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basic TV Tuner questions

MrDudeMan

MrDudeMan

Lifer
I am interested in putting a TV Tuner in my Vista Media Center. I have several extenders all over the house and it works flawlessly. The problem is only some of the TVs have digital tuners, so I need my desktop downstairs running media center to distribute it. Also, using the computer as a DVR would be nice.

I have an antenna in my attic receiving many digital and HD channels. I've been reading for an hour or so, but I can't figure out which tuners will work with OTA or if all of them will. The other confusing part is what it means when the description says dual tuner. Does that mean dual as in two types of broadcasts (digital and HD?) or does it mean it can record both types of broadcasts on different channels simultaneously? I'm hoping the latter is true.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
It depends. Sometimes dual tuner means one digital (ATSC) and one analog (NTSC). You want to look for something specifically with dual ATSC (or digital) tuners.

An NTSC signal will work with old analog OTA, if there are any stations broadcasting in your area. In mine, they are all repeaters of digital channels I can pick up. All 3 of my tuners are ATSC/QAM (QAM = digital unencrypted cable) only.

I have a Hauppage 1250 in my Vista Media Center machine, a dual tuner Hauupage in my Windows 7 media center machine and a DVico USB hooked up to my main machine (which works without any issues under Windows 7 Pro and Media Center.

Stick with a known brand with Media Center support and you should be fine.
 
I've been using a Hauppauge 2250 for about a year, and the past 4 months have been with Win7 MCE. I use it with my OTA antenna. All OTA in the U.S. is digital now, regardless of whether it's SD or HD. The 2250 has a dual-ATSC tuner, so you can record two shows at once, or watch one show while recording another.

Another thing I like about the 2250 is that is only needs one connection from the antenna for both tuners. Some tuners would require two connections from the antenna for both tuners.
 
Thanks for the information guys. The Hauppauge 2250 sounds perfect. I would have to run a second coax cable to my desktop to get the second channel and I didn't want to do that. I'm glad a company finally decided to repeat the signal internally.
 
Been a fan of the DViCO Fusions for a good many years, both OTA and cable QAM. I grad-ee-ated to WMC but went back to the Fusion player/recorder because WMC didn't capture my sub-channels properly (and I preferred using HandBrake or AutoGK to convert my "*.TP" files). I can also record individual sub-channels with the fusion instead of the entire transport stream.

Not sure if WMC has fixed the sub-channel thing or how it now handles recording. (Can you tell I'm quite leery of MS & DRM issues - LOL) Win7 seemed more 'flexible' in WMC than Vista; and I never really became comfortable with converting the WMC DVR-MS format though there are some decent utilities that may be of some help to you.

I've had a few Hauppauge cards and they are decent (except for the pant-load that is their WinTV software).




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