I am building a DVR and am currently looking @ these two tuners.

PLEXTOR ConvertX PX-TV402U-NA PVR Recorder w/built-in Tuner UB 2.0 Interface - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814144504

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 MCE FM 1042 PCI Interface - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6815116620

I really am not worried about a digital tuner as I am waiting for my converter box coupons but no hurry on that as I use satellite mostly.
My specs for the pc I am using are: AMD Sempron 2300+ Processor SDA2300DUT3D - 1.58GHz, 256KB Cache, 333MHz FSB, Thoroughbred
512mb ddr 400 ram
HD will be an 120 gbor larger
125mb agp 8x graphics card
sound blaster audigy 2 sound card and thats about it.

I am going to be using beyond tv as the dvr software and running windows xp pro sp2 and this will be all this thing does is record, oh and will be installing a DVD burner.

I found using an internal PCI card is better than using USB 2.0.

Plus Hauppauge have a good reputation for quality.

Hey,
Just thought i would let you know that I have a Hauppage hvr1600 and love it. I use it in conjunction with Vista Ultimate's Media Center and am totally in awe of how well it works. Personally i thought the Win TV application that it came with was pathetic but it didn't matter.

As far as you saying that you don't need to worry about Digital that is not smart. Its only a little more for the digital tuner and if nothing else its a backup to that box. Besides how good do you think something that's free is going to be? I can vouch for the quality of the digital tuner and say that over the air broadcast on my Dell 24" is just as good as my samsung 40" 1080p (samsung 7041)

Spend the extra money it seems like a no brainer to me...

Free over the air would be nice but I use satellite mainly and if get a signal drop due to heavy rain or snow then I just play games and most of the stuff I am looking at recoding is on cable/sat channels not my locals. but thanks for the info will research some more on that too as I have to convince my wife on the complete build.

You didn't ask about it but I've been really happy with my MSI TV @nywhere card and WinDVR software. I record from cable all the time and burn the video to DVD or convert it for my iPod. The quality is very good and the card was really inexpensive.

flyhiloOne, you said you love your Hauppauge hvr1600. I've thought about getting either that card or the hvr 1800. The only difference I'd really care about is PCI vs. PCI Express x1. Is a PCI Express TV card better/worse/same than a PCI? The hvr1800 is about $20 more than the hvr 1600 on Newegg, which is why I'd lean more towards the 1600 unless someone thinks the PCI Express would be better.

utau, PCI bandwidth is shared between all things connected to it. This can cause you to have conflicts between e.g. PCI sound cards and PCI tuners. Conflicts can cause dropped frames, stuttering, etc. in particular for higher-bandwidth activities.

PCIe all have independent bandwidth right up to the FSB (I'm simplifying, but for practical purposes this is close enough to the truth). That means much much much less risk of stuttering. Also, PCIe is more future-proof, which is nice.

If cost is equal, get PCIe. Even if it's a bit higher, I'd still get PCIe just because of the above.

Thanks for your help tera. That definitely helped and answered my question. PCI Express is what I was leaning towards because of the reasons you mentioned (more future proof) and I knew PCIe had a higher bandwidth.

I'll look for PCIe cards and get those whenever I can.

i got the 150, quality plugged into cable line vs straight to a tv is just crap. pretty ugly scene. On the same note - plugging in a video source such as dvd player looked quite good so it may just be the cable quality issue. Ended up getting the MSI digital/analog pci x1 tuner - bandwidth isn't an issue on PCI if you arent running anything else significant on the pci bus.

how does the MSI compare to the 150 for straight cable? is it better? my cable sucks bad too...but from the cable box its WAY better,,,

much less grainy, and of course anything out of a cable box is clear as day because its receiving the digital picture, then sending it to the computer via short cable. The Hauppauge looks best to watch on a monitor running at 800x600 or less, but still get some serious pixelation. the MSI has less lag and studder, and more importantly doesn't cause Media Center issues on Vista 64