what's a good tv-tuner card you recommend?

[Vesper8]

hey all.. my tv just broke down so i'm planning on watching some tv on my dual screen setup instead. while my cable does provide HD content.. my monitors don't support it (see my rig below). so all I need is something pretty standard in which I can connect a coaxial cable from my expressvu box.. not sure which brand/model to go with as this is the first time i look into this.. any suggestions please?

 

[NeezyDeezy]

theatre550

 

[justlnluck]

Just because your monitors don't display a 1920x1080 resolution doesn't mean you can't enjoy the benefits of HD. Standard definition through an NTSC tuner will be a real shock if you have never seen it on a computer monitor before. It is quite blurry and any imperfections in the signal will be quite apparant.

I watch TV on my Hitachi 19" CRT monitor all the time. But I try to avoid analog signals at all costs and stick with ATSC signals. Even though many shows are still only broadcast in SD, it is nice watching them in the digital format so you don't have to worry about wiggly lines and other artifacts caused by poor signals.

For the past 8 months, I have been using the Fusion5 Gold by DVICO and have been very happy with it. It has an NTSC tuner for analog signals and an LG ATSC tuner for digital channels. Only select shows on digital channels are actually broadcast in HD, but the SD shows look as clean as they ever will with ATSC (not particularly impressive, but tolerable). Shows broadcast in HD are of course absolutely stunning and a joy to watch. The shows are also broadcast in 5.1 surround sound which I take advantage of with my Cambridge Soundworks 2500 decoder box (6 years old, but still works fantastic).

The Fusion5 Gold can decode unencrypted QAM signals. For Comcast, this includes the local channels. It used to also include many cable HD channels, but in the past year, Comcast has really cracked down on keep their signals encrypted so you have to rent their box to view them.

 

[NeezyDeezy]

I use the fusion5 too, FWIW. I love it but it may be overkill for your needs, and is definitely worse for analog that the theatre550.

 

[HomeyFoos]

Hey guys, I just got the EPoX 8NPA SLi mobo and an XFi Extreme Music. I wsa going to add a tv tuner card and was looking at the board and wondering if I can use both PCI slots and my SLi'd 6800s.

For this reason I looked into found a PCI-e 1x tuner card made by powercolor. It's their 1x flavor of the Theater 550. Well, the 1x socket on this mobo is above the first x16 slot. So I thought I could make this work using that card. However, will this PowerColor tv tuner card work with NVidia video card drivers installed? On the manufacturers website, it says any video card with 8x direct x. But I assume that since it's ATI drivers, they may not want to jive with the NVidia drivers??

Any thoughts?

 

[Vesper8]

thanks for the post justlnluck, it was very informative and just what i wanted to hear.

i'm seriously considering buying that dvico fusion 5 gold card now.

just to clarify.. i will be able to enjoy HD channels on my monitors? I have a CRT 19in and a LCD 19in (see below for details).

expressvu has mostly only digital channels so this card sounds great.. also that i'd be able to pause/rewind/ffoward TV without having to purchase an expensive satellite decoder sounds very sweet indeed! though i don't understand how that works.. but the specsheet mentions the card lets you do that

 

[NeezyDeezy]

If you have mostly digital than definitely go with the fusion5. I love mine. But to answer your question, you will get better resolution on your CRT obviously, but NEITHER of your monitors will fully play HD. At the same time it will be much better than analog TV, as justin pointed out.

 

[Vesper8]

hey guys. im trying to understand the differences between the Lite and Gold version of the Fusion 5 card

according to this site

hxxp://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/ENG/products/

the only differences is that the gold also has this :

- DVD/MPEG4(DivX) Conversion
- Ulead Video Studio8SE DVD bundle for DVD writing

obviously the bundle i could care less for.. and what about the conversion? is that software too? I can't make this conversion via software anyway right ?

 

[NeezyDeezy]

the answer to you question is yes

I have the fusion5lite. I see no reason to spend the extra $50. I'm glad I made that decision, and given that this is a short term solution for you anyway, go with the cheaper one.

 

[justlnluck]

I purchased the Gold card because I read in the specs that it comes with a better quality analog NTSC tuner than the Lite. I will have to look it up again to see the difference. The Gold card also comes with a nice looking remote control that you can use with various applications such as WinDVD and Winamp. I don't use the remote because I sit at the computer, but for those who use their computer as an HTPC, it's a good option to have.

 

[justlnluck]

Ok, this is what I found on the DVICO website regarding the difference between the two analog tuners. The Fusion Lite uses the Conexant Bt878 chip and the Fusion Gold uses the CX23882 chipset. Not too sure what the quality difference is as I've only had the Gold in my possesion. Probably not too big a deal if you plan to mainly watch digital channels. Just be aware that your cable company might encrypt most of the digital cable channels depending where you live. But the local digital channels should always be in the clear.

 

[Fardringle]

For a system running XP Pro (not Media Center), would I be better off getting the SAPPHIRE 100104SR-BL-H with its crippled version of PowerCinema 3 (and a remote that is cool but not really necessary), or the DIAMOND PVR550PCI-CN with it's crippled version of BeyondTV?

The person that will be using this system won't have any need for DVD/MPEG playback, and probably won't ever even use the PVR functions of the tuner. I'm mostly just looking for a tuner that will provide a decent quality picture on a 17" LCD monitor and that doesn't have a multiple-second delay when changing channels (his old tuner card does this and is one of the main reasons he wants a new one).


edit: That Fusion5 looks pretty cool and is probably what I would buy for myself for a home system but for this particular computer all he needs is a good TV tuner and the price MUST be less than $100.

 

[gtjr]

this one,

http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/products/internal_tv/flytv_prime30.htm

 

[Fardringle]

That card looks pretty decent, gtjr, and the price is definitely in my budget. Unfortunately it is only sold in the U.K. and Taiwan so I'd have a pretty hard time getting one here in the U.S., and warranty support would be nil if I could manage to get one...

 

[P0pinjay]

Fardringle, gtjr,

I can't even find a site that sells the lifeview cards....I'm in the US as well and would like to get one, but I'm wondering if they've even been released yet. Link me if you have a site that sells them....for the UK or otherwise.