What is the best Tuner/PVR card if I have DirecTV?

[HomeyFoos]

I'm building a media box and the functionality I'm looking for is to replace my DirecTV Tivo Tuner. I'd like to record tv and offload it to my iPod. I have HDTV so that would be a plus and I would be willing to pay for that feature (provided it's a PCI card and not over $200) if it were available.

I'm interested in MPEG 2 hardware decoding so it won't bog down my relatively low powered Athlon 64 3000+.

I looked into the Hauppage Nexus-S but after looking further, it appears that card is for picking up free-over-the-air satellite tv. Sounds cool and I have no idea what it's capabilities are, but my first priority would be to properly capture the DirecTV signal that is coming in from the wall. If that particular card does both, that is an extra bonus and I'll go ahead and get it.

Any information would be greatly appreciated as this is my first venture into tv capture cards.

 

[Lemodular]

Not 100% but, I don't think is possible to decrypt the DirectTV signal w/o their receiver. You would need a capture card that also has a DirectV receiver built in, and I don't know of any. THe other way around the issue is to capture the analog signal leaving the STB with a good card but that means no HD. THere may be ways to download the recorded info from the DirecTV Tivo but I think you may have to hack it.

Again, others may know how, and I will track this thread to see if there is a solution.

Good luck.

 

[HomeyFoos]

Ya, after thinking about it I realized it's a decoding issue. The stuff coming out of the wall is scrambled.

So, I looked at the Hauppage 150 and 350. They both seem to do what I want them to and I may even consider getting 2 of either so I can record and watch a different station at the same time.

I looked into Beyond TV 4 and it looked very TIVO-Esque, but I also heard about Sage. Any advice on either of these suites? They seem to be similar and I've heard from differnt people that each is the best. I assume it means they are neck and neck and the difference is likely a personal preference or two. But this is again my first time with all of this so any feedback is helpful.



Thanks