need HD tv tuner for vista

[livingsacrifice]

I'm new to the whole TV tuner thing, never owned one but I figure I'd love to get one for recording tv or watching tv while I'm on the computer. I've got HD through cable and I also have an OTA antenna so I really want to use those. I have seen both of those PCIEX cards and the PCI, does it really make a difference which one? I do have those PCIEX (the smaller ones) on my board. Is it even utilizing PCI fully yet? My problem comes in that I am using Vista Premium x64 and according to many of the reviews on NewEgg or other forums I am seeing that people are having problems with vista x64 and many tuner cards not recognizing them. Anyone have any recommended ones that work with your computer? I was looking at the ATI 650 HD cards. I am just not sure if the brand matters, I figure it's sort of like how the video cards are where ATI sells their GPUs to other manufactuers for them to make cards. If thats right than I should be fine with VisionTek or Sapphire?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Check in over at the AVS forums and several other places where you can get feedback from people who've been doing it for a few months BEFORE buying.

http://www.avsforum.com/
etc.

There is a WORLD of difference in software quality, driver quality, picture quality, compatibility with various broadcast sources / channels, etc. between the HDTV cards out there now.

Just because one worked well or poorly in XP Media Center doesn't mean it'll work well / poorly in Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate with their media capabilities.

ATI, for instance, has some of the worst software known to exist on Planet earth for most all of their tuner cards. Mostly unusable unless you're running Media Center or maybe Vista Home Premium/Ultimate in which case it's somewhat better just because you are using some of the Microsoft software and less of the ATI software in those cases.

After *suffering* through using an ATI HDTV wonder for a couple of years in XP (and most everyone else says ATI software is horrible too), I'd strongly suggest NOT buying an ATI card.

I don't think HDTV has maxed out the PCI bus bandwidth so it's OK to get a PCI card if it's a lot cheaper or fits better into your case or whatever. Typically, though, the PCIE ones will probably be newer models with maybe better features / drivers / software, but no real reason why PCI/PCIE itself would make one better or worse.

Also I hear horrible things about USB based capture devices, don't get one.

I hear horrible things about KWorld, rebates, and their hardware/software quality, avoid those.

One big thing (to some people) is whether the capture card can do certain formats:
ATSC OTA = HDTV over the air with an antenna from TV stations in the USA is one.
QAM = commonly used in digital cable, and not all / not many cards will work with QAM signals even if they're not encrypted.
DVB-T / DVB are some digital video broadcasting standards used on some satellites, and more commonly over the air in various formats in some places other than the USA (some places in Europe for example).

In some cases the hardware will be capable of one or more of those formats, but the software won't support it.

In some cases the hardware is not even capable of certain reception types and if you have an interest in those formats it'll be impossible to use them if the card doesn't support them.

Especially for VIsta 64 you'll want the drivers and software to be WHQL certified and the drivers digitally signed so they'll be most compatible with Vista.

I think I have some notes on which newer cards are better than others but I haven't used them myself, only my old HDTV Wonder (i.e. "I wonder why it doesn't work"), so I'll suggest you get your tips from others.

Some cards have more CPU efficient hardware that helps with decoding, and I think some can even capture / record / view more than one channel at once, so that may matter to you. Then again with a reasonably new and fast dual core CPU and a video card that has HD video playback hardware in it (several newer NVIDIA / ATI GPU cards) you probably don't need a lot of hardware decoding / enhancement from the HDTV card.

 

[livingsacrifice]

Wow good post lots of info. I do hear a lot of bad things about the sofware, wasn't planning on using it, only the drivers. I was going to try WMP or Media Center with Vista, I think even Winamp would control it. Really more concerned about the abilty to be used with Vista than I am the software.