I need a good TV Tuner card and dotn what what i need to know

[little_scrapper]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000047%201148510222&Description=digital%20tv%20tuner%20card&bop=And&Order=RATING

I want a HD TV Tuner card, digital whatever. What do i need to know. Money isnt really an object but Im also not going to spend $500 on one for my PC

I have a DS3 rev3.3 and only using 1 vid card and pci sound card. so i have a couple slots open for a tuner.:shrug:

[itznfb]

Hauppauge WinTV 1800 is probably the best if you want to be able to watch different formats. sucks though because pretty much every card is single tuner per format. which means you can't watch one station while recording another. which IMO makes it completely uselss. if you have standard cable (no hd) the MCE500 is the ONLY card to consider IMO since it has dual tuners onboard.

[WrigleyVillain]

Got an available PCI Express slot? Read good things about this card. Supports Clear-QAM.

http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonder650/PCIe/index.html

Hauppage is another good manufacturer of tuners. I have the USB HVR-950 stick. It's decent, especially for it's size and portability. The included software isn't great though it can be used with much better 3rd Party alternatives, including Windows MCE.

[little_scrapper]

I believe my DS3 sas 3 pci -e slots besides the grafix slot. I believe they are 1x electrically, and I also have 2 unused regular pci slots.

QAM is that what i want? Is that the true HD tuner deal? So that as long as its HD transmit I get HD on my LCD?

[little_scrapper]

I guess all I really need to know is which ones have true HD output? Because if something is broadcast in HD I want to watch it in HD.

EDIT: Can someone explain to me the good and the bad of this one. http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/03/dvico-launches-pcie-based-fusionhdtv7-dual-hdtv-tuner-card/

http://www.cyberestore.com/dvico-fusionhdtv7-cool-atscntscqam-tuner-p-772.html
:down::up::shrug:
is this what I want?

[WrigleyVillain]

That one looks decent though I don't have a lot of experience with various units. Read a couple reviews of that card and/or the ATI one and you will get a lot more basic information about tuners in general. Actually, I thought I'd seen one at Anandtech for the latter and took a quick peek and just found this (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=2761).
The Nvidia DualTV which can apparently record two sources (mention this in response to itznfb mainly I guess). Anyway give that article a look, I'd say...

QAM defintion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner

[little_scrapper]

Checked the date. The problem I was having was that most of the reviews, like that one, is that they are old.

[yankee]

I've got an HVR-1800 and was disappointed to find out that HD over cable is not supported. You can only get HD signals over the air.

Stay away from this card.

[itznfb]

That one looks decent though I don't have a lot of experience with various units. Read a couple reviews of that card and/or the ATI one and you will get a lot more basic information about tuners in general. Actually, I thought I'd seen one at Anandtech for the latter and took a quick peek and just found this (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=2761).
The Nvidia DualTV which can apparently record two sources (mention this in response to itznfb mainly I guess). Anyway give that article a look, I'd say...

QAM defintion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner

the nvidia card has really poor image quality, and get much hotter than other cards, also starts to lag when recording 2 channels, or watching 1 and recording 1.


I've got an HVR-1800 and was disappointed to find out that HD over cable is not supported. You can only get HD signals over the air.

Stay away from this card.

it supports cable fed HD. i use the 1800, it's connected to an antenna, my comcast HD, and my standard cable line. works perfectly.

OP: keep in mind, HD won't playback on XP. you'll need Vista if you want to use an HD Tuner

[AbortRetryFail?]

Here is a tuner chart:
http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/comparetuners.html

HDTV works just dandy in XP.

I would suggest a Fusion5 ATSC hybrid tuner from here:
http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/video/fusion5rt.asp

If you ""Log in to Save"" at the main page your purchase price is 30% less (or 70 bucks).

QAM simply allows you to receive analog cable signals AND unencrypted cable HD with the tuner card.

Encrypted cable HD can only be received by an OEM computer with cablecard.

Your issue will be your computer screen is 16:10 ratio. ""ATSC"" HD is 16:9 ratio. Hopefully your monitor will 'letterbox' 1366x768 - if not it may stretch the aspect ratio ...

As far is ATSC tuners go you need to verify that they will process or pass-thru AC3 audio so you can enjoy 5.1 sound.

The Fusion5 will do over-the-air ATSC (HD) and NTSC (standard def). It will also do cable analog and unencrypted digital HD (QAM). Good to go with AC3 audio. It comes with a remote and can be wired so the computer may be turned on/off with the remote.

(not an advertisement)

:D

[MikeB12]

I'm using a ati theater 650 http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=Theater_650PRO&class=vga
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815127006

It's been a great card. record about 30hrs a week, vista 64 media center..