Simple TV Tuner question

[Audiofight]

Alright

Charter is stiff-arming everyone in town to pay the increased price for digital cable. How? They are pulling all the premium channels from analog signal and moving them to digital only. So, you gotta pay higher prices and pay for digital cable boxes.

I wouldn't have a big problem with this if I didn't have 4 televisions in my house and all 4 get watched on a regular basis (couple hours a day each). I live with 2 roommates and we each have a tv in our bedroom plus the living room set.

So, I was debating on moving up to digital cable.....but I was wondering if there is ANY tv tuner card available that can change the channel on its own and decode the digital channels?

I haven't really done much research on it so far....

 

[rbV5]

if there is ANY tv tuner card available that can change the channel on its own and decode the digital channels?

Not that I'm aware of. Technically there are cards that have the hardware that could, but no available card has digital cable tuner support, and likely that none will.

 

[Audiofight]

The Hauppage WinTV-D looks like it is capable.

newegg has them for $150 + $6 shipping

I can find them elsewhere for $129.99 shipped.

The WinTV-HD (supports High-Def) will also work but it is obviously priced even higher. The lowest price I have come across was roughly $250 or more. MSRP is $299

 

[PCHPlayer]

Step onto soapbox.
I think it is criminal that the cable companies are forcing digital cable down our throats. Time Warner has jacked up the price of basic analog to over $50/month. Then they have the gaul to send out a flyer that says "Change to digital cable and save". Once they have that nasty box in my house they can pester me to buy other "services" that cost more money (including charging me $5/month for the damn box).
Step down from soapbox.
With that said... Time Warner also claims that only one TV has to be hooked up to the digital system. The rest of the TVs (including my computer) can run off the analog signal. Perhaps Charter has a similar capability.

 

[Audiofight]

Yes

I did call Charter and they confirmed that the analog signals will continue to be sent out and that our televisions will continue to work fine.

But....we are losing some channels (Discovery Channel....no more Monster Garage!!!) and gaining some new ones (Comedy Central and TechTV) yippee!

So, I am considering the switch because I want Monster Garage still. That show rocks! (That is not the only reason, MTV is also gone, etc. etc)

The reason I am looking at a TV Tuner card now is because, if I am going to pay money out for hardware in order to watch tv, why not buy something that I can own permanently instead of renting a box from them? Hmm?

So, I would like a card that will also output to a cable-ready television the digital signals it is receiving. I am going to email Hauppage and see if I can get some straight-forward answers from them.

 

[rbV5]

The WinTV-HD (supports High-Def) will also work but it is obviously priced even higher.

The Hauppage cards will not work. They are ATSC tuners (actually crappy 1st gen ATSC tuners)These will pick up OTA digital signals. The WinTV-D will downconvert the Digital signal to crappy 480i for windowed display on your PC or output it in glorious analog 480i over s-video to your TV. The WinTV-HD allows for windowed HD display and output.

Neither Card decodes QAM which is required for decoding digital cable signals...period, they will not work. They are also considered crap for what they do support, and are shunned by the AV community for their poor driver support and crappy hardware.

 

[ivwshane]

Originally posted by: rbV5

The WinTV-HD (supports High-Def) will also work but it is obviously priced even higher.

The Hauppage cards will not work. They are ATSC tuners (actually crappy 1st gen ATSC tuners)These will pick up OTA digital signals. The WinTV-D will downconvert the Digital signal to crappy 480i for windowed display on your PC or output it in glorious analog 480i over s-video to your TV. The WinTV-HD allows for windowed HD display and output.

Neither Card decodes QAM which is required for decoding digital cable signals...period, they will not work. They are also considered crap for what they do support, and are shunned by the AV community for their poor driver support and crappy hardware.

What are the recomended tuners then in the HD community?

Last time I heard, there were basically two that people recomended but I cant think of their name.
If you have any more info you could give us on the subject it would be greatly appreciated

 

[Styler2K]

*bump*

I'd like to know what are some of the revered PC TV Tuner cards as well...

rbV5? Maybe you have an opinion? Please do share!

 

[rbV5]

rbV5? Maybe you have an opinion? Please do share!

Yes, IMHO, AVS forum is the place to go for all things audio and video. When I was researching my setup for HDTV, I was (and am) impressed with the MyHD card, its continuing software support and Cliff Watson's continued support with users in the forum. Its a very good 2nd Gen ATSC card(there are other good ones also), but a somewhat poor NTSC card (I got it for OTA DTV, so NTSC wasn't important to me, the AIW handles the analog stuff very nicely It also plays nice with my AIW and other components, first using my Ali Magik IWILL board setup and now with my current NF2 ASUS board.

Just remember that messing around with HDTV makes you an early adopter. Much is still yet to be sorted, and it is somewhat expensive initial cost for its limited programming. That said, I'm not a bit dissappointed with my ongoing HTPC project. I've watched the NFL play-offs and Super Bowl in its High Definition glory......oh yea, its good! Much of Primetime is now HD (CBS is especially good) and PBS has good (spotty) programming as well.

AccessDTV, MyHD MDP-100 and HiPix are 3 hardware PCI ATSC cards I hear the most good about, and I know there are some cheaper software cards coming out. My advice is to go hang on the AVS forum and do your research, lots of members and traffic. Also, check the Capture Card comparison at VCD help for info on PCI capture cards. Its a comprehensive list with users comments. Its also a great helper site, with loads of great PC video info.

Good Luck