Anyone recommend a 'good' TV tuner card, int or USB

[TigersHere]

I didn't want to spend too much on one but get one that would do all I need. For one I am using Satellite for TV and want to feed one tuner to the PC I just built with media center 2005 ( loving the xbox 360 even more now that I can stream TV / video through it )

But, I need a tuner for the TV part

Thanks
Tiger

 

[namityadav]

I am using the ATI TV wonder USB 2.0 and I am not very excited about it. Not so impressive PQ and setting up the drivers and stuff is a pain. Upgrading the drivers / software is a pain too

 

[Tegeril]

Hauppauge, everything Hauppauge.

 

[dfloyd]

Like Tegeril said Hauppage seems to be about the best out there, especially if your ever considering going PVR. Do some searches on here on them or on the net for nfo. A bit more expensive than some but apparently worth it.

 

[TigersHere]

Hauppauge>>

Yes, I also saw that but wanted to be sure I was not missing out on another product
I have two DVRs, both duel tuner and one is HDTV
BUT ya can't copy the dang files. Watch and delete is all DISH allows so I figure I will play it back into the PC ( or when live ) and save it on the PC
The 622 has a lan port on it for 'future use' so my guess is the DISH Sat receiver can be networked.

Thanks a lot

Tiger

 

[Dman877]

Hauppage PVR-150 (or 500 for dual tuner) is the way to go. The image quality is second only to the new ati theater 550 cards but the hauppage software is much easier to use and the card just works smoother than the new ati cards seem to.

Currently, I use a hauppage wintv go with dscalar and the quality of my analog cable signal is about as good as it gets though dscalar uses 100% cpu to get the picture looking this good.

 

[TigersHere]

I got the media center specific tuners they have
it's at least built with the MCE in mind so can't hurt. They have better ones but this is all I need. I mainly will dump from DVR to PVR just to be able to save to disk or burn to DVD....and it better work with my PC, lol. Asus a8n32sli deluxe is a top end board but who knows if it works with AMD well.....i will see..
Grabbed me a 320 gig drive for 110 bucks while I was at it
I am sure there are deals out there but 110 ain't bad at all

Thanks for the tips!

WinTV-PVR-150 MCE has these great features:


Specifications: 2MBit/sec, 4MBit/sec, 6Mbit/sec, 8Mbit/sec, 12Mbit/sec. Selections for DVD Standard play (8MBitsec), DVD Long Play (4MBit/sec) and DVD Extra Long Play (2.5MBit/sec) NTSC format* at 29.97fps: Full D1: 720x480 PAL format* at 25fps: Full D1: 720x576, MPEG1: 352x288 Audio capture formats: 44.1/48 KHz, 16bit stereo, 192/224/384Kbits/sec Video digitizer: 10 bits Chroma sampling: YUV
TV Tuner: Yes
Video Display: NTSC format* at 29.97fps: Full D1: 720x480


Plug and play TV tuner suppport for Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Live TV from the built-in 125 channel cable ready TV tuner, plus composite/S-Video and audio inputs to connect to a cable TV set top box or satellite receivers.

Built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder. Record TV or videos to disk using from 1-2 Gigabytes of disk space per hour of recorded video. While recording, the WinTV-PVRs' hardware MPEG encoder does all the work, so your PC continues to run at full speed. Over USB 2.0, the WInTV-PVR-USB2 can record at up to 8MBits/sec.

Pause live TV with instant replay, fast forward and rewind.

FM radio receiver, so you can listen to FM radio while you work on your PC
dbx-TV stereo decoder, for great TV sound.

and if I made a bad choice, don't tell me, lol
I will find out the hard way