ATSC OTA tuner

[konakona]

I think have lived long enough without a TV, and could use a TV tuner for a change

My criteria are very simple and straightforward:
1) must provide clearest picture & sound for money
2) must have an OTA support, the only thing I will be using the tuner for!
3) no need for NTSC tuner (not planning on signing up for paid cable)
4) no need for recording AT ALL (this is for casual watching only, I don't intend to turn TV into a regular habit)
5) usb solution is preferred (would be nice to choose from the three available computers)
6) the cheaper the merrier of course!

I have read some egg reviews on some of the cards that carry, but you know how reliable those egg experts can be. It would be nice to get some advice from here to be safe. Thanks!

 

[masterbm]

Well Basically you need to look for cable card that has digtal tv support since analog is dead. But i built freind media center system with hauppage card his be fine would recommend them. I run ati tv cards 650 have had no issue running them for couple years now. But since amd sold that branch I would say stay away from ati. The other that would be helpfull is what os are you do you want to ran. And do you plan runnning some sort meida center software?

 

[0roo0roo]

well any "hdtv" card has been digital for quite a few years now. and those don't cost all that much.
many have dual tuners these days for dvr functionality.

 

[elconejito]

I use Avermedia Combo PCI-e which has both NTSC and ATSC tuners. This particular one has two separate tuners, so you can use both at the same time. Some of the cards use a dual/combo tuner where you can only use one tuner at a time. It was less than $100 when I got it over a year ago, probably cheaper now.

I've heard that the HD Homerun has a model that has a network output, so that might be an option. Otherwise, their USB version you can pickup and carry around to different machines.

There is also the Hauppaugge (sp?) HD-PVR which is a USB device but I'm not sure if it does OTA. It is neat though because it automatically compresses to h.264 in the event you wanted to save the file.

 

[konakona]

I have read user reviews on these and am leaning towards the top two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815101002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815100035
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815116031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815260023

The EVGA one doesn't have clearQAM, but like I said I am only using this for OTA. Included software won't matter since I have been using for KMP for years now anyway.
I have had 2 K-world tuners of different kind in the past, and grew a bit leery of their quality. Any thoughts on/experience with the linked models anyone?

 

[elconejito]

Never used any of them personally, but had a bad experience with a KWorld once...

 

[heyheybooboo]

Check out the Divco Fusion HDTV7 RT Gold PCI card and USB stick.

Over the years I've tried Hauppauge and ATI but neither top the Fusion.

Works well with Win7 MC and XP - not so great with Vista MC.

The stand alone Fusion player works very well in any of them. The simple recording scheduler has worked well for me, too.

I don't watch a bunch of TV either but over the past 6 or so years have collected a decent library of primarily PBS HD presentations - beats the crapola out of another CSI or Law and Order, and I can watch at my time and pleasure.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Check out the Divco Fusion HDTV7 RT Gold PCI card and USB stick.

Over the years I've tried Hauppauge and ATI but neither top the Fusion.

Works well with Win7 MC and XP - not so great with Vista MC.

The stand alone Fusion player works very well in any of them. The simple recording scheduler has worked well for me, too.

I don't watch a bunch of TV either but over the past 6 or so years have collected a decent library of primarily PBS HD presentations - beats the crapola out of another CSI or Law and Order, and I can watch at my time and pleasure.

thanks, but that looks a tad bit more than what I was hoping for - something around $50ish.
Other than the recordign scheduler, anything you particularly liked about that unit?

 

[fr]

I've had a FusionHDTV1 and right now I have a FusionHDTV5. They just released a new version of the software. It works perfectly for me in Vista 64-bit. No problems at all. Channels change fast and it records the transport stream so there's no loss in quality.