver.com/mpd/combopcie_mce.html
Of which I have two. The AverMedia m780 has been doing QAM in Media Center Edition and Vista Media Center for some time now. It is also good to see Hauppauge join the ranks of QAM channel mapping capable tuners in applications like MCE / VMC.
One other product I like is the Hauppauge HD PVR. I received my HD PVR not too long ago and it isn’t Vista Media Center capable yet if ever but it’s a great little product nonetheless:
»www.hauppauge.com/site/products/···pvr.html
The Hauppauge HD PVR can't really be called a tuner though. In either case HDTV capable tuners are great and the image quality is amazing! |
|
