Good TV Tuner card for a HTPC ???

[notposting]

I don't know that Windows will break a computer any faster but I would say that a network tuner can make things easier. Sure, his PC driving the projector takes a crap. Luckily his wife mentions it to him, he checks it out, pops his laptop into place, waits for goodies from somewhere to show up, fixes the PC, and she is none the wiser. She thinks he fixed it for her that afternoon, because he is a technological stud.

He couldn't have jammed that PCIe card into his laptop though.

Just saying. Also...as far as the bandwidth. Keep it clean? This is like the "put a bunch of memory in and then keep it empty" crowd. Use it up. You know you want to. Also as mentioned above, bandwidth isn't much even on a 100Mb network.

I'm pretty sure the network has been ass-raped when recording 2 shows on the HTPC from the HDHR and playing back last nights show from the WHS. Never had any problems though.

 

[electroju]

I agree with MrDudeMan that this is pretty stupid reasoning. My favorite is about how the PC breaks and breaks more with Windows. Even if that's true (which it's not), please tell me how to send the signal from the HD Homerun to his projector without a working computer. I'll answer it for you: YOU CAN'T! In other words, if the computer breaks and you have an HD Homerun or a PCI-e tuner, you won't be watching TV until you fix the computer.

Again, it's fine if you want an HD Homerun, but don't be touting advantages that absolutely don't exist. My valid points were about keeping as few devices involved as possible (i.e. if my network switch broke, I'd still be able to watch TV with my PCI-e tuner but not with the HD Homerun), and making it as simple of a connection as possible (I have one cable from my antenna to my PCI-e tuner, which is inside my HTPC; I have no need for extra network connections or external devices just to record TV).

Also, my Hauppauge 2250 tunes all my channels absolutely perfectly all the time. If you knew anything about digital OTA (which is what the OP wants), you'd know that snow and noise do not exist in digital signals; you either have the signal or you don't. With my antenna connected to my TV's tuner, I lose the TV signal about 3-4 times every hour, and the picture just completely stops or goes black for a few seconds, and then it regains the picture. With the Hauppauge 2250, that's never happened once in the past year. Even if the HD Homerun's tuner is 100 times better than the Hauppauge 2250 (which it isn't; from reviews, the Hauppauge has one of the best tuners), then it wouldn't make a lick of difference for me.

OP, what do you want to control with the kb, mouse, and remote. I use a Logitech diNovo Mini as my kb and mouse, and it can be used as a remote as well. It's obviously a bit pricey. If you aren't going to use the kb and mouse a lot, then you can probably get away with just hooking up a USB kb and mouse whenever you need to, and using a $~20 MCE remote with USB IR receiver for the remote duties. Most front-end software can be completely controlled with a remote other than the initial setup.

Edit: I just remembered another thing I don't like about the HD Homerun: it requires two connections for its two tuners. I have one 50' RG6 cable running from my antenna to my Hauppauge 2250. With the HD Homerun I'd have to use a splitter and make two connections.

If you want to have one QAM connection and one ATSC connection, then that's great. For me, it was a negative though.

What I meant is iit is all about the software. When you are dealing with Windows, you get different variations of software for each video capture card. I tried using video capture cards for 10 years in Windows. It just sucks because the software sucks. A unified driver type of system works better, but again it is the software.

I have the following video capture cards.

Hauppauge WinTV Go
Hauppauge PVR-250
LifeView FlyVideo 3000+
ATI Radeon 64 VIVO

The Radeon is a video card with a video capture chip using the AGP bus. It worked better than the others that I have, but only if the drivers did not crash upon booting up. I had to use a 3rd-party software capturing. I used ShowShifter at the time which was the best. The other three I got after ShowShifter got bought out. I have to use the software that the manufacture gives for their card. The software was not reliable in Windows. In Linux the software is a lot more reliable, but recording a TV show takes some time to sort out the disadvantages such as not able to see what the video capture card is recording.

Hauppauge is in the same boat as other manufactures. The tuner is not any better. The computer creates too much interference to have clear picture. I used a VCR or cable box to tune the channels and it then it captured from either S-Video or Composite.

The HD Homerun can be connected straight to a NIC using crossover cable. The cost of additional NIC is a lot lower than video capture devices. Some NIC have a lifetime warranty, so the NIC will last technically forever. I have not yet had a switch go out on me besides the power supply for the switch.

If you want to suit the worst of worst conditions. I did recommend to use a cable box to receive channels with out the use of a computer. If the right model selected that includes USB or IEEE-1394, then you can record just about any channel. If you are lucky, a CableCard could be used to tune to digital cable or satellite TV.

 

[Zaap]

^ Personally, I have no idea what you're going on about. Yes, the HDHomerun is a great device,but it's silly to say everything else 'sucks'. I have a variety of internal cards for satellite STB tuning and they work just fine in Windows (7 and before that, XP), and the drivers are perfectly fine. The HDHomerun requires drivers and front end software to work also.

And BTW, no, I don't believe cablecard works for sat. TV. :/

 

[kalrith]

The HDHomerun requires drivers and front end software to work also.

Exactly this.

It sounds like electroju is downing the other cards for their horrible software:

What I meant is iit is all about the software. When you are dealing with Windows, you get different variations of software for each video capture card. I have to use the software that the manufacture gives for their card. The software was not reliable in Windows.

I completely agree that the included software is terrible, which is why no one on here uses it .

I use Win7 MCE with my Hauppauge 2250. I would use the exact same software with the HD Homerun. I would notice no difference on my HTPC between the two.

The advantages of each product have been well-detailed in this thread, and there's no definitely better choice for every person out there. I chose the Hauppauge 2250, because its advantages outweighed the advantages of the HD Homerun for me personally. Other people choose the HD Homerun for the exact same reasons.

Hopefully we can just put this comparison to rest and let the OP have his thread back.

 

[Alienwho]

I have an ATI 650 PCI in my HTPC and an HD Homerun as well. I had the 650 first and I was originally planning on getting a second, but woot had a steal on the HD homerun when I was going to buy so I just went with that.

I love them both. The HD Homerun is pretty awesome because we only have one TV, and if I'm playing PS3 or watching TV on it and my wife has to watch Vampire Diaries she can watch it on her laptop or my desktop or whatever she wants to do.

I like my setup of having the one dedicated tuner along with the HD Homerun. The quality of each is identically awesome. The HD Homerun is more flexible and I can see it becoming more of a necessity for me when I buy a house and I set up an office in a spare bedroom that doesn't have a dedicated TV.

IMO don't let the talk of network bandwidth and all that crap sway your decision. Seriously that isn't even an issue. Just get what you think fits the bill for what you want and is more cost effective for you.

And if you get the HD homerun make sure you OPEN THE PORTS ON YOUR FIREWALL. It killed me getting the thing to work because I didn't make the obvious connection that it uses the network. i spent like 2 hours troubleshooting cause I thought it was broken.

 

[Plugers]

If you want to mess with FTA sat, I have one of these

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15821~r.41282834

It works well with "MyTheater". I have yet to try to integrate it into Myth or WMC.

It's fun to play with and gives a bunch of free channels cable doesn't offer, not to mention the "wild feeds" that can be entertaining at times.