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TV tuner/capture card help

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mythos   08-24-2006 at 07:25:33 AM

Hello,

I am having some trouble picking the right tv tuner/capture card for my setup so some input would be greatly appreciated

I'm looking for a solution that will let me watch OTA HD as well as regular analog tv, and hopefully also allow connection to an HD cable box. Also, I want to be able to record *in HD* - is this possible? and how much space does this take on the harddrive?

assuming I have a decent AMD X2 rig with a 7600GT, what would I need to get to do this?

It will be hooked up either to an LCD monitor
LG 203WTX

or to an LCD TV
Acer AT-3705-DTV

Any input would be great! I really want to be able to record shows in HD, that and be able to pause/rewind live tv, those are the main concerns

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Henrik   08-25-2006 at 06:40:25 PM
- 0 +

In regards to your computer, are you running XP x64? If so, keep in mind that some TV Tuner card vendors don't support a 64-bit OS.

Also, check out Hauppague. They have plenty of hardware and software choices including HD capability. Hope this helps...

Reply to Henrik
mythos   08-25-2006 at 07:33:32 PM
- 0 +

Thanks for the response but still not really getting any closer to knowing what to get...

The Hauppage site is confusing - under "digital" they only have European standards, and the rest of the TV-PVR cards don't seem t support digital / HD tv if I'm reading it right? And max recording is 12mbit/sec?

Is there any card out there that will let me watch OTA HD (in Canada), will attach to HD cable and/or satellite, and will let me record in full HD?

And no I'm not running XP64 yet though presumably will be in the future

Reply to mythos
4Aces   08-25-2006 at 08:46:40 PM
- 0 +

First if you live in europe then Hauppauge works best if you live in the US then Leadtek works best. HD OTA will only work for OVER the AIR broadcasts, meaning ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS that's IT. There are NO tv tuners that will record encrypted QAM or cable TV. It's my opinion that you'll need to be 20-25miles from the transmitter to get a decent signal of any kind for OTA HD so keep that in mind.
I've been here done this and there's really only one way to setup a HTPC, and that's with a LCD monitor or TV nothing else looks worth a crap at all. I never tried plasma, most of those don't have DVI and have burn in issues. Recording HD maybe possible for some OTA stuff but that's about it, anything on digital cable can't be seen or will have a limiter on the signal.
My advice would be to get a DVR if you want to record HD. The HD tuners that I've used and seen have just horrible analog tv and their software leave much to be desired.
You can try TV-Cards.com they have a forum with alot of help, and that's what the forum's about unlike THG's flame wars forum.

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