HD TV Tuners

[Annisman]

So, which is the best one right now ? I know little to nothing about TV Tuners for the PC. I have a free PCI and PCIX1 slot on my mobo. I want High Definiton TV, I have 1920X1200 display. So I want to utilize that. Also, I have Vista 64 so I need drivers that support that, which one do you suggest ? I want to buy soon, the price doesn't matter, I want the highest quality. Thanks.

 

[JonathanDeane]

I only know one thing right now about tuners. That one thing is make sure its DTV capable even if you plan on having it connected to cable I do not trust the cable companies to stay the way they are forever.

That said search Newegg and maybe Tigerdirect.com

Also Vista 64 may be a problem for you I see some that say Vista compatible but they say (32 bit) so that scares me a bit lol

 

[Annisman]

Thanks, I checked Newegg and I see alot of Tuners that are Vista 64 bit compatible, however I still know very little about them so if anyone can suggest one I would appreciate it. Also, I do not have cable but I will still take your advice on the DTV topic, in case I get it one day.

 

[starkie24]

do you have satelite then? or aerial? I would reccomend something from hauppauge. They are a reputable tv tuner brand. Im guesing your from the states so you want to look for an NTSC compatible card if you have analog (aerial). If you wnat to have the best of both worlds something like the Hauppauge WinTV HVR4000 will be ideal as it gives you several different ways of connecting up a reciever and is full HD compatible. otherwise just google the net and read some reviews always helps when looking for info on topics.

 

[Annisman]

Thanks for the reply starkie. yes, i am in the USA, I have satelite (but we might be getting rid of it soon) Thanks for the tip on the NTSC requirement, I will make sure I get one with that. I would still like to see other suggestions before I make a purchase.

 

[dallasjoh]

Pinnacle has several very good HD Digital TV tuners. Check them out on the link below.
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV/PCTV/

 

[rockbyter]

You'll probably want one with dual digital tuners.

I picked up the ... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815127006&Tpk=msi%20theater%20650%20pro

certain level of success, great video quality, but it requires a good antenna or area with good over the air reception. I get 9 channels using the thumb sized antenna it comes with. Has one analog tuner, and one seperate digital jack with video in (use it to play Wii on screen). DVR functions over both, only one show watched OR recorded at a time per tuner. Vista 64 plug and play, windows update has drivers, and Media Center works perfectly with it. Havent used software it came with.

 

[cyberjock]

I have Dish Network. Currently I am recording SD only. Here's what I have...

My Dish Network box is connected to a Hauppauge 1600 PCI express card. The Dish Network box is controlled in BeyondTV via USB-UIRT. This setup was quite easy, and the quality difference between my old cable and satellite was tremendous. I have a 55" 1080p TV.

After I get done with work this week, I will be changing to the Hauppauge external HD PVR box. I've had the HD PVR box for quite some time, and it works very well for recording HD. The problem I found is that if I input SD to the box, it will upconvert it to 1080p, and then compress it to MPEG-4. The bottom line was the MPEG 4 stream was bigger than the MPEG 2 stream from the old SD card.

 

[Annisman]

Pinnacle has several very good HD Digital TV tuners. Check them out on the link below.
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV/PCTV/

Hmmm, do you think that these being thumb drive-based limits them in any way compare to a PCI variant ?

 

[evilshuriken]

Hmmm, do you think that these being thumb drive-based limits them in any way compare to a PCI variant ?

The PCTV HD Card is a PCI card.

 

[dallasjoh]

I was referring to this tuner: PCTV HD Card

 

[Annisman]

Ah, ok, the link showed a few USB variants.

 

[macblob]

Hope you guys are still looking at this thread.
Anyway, here goes my two cents......
I have used:

Hauppage PVR-150 and Hauppage HVR-1600.
ATI TV Wonder™ HD 650 Combo USB for PC
Pinnacle PCTV to go HD Wireless
Slingbox Pro HD

The PVR-150 gave me less hassles than anything else. It is an analog tv tuner and will be useless next year due to the digital transition. It will work great with regular cable subscription.

The HVR-1600. This is an analog in and a ATSC in. ATSC is attenae. Never got it to work on digital cable. Some people claimed they have though. When i tried to plug the cable in for the ATSC to my regular cable out of the wall it popped the digital part right out. kapooey.

ATI 650 worked really well with the cable in and the video stereo from the cable set top box. The draw back was that i could not intigrate it into my cable set top box that well. No true HD from the set top box....only from the regular cable wire.

Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless. Worked very well with Cable in and the set top box. Sharpest picture i have ever had. Only draw back was that PCTV to Go only can receive stereo (red/white) audio from the set top box. No 5.1 surround sound in from the box, only from the cable in. Also works great for ATSC/QAM and Analog.


Sling Box Pro HD. I just bought it Friday and installed it Saturday. Worked very well with the Sling Player Software it came with. Tried using it on Vista media Center....NO GO. It would not work. even after all of the write ups said it would. I found out i was duped in that. I wanted the Sling Box because it had the orange coaxial audio SPDIF...AKA 5.1 surround sound.

Out of all of the ones I have used Slingbox was the only one that did not work with media center.

I should have went with Hava at http://www.myhava.com/index.html or stuck with my Pinnacle and waited.

Hauppauge has an HD PVR but it is not media center compatable either.

Good luck.

 

[califmike2003]

The best hd tv card hands down by a landslide is the dvico hd-7 , best picture quality around, great drivers, and its a dual tunner, trust me, located at www.digitalconnection.com

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I use a Hauppauge HVR-1600 on 64-bit Vista with 4GB of RAM. I have the digital tuner hooked up to an OTA antenna for HD content and the analog tuner hooked up to my basic cable. It works great. Hauppauge has a new model out that caught my attention. It's the HVR-2250 and it has dual tuners that can be used for either SD or HD content.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html

I don't know if it will work with satellite though.