MyHD MDP-130 With DVI Add-On Card

[daniel1113]

Hey guys,

Now that I am officially done building my new computer, I'd like to get a tuner/capture card. I am looking at the MyHD MDP-130, and have a question regarding the DVI add-on card. As I understand things, the DVI card will allow me to loop the DVI output of my video card through the MyHD card, which will then get connected via another DVI cable to my monitor. This is great, and will definitely come in handy for the times when I want to watch full-screen HD video. However, can I still watch HD video without switching over to the daughter card completely (i.e., in another window while typing a paper in Word, crusing the net, etc.)?

Basically, I am just confused how the daughter card functions.

Also, while we are on the topic of HD PCI cards... it seems to me, after a few days of research, that HD tuners for computers are in a rut, so to say. Although there are a few options out there (Fusion, myHD, ATI), all the cards have some big issues, especially when it comes to software. Is it even worth investing $250 or so in an HD tuner card now?

 

[HendrixFan]

From what I have read on it, not really.

To make matters worse, if you want anything other than OTA broadcasts in HD, you are out of luck. Cable companies encrypt the channels (ESPN HD, TNT HD, HBO HD) so that you are limited to the local channels.

The HD cards themselves dont record at HD quality, the just capture the .TS stream. So if you wanted to record anything else in higher quality, you couldnt because the analog capture is still limited to 480i.

 

[dug777]

my fusion dvb-t card is teh pwn

i watch/record hdtv on my primary, while working/messing about on my secondary...no probs with recording or timeshifting, or scheduled recording, and 1080i/720p looks awesome compared to 576i SD broadcasts here...all our channels simulcast HD so i never have to worry about SD

 

[daniel1113]

It's too bad the Fusion cards don't fully support QAM, otherwise I would have gotten one sooner.

 

[rbV5]

Here's a quick guide on using the DVI daughter cardLink

You can watch the HDTV in a window on the PC as well, although it is limited to 480p in the window IIRC because it has to pass the PCI bus before being displayed. It work OK for just viewing in a window as I recall.

I agree with your comment on the software. Its primarily why I don't use my MyHD mdp-100 card instead of my HDTV Wonder. I think the software cards supported in MCE 2005 are a superior solution, and in MCE 2005 my HDTV Wonder works very well.

Clearly, the MIT MyHD cards are superior hardware, but coupled with a decent graphics card and MCE 2005, my HDTV Wonder is prefered in my house due to its seemless integration and ease of use.

There are pros and cons, but I feel that the supported software cards used in MCE 2005 offer a very nice HDTV solution that works very well and is worth the investment especially if you are building a new rig and don't already have the OS. MCE 2005 is cheaper than XP pro, and adding HDTV to the mix is <$200 investment provided you live in a broadcast area..thats worth it just for MNF if nothing else

 

[daniel1113]

Now, if I were to just purchase the main MDP-130 card and install it without the daughter card, am I able to watch full HD quality (720 or 1080) television within Windows? Or, is that also limited to the 480p maximum?

It seems as though HDTV cards would be the perfect candidate for a PCI-E interface, if the PCI slot is the limiting factor here. Since I only have a single free PCI slot and 4 free PCI-E slots, I'm hoping that in the near future a few PCI-E HDTV cards will become available. Do you think this is realistic? Or should I not even bother waiting?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Now, if I were to just purchase the main MDP-130 card and install it without the daughter card, am I able to watch full HD quality (720 or 1080) television within Windows? Or, is that also limited to the 480p maximum?

It seems as though HDTV cards would be the perfect candidate for a PCI-E interface, if the PCI slot is the limiting factor here. Since I only have a single free PCI slot and 4 free PCI-E slots, I'm hoping that in the near future a few PCI-E HDTV cards will become available. Do you think this is realistic? Or should I not even bother waiting?

I've only kind of skimmed the posts in this thread so far, but rbV5 was correct - you can't watch full-resolution HD video in Windows with this card; at least not "live". It uses its own video outputs for full-resolution HD, which can be either a good thing or a not so good thing depending on your use. A lot of people use this card to hook it up to large HDTV displays and such. When I watch HDTV, I like to watch it full-screen anyway, and if it's something that I don't intend to pay real close attention to (like news in the background or something), then the 480p preview window on the desktop is fine for that. For reference, I own the MDP-130 and DVI card. Feel free to ask me any questions about it and I'll try to answer.

About the PCI-E...I have not heard a single thing about a PCI-E TV tuner, HD or otherwise. In fact, there aren't yet that many PCI-E cards at all (excluding video cards). I think that for most things, the extra bandwidth isn't needed yet - or at least that's the impression I've gotten. In any case, it doesn't matter too much to speculate, because the fact is that you can't buy one in PCI-E that I know of, and if you want to buy one now, then just buy one instead of waiting for something that may take a long time to appear on the market.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Also, to respond to this part of your post:

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Also, while we are on the topic of HD PCI cards... it seems to me, after a few days of research, that HD tuners for computers are in a rut, so to say. Although there are a few options out there (Fusion, myHD, ATI), all the cards have some big issues, especially when it comes to software. Is it even worth investing $250 or so in an HD tuner card now?

You're right to an extent, there are only a few real solutions on the market, those being the ones you've named. (Although personally the ATI wouldn't work for me since I need QAM support, but of course that won't be an issue for everyone.)

What kind of software issues are you referring to? I've not had many problems with my card and its software, and my brother owns the Fusion 5 Lite and it works pretty well for him too. And as Dug posted above, he has the DVB-T version of the Fusion 5 (he lives in Australia) and it's working great for him too. It all depends on what you're expecting to do with the card, I guess.

As was stated above, one big shortcoming of all current PC HDTV solutions is the lack of support for encrypted QAM, the so-called "premium" or non-local non-free channels carried by your cable company (or satellite). So you're limited to the national broadcast networks (CBS, PBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, etc.) unless your cable company happens to leave one of the other HD channels unencrypted. However in my case this isn't much of an issue, since I've never had cable anyway (except the standard analog cable provided here in the dorms) and I don't feel like paying lots of money every month just to get a few extra HD channels.

As far as "is it worth $250?" - in truth, probably not. I paid that much for my MDP-130, more if you include the DVI card, and I'm happy with it. But it was the only card that supported QAM at the time, and these days I'd probably just recommend the Fusion 5 Lite in general. It's only $99 and can do the majority of what my card can (including QAM) except for hardware decoding, which isn't much of an issue if you have a relatively decent computer.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I think the Fusion 3 QAM version was actually out at the time I bought my MDP-130 (about eight months ago), but the big thing that ended up swaying me towards the MyHD card was it having two separate antenna/coax cable inputs. This was important for me, at least when I'm using it in San Antonio, because I had some issues receiving all the local OTA broadcasts so I wanted to use QAM, but there was at least one channel that only broadcasted OTA because of some dispute with the cable company. In any case not everyone will need dual inputs (in a lot of areas you can probably get all your channels either just from QAM or just over the air with an antenna), but it does allow the card to be more flexible. Then of course there was the hardware decoding, which is nice to have although not a necessity.

 

[rbV5]

It seems as though HDTV cards would be the perfect candidate for a PCI-E interface, if the PCI slot is the limiting factor here

Thats not the limiting factor so to speak. The MyHD card is not really a solution for watching HDTV in a window on the desktop, its a hardware decoder/scaler solution primarily for outputting full screen to a digital display without using the host PC's graphic subsystem.

You can use VGA to connect to your CRT, if your CRT or DFP have dual inputs, or even YPbPr on some newer widescreen LCD you can use and use the input selector to switch.

Remember Full resolution HD on the desktop in a window would require larger than 1920x1080 desktop resolution (and the window would take up 1920x1080 of it) or 1280x720 for 720p....the window takes up most of the desktop, so realistically 480p is fine in a window, above that you might as well just watch full screen.

 

[daniel1113]

Good points from both rbV5 and SynthDude.

The original reason I favored the MyHD card was due to the hardware decoder. Even thought my computer could easily keep up with any software decoding, I thought the $100 premium for a hardware decoder was well worth it. Now that you mention it, I think the 480p window ought to be fine for any non-full screen viewing.

One last question for SynthDude, since you have an MDP-130 card. How fast/usable is the card when it comes to switching between the fullscreen HD and computer output? Right now, I have an external tv tuner box that connects to the VGA input of my LCD. When I want to watch TV, I switch from DVI to VGA, and it takes a good 2-3 seconds to do. This gets annoying, and wanted to know how the MDP-130 compared in that respect.

Thanks to all for the good info!

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Good points from both rbV5 and SynthDude.

The original reason I favored the MyHD card was due to the hardware decoder. Even thought my computer could easily keep up with any software decoding, I thought the $100 premium for a hardware decoder was well worth it. Now that you mention it, I think the 480p window ought to be fine for any non-full screen viewing.

One last question for SynthDude, since you have an MDP-130 card. How fast/usable is the card when it comes to switching between the fullscreen HD and computer output? Right now, I have an external tv tuner box that connects to the VGA input of my LCD. When I want to watch TV, I switch from DVI to VGA, and it takes a good 2-3 seconds to do. This gets annoying, and wanted to know how the MDP-130 compared in that respect.

Thanks to all for the good info!

Using the DVI daughtercard with my video card's output routed through it (and I imagine VGA would be the same way, although it's been months since I've used it) - it looks like it takes just about one second to switch between the video card's output and the HDTV tuner's output. If you're not routing your video card's output through the tuner and have it connected separately to your monitor (for instance, video card to the monitor's DVI input and the tuner to the VGA input) - then it'll be completely dependent on your monitor, and I don't remember how long mine (2005FPW) takes. I do think it was longer though.

 

[daniel1113]

I will be using the DVI daughter card as well. I just use VGA for my old tuner, not for my computer.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
I will be using the DVI daughter card as well. I just use VGA for my old tuner, not for my computer.

Yeah, that's exactly the setup I have then. I'm really happy with it overall, it was a bit expensive, but it's a great solution IMO. Not to mention that I think there's been a pretty decent price drop on it since I bought it, on the order of $50 or $60. In any case, feel free to ask me if you have any more questions.

Also, how are you planning on getting your HDTV signals? (OTA/QAM) If you're going the OTA route (at least for some of them), check out antennaweb.org if you haven't yet...you can find information there about the broadcast towers in your area, and their distances and directions from your location.

 

[daniel1113]

Well, unfortunately for me, I live in a college dorm still (RA'ing it up), so my cable is pretty bad. I am 95% sure there are no HD broadcasts coming through; however, I am still awaiting confirmation from my residential services office on that. However, since my building is on a hill, I should have a good source of OTA signals from the major broadcasters. I've checked out antennaweb a while back for that exact reason and have a good 7 or stations in my area that I should get without issue. I am also working on getting the school to upgrade our television service across the board, as I think it is well within their means to go digital. We'll see

 

[SynthDude2001]

All hope is not lost for QAM- I live in an old dorm building myself and they still send unencrypted HD locals on the cable lines here

But since you seem to be in a good spot as far as OTA reception goes, you should be covered :thumbsup:

 

[daniel1113]

Nice... we will have pretty similar setups in the end. I even have a Dell 2001FP monitor, similar to your 2005FP.

Another question for you, while we're at it. I couldn't tell from any of the documents or manuals on the MyHD website, but how does the DVI daughter card connect to the MDP-130? I am assuming there is some sort of internal cable that links the two. If this is the case, how long and what type of cable is this? The reason I ask is that I would probably need to place another card between the two, and therefore route any internal connection around this card. Do you think the cable will be long enough?

 

[daniel1113]

Doh... nevermind. I found the installation manual right after making that post.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Doh... nevermind. I found the installation manual right after making that post.

:thumbsup:

Just to clarify (or if anyone else is reading this thread), it isn't a cable, just pins on the daughtercard that connect directly to the main tuner card...it has to be right next to it. I don't think you could work around that unless you were really creative and made your own cable or something

 

[daniel1113]

Yep. I think I may be in trouble with this setup. My case has a Koolance radiator for water cooling built into the top, which hangs down a fair amount into the case, at least enough to cover my first PCI slot. Therefore, I only have two usable slots. One is currently filled with my Audigy 2 soundcard, and the other is free. So, I don't know how I could possible squeeze the daughter card in there since they must be right next to each other. Damn.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Yep. I think I may be in trouble with this setup. My case has a Koolance radiator for water cooling built into the top, which hangs down a fair amount into the case, at least enough to cover my first PCI slot. Therefore, I only have two usable slots. One is currently filled with my Audigy 2 soundcard, and the other is free. So, I don't know how I could possible squeeze the daughter card in there since they must be right next to each other. Damn.

I'm having a little trouble trying to visualize your setup (probably just because it's late), but it does sound like you might have a problem then. If you can't work around it, the Fusion 5 might be the better choice. It doesn't have quite as many features as the MyHD card does, but I still think it's a great card (especially for the price).

Edit: Of course you could still use the MyHD card if you just wanted to use its VGA output, but then you'd have to use the monitor to switch between inputs, and we've already established that that's slow...not to mention that if you want to send a 1080i signal to your monitor, it doesn't look so hot (You could always send a fixed resolution like 768p or something, which is what I did before I got the DVI daughtercard, and it looked pretty good, but not great, and you'd still have the switching speed issue)

 

[daniel1113]

Well, after doing some more research, I think I finally figured out the best solution. As much as I really wanted the MyHD card, I just don't think it will be working with my setup. Unless I can get a PCI-E sound card to free up a PCI slot for the daughter card, or MIT starts producing PCI-E versions of the MyHD cards, they just won't physically fit in my system with a daughter card. I thought about getting the tuner card without the DVI addition, but I really want to avoid using VGA and having to switch the source on my monitor. Therefore, I think I will get a FusionHDTV 5 card. Aside from the lack of hardware decoding, it seems to be just as good, if not better, than the MyHD card. Sure, I will take a performance hit while watching television, but with an AMD X2 4400+ CPU and a GeForce 7800 GTX, I doubt it will be noticable, much less crippling. Plus, from what I could gather through the last two weeks of researching HDTV hardware, it seems as though the Fusion cards provide the most usability when it comes to 3rd party software and customization.

Hopefully we will see some more options for computer-based HDTV support in the near future, but until then, I think this card will be awesome.

Thanks again for the input, SynthDude. I saw some of your other posts in other HDTV related threads, and you have a wealth of knowledge on the subject. I will probably have more questions for you down the road

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
Well, after doing some more research, I think I finally figured out the best solution. As much as I really wanted the MyHD card, I just don't think it will be working with my setup. Unless I can get a PCI-E sound card to free up a PCI slot for the daughter card, or MIT starts producing PCI-E versions of the MyHD cards, they just won't physically fit in my system with a daughter card. I thought about getting the tuner card without the DVI addition, but I really want to avoid using VGA and having to switch the source on my monitor. Therefore, I think I will get a FusionHDTV 5 card. Aside from the lack of hardware decoding, it seems to be just as good, if not better, than the MyHD card. Sure, I will take a performance hit while watching television, but with an AMD X2 4400+ CPU and a GeForce 7800 GTX, I doubt it will be noticable, much less crippling. Plus, from what I could gather through the last two weeks of researching HDTV hardware, it seems as though the Fusion cards provide the most usability when it comes to 3rd party software and customization.

Hopefully we will see some more options for computer-based HDTV support in the near future, but until then, I think this card will be awesome.

Thanks again for the input, SynthDude. I saw some of your other posts in other HDTV related threads, and you have a wealth of knowledge on the subject. I will probably have more questions for you down the road

It sounds like that'll be a great choice for you - especially since you have an X2, CPU usage shouldn't be an issue at all. And you're right - the Fusion card has more flexibility in terms of using different software should you want to, since from what I understand software developers would have to license the SDK from MIT ($$$$$$) if they wanted to write a third-party program to use with their tuner and hardware.

Let me know if you have any more questions at some point (either in here or feel free to PM me) - I'm glad to help when I can.

 

[Blizno]

Forgive me if this is posted elsewhere. I have the MDP-130. I've been recording TV shows and converting them to DVD, then watching them on my CRT HDTV. It's very, very time consuming. I'd rather feed from computer to TV and get it in HD rather than DVD format. The problem is that my TV has one set of component inputs (already in use by my DVD player) and an HDMI input. The MDP-130 has an adapter with a VGA output. I've been searching like mad for a VGA to HDMI adapter but have found nothing. I've found any number of DVI to HDMI adapters.

I have two questions.
1. Is there such a thing as a VGA to HDMI adapter and will it work in this case? Will the output be digital or analog? How about a VGA to component video adapter?
2. Will I be forced to shell out even more money for that daughter board (which has two DVI outputs) and then a DVI to HDMI adapter? I thought I'd paid in full when I sprang for the card. This is getting expensive!

Opinion on the card: When it works properly, it's gorgeous. I get OTA HDTV from a roof antenna. The DVDs I've made from TV shows are at DVD resolution, of course, so they're not quite as sharp as the original broadcast, but they're still gorgeous. I use titantv.com to set recordings. Find the show you want, click the red dot, hit enter a couple times and you're done. It's very nice. I have one issue that's probably due to my computer and not the card. If I have anything, anything at all, running at the same time as the tuner card, I get flashes and glitches on the display and on the recording. For a card with hardware encoding, this shouldn't happen. If I have only the tuner software running and set priority to high or real time, it works fine. I blame my computer. It has lots of issues.