Need HDTV TV Tuner with NTSC, ATSC, QAM

[shawn130c]

I am very new to the the whole tv tuner game but I am in need of a TV tuner that supports a few different requirements:

It will be hooked up to cable tv service (No hd at the moment, but needs to support it)

-NTSC
-ATSC (over the air hdtv, not necessary since the client is using cable but nice)
-CLEAR QAM
-Can Fast forward, or pause live tv (important)
-Dual Function (record and watch tv)
-Works with XP MCE or Vista
-Can be PCI, or PCI-E does not matter
-Has to be a decent product, not expecting perfection but it can't be crap.

I am hoping this is possible, through my searching I have found a few but none of them seem to mention pvr function or don't have qam. Is the pvr function implied in MCE or is it controlled with specific software?

If this is not possible, anyone have a good alternative?

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[ViRGE]

Hauppauge HVR 1600/1800. It works with Windows MCE, GB-PVR, BeyondTV, and if your desperate their own cruddy little PVR app. Keep in mind that the MCE app doesn't support ClearQAM though.

PVR functionality is a product of the software used, not the hardware.

 

[shawn130c]

Thanks for the recommendation Virgie. If I understand you correctly MCE does not support Clear QAM, so to be able to do it I will need either the Hauppage Application. Is there any other applications that will work? (I looked at beyond tv and it says only with the HDHomerun and GB-PVR wasn't very specfic).

Also just to make sure I am clear, Vista MCE does not support Clear QAM unless you have a cablecard tuner or whatever they call it correct?

Now from a little more research, I did find the HDHomeRun Product. Would that be a better idea if the client wanted to watch unecrypted cable (clear QAM) and ATSC and they can just use another tv tuner in their computer for NTSC?

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: shawn130c
Thanks for the recommendation Virgie. If I understand you correctly MCE does not support Clear QAM, so to be able to do it I will need either the Hauppage Application. Is there any other applications that will work? (I looked at beyond tv and it says only with the HDHomerun and GB-PVR wasn't very specfic).

Also just to make sure I am clear, Vista MCE does not support Clear QAM unless you have a cablecard tuner or whatever they call it correct?

Now from a little more research, I did find the HDHomeRun Product. Would that be a better idea if the client wanted to watch unecrypted cable (clear QAM) and ATSC and they can just use another tv tuner in their computer for NTSC?

Thanks,
Shawn

I'm not quite sure what you are asking but I will give it a shot . . .

A ""hybrid"" tuner will receive both analog or digital signals, OTA or cable, from a single input.

The Hauppauge tuner mentioned above is a "" combo"" with a single input for an analog tuner and a single input for a digital tuner.

I have a hybrid tuner with a single input that I use for both OTA and cable - analog and digital from each source. I use an A/B switch with a single line to the tuner.

"A" is my OTA antenna where I receive broadcast NTSC & ATSC. "B" is my cable 'clear QAM'. My basic/expanded tier is recognized by the 'analog' portion of the tuner. Unencrypted HD/SD digital cable is recognized by the 'digital' portion of the tuner.

With the ""combo"" tuner you can watch one source while you record from the other source.
I cannot do that with my hybrid tuner. Though I could use an additional second tuner in my box, I have a second nearly identical setup that functions as my recording/media server (I did not want to use 'splitters' on my OTA/cable sources which would reduce my signal strengths.)

It is my understanding that you cannot use a second Hauppauge tuner in a box (which would allow you to watch an OTA ATSC channel while you record an OTA ATSC channel) - which I think was part of your question

And I'm not 100% certain but I don't think you get NTSC with the Hauppauge - and I'm not sure if it will scan for unencrypted digital cable.

You will be tested later . . .



Edit: I just checked - the OTA input of the Hauppauge DOES include NTSC but they keep talking about ""125 channel cable ready Analog TV"" so I'm still not certain about unencrypted digital cable recognition.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: shawn130c
Thanks for the recommendation Virgie. If I understand you correctly MCE does not support Clear QAM, so to be able to do it I will need either the Hauppage Application. Is there any other applications that will work? (I looked at beyond tv and it says only with the HDHomerun and GB-PVR wasn't very specfic).

Also just to make sure I am clear, Vista MCE does not support Clear QAM unless you have a cablecard tuner or whatever they call it correct?

Now from a little more research, I did find the HDHomeRun Product. Would that be a better idea if the client wanted to watch unecrypted cable (clear QAM) and ATSC and they can just use another tv tuner in their computer for NTSC?

Thanks,
Shawn

Shawn, yes, what you describe would be the best way. The HDHomeRun has 2 digital tuners, so 1 can do ClearQAM and the second ATSC, and then you can add something like a PVR-150 to tune any analog channels you want. All of that is supported under MCE, so you would be golden.

As for your other question, all of the applications I listed other than MCE support ClearQAM. For Vista ClearQAM you are also correct, you can only do it with an OCUR device, which only works if it's an OEM machine.

 

[shawn130c]

Thank you for the quick responses ViRGE and heyheybooboo.

I have never actually used MCE or any other of the software mentioned above, how diffiult is the software to setup and use? Is it pretty comparable to MCE or better?

Also just to summarize and make sure I have everything down correctly:
-Hauppauge HVR 1600/1800. will do NTSC and ATSC and record and watch at the same time. But it will not do fast forwarding or Clear QAM in MCE only with another application.

-HDHomeRun can do ClearQAM in MCE, ATSC, Fastforwarding, and can record and watch tv all in MCE. But will need a second tv tuner for ntsc.

In addition, does anyone have any real experience with the quality of the HDHOMERUN vs. another HDTV TV Tuner.

Thanks,
Shawn Mani

 

[Fox5]

How about MythTV or Mythbuntu? Free software, and pretty good.
Also, how about this?
http://www.pchdtv.com/hd_5500_right_down.html

 

[ViRGE]

Shawn, I'd consider MCE the easiest to use, however I'm not sure how hard it would be with the HD Homerun, since I know very little about that beyond its features. MCE is basically the best of the apps, BeyondTV is a very close second, GB-PVR is a solid third, and WinTV is a very very distant fourth. And you're spot-on about everything else.

 

[shawn130c]

Wow Guys thanks for all the info. I am still looking for more recommendations and comments on any cards mentioned above, but it looks with the Hauppauge HVR 1800 is what I am most likely going to pick.

Fox5 this system is going to be either xp MCE or Vista Home Premium/Ultimate. I not really considering Linux for this build. But I am considering going with linux for some extra computers I have and if I ever need to record tv, I will keep your recommendation in mind.

Thanks,
Shawn

EDIT (alittle more clarification): Does the Hauppage HVR let you fast forward or skip in MCE or do i need beyond tv or its own application?

 

[ViRGE]

FF/Skiping is a MCE function, so you can do it with any card.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: shawn130c
Thank you for the quick responses ViRGE and heyheybooboo.

I have never actually used MCE or any other of the software mentioned above, how diffiult is the software to setup and use? Is it pretty comparable to MCE or better?

Also just to summarize and make sure I have everything down correctly:
-Hauppauge HVR 1600/1800. will do NTSC and ATSC and record and watch at the same time. But it will not do fast forwarding or Clear QAM in MCE only with another application.

-HDHomeRun can do ClearQAM in MCE, ATSC, Fastforwarding, and can record and watch tv all in MCE. But will need a second tv tuner for ntsc.

In addition, does anyone have any real experience with the quality of the HDHOMERUN vs. another HDTV TV Tuner.

Thanks,
Shawn Mani

Some folks at the AVS Forum RMA'ed their hvr-1800s back in October because they were not receiving any clear QAM channels.

Can't help you with the HD homerun - I use Fusion5s. Check over at AVS . . . .

 

[shawn130c]

Thanks for the clarification ViRGE and the information heyheybooboo. If anyone has any hands on experience with the Hauppauge HVR 1600/1800, I would love to learn more about it.

Thanks,
Shawn