Media Pc / TV tuner card

[MrMeth]

Hey guys

I have a media pc that consist of Asus M2A-VM , Athlon X2 3800+, ATI 800XL 256, 2 gigs of Kingston value ram 667mhz , Seagate 320 Gig 16Mb ST3320620AS , DVD burner and floppy , all in an antech 1040b case with a 500watt smart power antec PSU. My satelite provider is Bell express vu ,( I think its the Canadian equivalent to Dish network ) I currently dont have an HD reciever but plan on getting one soon ( already have HD TV ) I’m looking for an add in card that will let me play my divx on my TVs with the proper outputs to my amp for sound and will let me record from my bell express vu 3100 rec , I have been looking at tons of cards and even though I’m a tech junkie i have never really had much need for info on tv tuner / add in cards cause i always had an allinwonder in all of my other media pcs!! I miss those cards My budget is around 200-250 Canadian , I have been looking at some cards from HAUPPAUGE but don’t know what card would fit my needs I need some answers and i know you guys know your stuff so here i am plz help !! And thanks in advance !!

 

[MrMeth]

Cmon know one has any suggestions ? I guess to get a response i should have said something fanboyish like amd will eventually crush intel ? lol !! Guys i need some help !!

 

[roadrunner197069]

Any card should work. You wont be able to capture HD on any of the current cards of today. You can capture analog and digital though.

 

[TwiZtiD_3]

I currently have a media center pc using the Hauppauge 1600. I put it together from leftover parts that were lying around from years of upgrades.

Specs are:
Amd athlon 1800+
1 gb pc3200 ram
Vista Utltimate (for the media center part)
radeon 9600 128mb
7.1 chan sound card with SP/DIF (i think its a chaintech or similar... but actually sounds better than my X-Fi) -

* soundcard spdif out to Harmon Kardon receiver
* DVI to Hdmi out to TV

..........................
now, for the part that sounds like you would be interested in. currently i have cable and over the air HDTV. the Hauppauge 1600 has 1 coax in for cable, 1 in for over the air HDTV.

I dont have DirecTV, but was thinking of getting it. Then was kind of concerned as the Directv doesnt have a coaxial OUTPUT. I was at the local computer/electronics store and they had a Directv system set up, and had a media center hooked into it. on the back is also an S-VIDEO and an audio input, and that is what the directv system went into on the tuner card. upon checking system prop... they were using the Hauppauge-1600.

I really like the card a lot.... MOSTLY because of its HARDWARE encoding/decoding... otherwise.. my system specs would give me LAG and spotty recording.. UNDOUBTEDLY. is a great card.

I know that they have a Hauppauge-1800 also.. but cant remember what they had added.

 

[MrMeth]

Thanks TwiZtiD_3 im going to check some reveiews between Hauppauge 1600 and 1800 then ill make my decision after that , anyone else have any other sugggestions ?

 

[Thorbaden]

what channels will the Hauppauge 1600 and 1800 get if it were connected to a regular coax cable from the wall. (not over the air) i have digital cable boxes/HD tvs throughout the house just not in my room. will it get the same channels my tube tv gets in my room? (i get like channels 1-1xx or something).

 

[leon2006]

ATI650 tuner card came up with the best results. I tried different tuner cards one at time on my setup including hauppage 1800. There is no ideal tuner you need to try it out and decide base on the results you will get.

I tried happauge 1800, pinacle HD TV, avermedia HD TV, ATI-600, ATI650.

HD-video quality is good in pinacle HD-TV & ATI boards. Pinacle has issue with out of synce audio/video.

Hauppage 1800 degrade the analog cable video. The analog TV video that came out from the Hauppage 1800 is a DEGRADED version. Just to make sure i tried 2 hauppage card and get the same results.

ATI tuner have great HD-TV video and upgrade the quality of Analog-TV.

Avermedia HDTV has a lot of driver issues, notes , and errata. The board that i got did not work.

These TV card comes with remote. I don't use it. I use my blue-tooth mice/keyboard as my remote. None of the remote will provide a complete feature set that i need.

I prefer to use the Hybrid HD-TV tuner. Hybrid tuners improve the quality of the Analog TV video. If i need another Tuner i will just another card.


My HD-TV source is through Antenna. MY analog TV source is through cable subscription.

I'm using a 70 inch HDTV display. Pixelation is very pronounce in my setup with the TV -card is bad.

Its up to you.

 

[MrMeth]

just to let you guys know i have decided to go with the Hauppauge 1600 card and i will be upgrading my mobo to one of amds 790 chipsets ill let you guys know when i have everything up and running !! Thanks for the input.

 

[roadrunner197069]

I have yet to see a capture card that works good on HD TV 32+ inches.