What Is A Good HDTV Tuner Card?

[twodaend]

Tomorrow I will be getting my Dell 2005FPW, and will soon be looking to getting HDTV on this screen. I was wondering what is a good HDTV card to get, a reasonable priced one though. I was looking at the ATI HDTV Wonder, but have read mixed reviews, mainly because this card will not support cable/satellite HDTV, only OTA HDTV.

I have comcast, but currently do not have HDTV, just digital cable, but will be moving to HDTV either through comcast or voom within the first half of 2005. Is there a better choice card that will give me both cable/satellite and OTA HDTV as well as regular channels and how good is this ATI card, is it even worth it to get HDTV on the PC?

Thanks in advance.

 

[twodaend]

If I was to get this card, which I'm still leaning towards, about how much is 1 hour worth of recording. I'll be using the DVR feature, so I may get a separate drive just for that, but depends on how much I may need.

I also found out that is can connect to you cable/satellite, but just regular cable not HD cable.

 

[Hikari]

Just watch out. A lot of HDTV uses HDCP (some sort of protection from recording or something?), and the 2005fpw doesn't support HDCP. Most monitors don't.

 

[twodaend]

wow, I never heard of HDCP I'll keep that in mind as I do my searching. Thanks

 

[darkswordsman17]

I don't think that the copy protection will prohibit the signal from being output.

It might inhibit the recording, and most certainly the copying of it, but it shouldn't prevent the computer from putting out the signal properly.

I think you're confusing HDCP with HDMI (one is the HD copy protection, the other is a digital input/output system that makes both the audio and video signals in one cable for easier use).

 

[RyBoy]

 

[RyBoy]

I have directv, how do you get that on the hdtv tuner? Any help would be greatly appreciated (i also have the 2005fpw)

 

[SynthDude2001]

My understanding is that you cannot currently tune/display digtal cable or satellite on a computer with an HDTV tuner at this point in time. The one exception is tuners that support QAM (like the MyHD MDP-130 I bought last month) - which at this point will tune unencrypted HD over cable - this is generally limited to the local channels. Otherwise, you have to use the set-top boxes from the cable/satellite company to get HD content.

I have a 2005FPW myself and have the HDTV tuner hooked up to its VGA input; it works quite well except that I go to school in an area without a whole lot of HD content available. I live in a dorm, and we get a cable feed that includes tons of channels - all analog though for the most part. I do however get three HD channels over that cable (NBC, CBS, PBS) - that's where the QAM tuner comes in. Otherwise you'd just have to do the OTA thing and hope you can pick up a good signal - and here, I can only get one of the four digital stations here reliably with an antenna.

 

[RyBoy]

with the antenna, if you have a clear view to get the signal are you good, or is there a distance factor?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: RyBoy
with the antenna, if you have a clear view to get the signal are you good, or is there a distance factor?

Both are factors...if you live in a relatively big city, you'll probably be fine (towers won't be too far away). Ideally I'd say you want to be within 30-35 miles, just based on what I've read. Of course there are many different factors...smaller indoor antennas like mine vs. the huge outdoor antenna towers some people build, etc. However, I've read of people pulling in stations at 60+ miles with nothing but the indoor antenna model I have, a high location, and no/minimal obstructions.

Here I have problems because (I think) the stations are broadcasting at 1/1000 of the power they're allowed by the FCC....very very weak signals.

You should check out www.antennaweb.org - you input your address and it'll tell you how far away the towers in your area are, and exactly in what direction they are.