TV Tuner Newbie Questions

[TrickyBuddha]

I have no idea where to start. My questions are very basic, I think, so take pity on me.

I want to pick up a TV tuner for my PC primarily to record TV for later viewing but also to play around with PVR fucntionality. I have basic cable at home (something like 70 or 80 channels). My PC is an AMD 64 x2 4400+, eVGA 7800 GT CO Nvidia, Windows XP (not MCE), two gigs of dual channel RAM, and I have a MSI RS482 motherboard. I also have a nice widescreen Dell 20" monitor.

Some questions:

* I have a mini case (X-QPACK Aluminum Case, Blue w/ 420W Power Supply) - do I have enough juice to pop in a TV tuner?

* Can I still use two 7800s at some point down the road if I decide to get a TV tuner now? I'm assuming my board won't hold three cards, so it would be an either/or.

* What kind of TV Tuner is good? I was looking at the ATI x1900, but I am wondering if it is overkill. Also, I was wondering how this would affect my gaming. Would the ATI override my Nvidia? Or vice-versa?

Someone, please take pity on me and send me a link to a site where I can start to figure some things out. I'm pretty good at web research, I just need a gentle push!

 

[Heyyou27]

I use two 7800GT COs, and an ATI Theater Pro 550 PCIe 1x card; no problems.

 

[TrickyBuddha]

How many watts is your case?

 

[TrickyBuddha]

Awesome, thank you very much for this response!

 

[EntityAnomly]

I put together a HTPC about 4 months ago and I had good luck with a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150. The card was about $90 and uses a standard PCI card slot. If you have a low profile PC they come in half height cards as well.

There are USB options out there for TV tuning, but I wouldn't suggest going that route unless you have to. USB is not nearly as fast as an onboard card, and then you have to deal with even MORE power/data/video cables behind your TV.

Hauppauge has another model the PVR-500 which is kind of neat, because it has dual tuners so you can watch one thing and record another or record two shows at the same time etc. It is more expensive($150ish I think).

All in all I like my PVR-150 the included remote works well and I get a fairly good picture. Wasn't too hard to setup, just don't use the included TV viewing software, it sucks.

My 2 Cents

-Entity

 

[TrickyBuddha]

I showed a friend of mine this thread and he asked me why I was getting a Hauppauge 150. He said, "you already have an Nvidia 7800 GT CO, so all you need is an s-video-to-composite adapter. Then, grab Nvidia's Personal Cinema program. Now don't need to worry about filling a PCI slot, bother with power consumption, you can still go SLI, and now you can watch TV and do the PVR stuff."

I really appreciate all of the advice, but it sounds like his suggestion is a little more simple. Unless it's bad advice. I have a starting point now, though, and can do the leg work from here, I think.

Thank you!

Personal Cinema
Connecting a video card to a TV and enabling TV output (4th from the bottom - the URL was too long to make into a URL on these forums)

 

[TrickyBuddha]

Hahaha. Another friend just told me:

"that's not what you want. all that does is make the computer able to display stuff on the tv. you need to listen to the original advice and grab something like a hauppauge."

*sigh*

So... thanks again, everyone!

 

[TrickyBuddha]

And here's a page I just found...

http://byopvr.com/FAQ+index-myfaq-yes-id_cat-2.html

Some great answers in there, as well. It's all beginning to make sense.

I think I am going to buy the Hauppauge 350.

 

[engrpiman]

hi,

me and 2 of my friends installed the power color theater 550 pro in our systems

you can get this card at newegg for $70 and it works great. it also comes in both pci and pci e x1 versions . I love the card but you have to download the free GB-PVR software because the software it comes with just does not work..

Also I does hardware MPEG 2 encoding so there is no CPU lag when recording TV.. so you can game and record and the same time.


good luck

 

[EntityAnomly]

Yea TrickyBuddha, you're right you can display the PC video on your TV using your 7800. Which if you would get anything but the PVR-350(built in decoder and TV-outputs) you would need in addition to a PVR type card.

Here is an example of what stuff you'd need to record and watch tv with a PC:

P4 class system
PVR-150
Video Card w/Svid Out
PVR Software Package like WinMCE or GB-PVR
Software MPEG Decoder

or

P4 class system
PVR-350 - which has it's own MPEG Decoder and video outs
PVR Software Package like WinMCE or GB-PVR

Just a side note I use GB-PVR as my PVR software package and it works great. It is a FREE program that you can download from the internet. The author develops and uses the WinTV PVR-150 as his base PVR card, so I know it's going to work with my card.

Ok I've babbled on enough......Sorry if I bored anyone.

 

[EntityAnomly]

You use GB-PVR too, isn't it great

......when the TV guide is working right anyways, had a little trouble with that for a while.

 

[clue69less]

I put together a HTPC about 4 months ago and I had good luck with a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150. The card was about $90 and uses a standard PCI card slot. If you have a low profile PC they come in half height cards as well.

Hauppauge has another model the PVR-500 which is kind of neat, because it has dual tuners so you can watch one thing and record another or record two shows at the same time etc. It is more expensive($150ish I think).

I've been reading PCI TV tuner reviews for months as I'm planning a HTPC build. The PVR-150 has received better reviews than the -500. They both seem to install easier if the OS is XP/MCE, and I do not want MCE, period, due to the DRM BS. So anything you can comment here would be appreciated. I just picked up Beyond TV. Hope that wasn't a waste.