Which TV Tuner to buy?

[deadken]

I have a ATI TV Wonder Pro in my Daughters rig and I hate the software (but the image quality is acceptable). I had an ATI HDTV Wonder but I ended up returning it after many headaches trying to get it right (I got mine when they were very new).

Since then I picked up a cheap card (Happauge Win TV Go ($15 A.M.I.R)) for my Sons room and I am very disatisfied with the image quality (software decoding I guess). I have looked around and I think that many people seem to be happy with this Leadtek TV2000XP. The price is very reasonable and it seems to have a 10bit hardware encoder. It also seems to be supported by Descaler so if I hate the included software I have an alternative to try.

I have seen a MSI TV@nywhere Master for a good price and I don't know if it'd be any better then the Leadtek TV2000XP. The TV@nywhere Master would be a little cheaper since it is used.

Lastly, I should point out that I have a $50 CompUSA giftcard and CompUSA has the ATI TV Wonder 650 (HDTV) tuner for $130. I wouldn't hook up an external antenna to get the HD channels but I do have HD channels through my cable company (I/O from Cablevision). So, if the ATI 650 would let him watch the HD channels without an antenna, I would consider getting it (but only if the 'regular' TV tuner part and the software was VERY good).

What do you guys think? Which way should I go? I am tempted to just get the Leadtek or the MSI since they are cheap and I assume would HAVE to be better then that P.O.S. Win TV Go (hey, sometimes you get what you pay for). But, I wanted to ask before I jump into another headache.

BTW: My Son has a 19" LCD (Hanns-G) and my Daughter has a 17" LCD (Proview). I did consider getting the ATI 650 and seeing how it would look on my 20" LCD (Samsung), but it is a bit pricey since I rarely watch TV.

EDIT: Corrected my error from 10bit encoder to 10bit decoder.

 

[swtethan]

i have the leadtek card, very good for regular cable



thumbs up from me


$30 from the egg, i think

 

[deadken]

Thanks for the input. I haven't heard anyone say bad things about the Leadtek TV2000XP yet. Just out of curiosity, have you used any other TV tuners before?

 

[dfuze]

I am using the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 and I like it. I'm using it in XP MCE & Vista and I really like the image on my LCD monitor. I've also burned shows to dvd to watch on my regular tv and they looked fantastic.

I've used a cheapo ATI TV Wonder VE in the past and would pass on it. It's currently in my other box (used as a PVR too) but the image was crap, pretty much unviewable, until I used Beyond TV 4 with it.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I prefer the Hauppauge line of TV tuners myself. Currently own the WinTV USB2 and the PVR-250, both have great picture and sound, software works well, but they could make the drive install process a bit easier.

 

[swtethan]

Originally posted by: deadken
Thanks for the input. I haven't heard anyone say bad things about the Leadtek TV2000XP yet. Just out of curiosity, have you used any other TV tuners before?

no other tv tuners, but its very easy to use and the remote is great, doesnt have a FM tuner, but the software is on it? lol

recording is a breeze does mpeg 1, 2, vcd, super vcd, dvd, uncompressed avi....
screen capture, recording schedule, once, weekly, daily, monthly
and it has this cool thing called channel surf...
bascially its a grid of all your channels and you can watch whats on each of them one by one and it will freeze the last one you were on, on the screen.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/swtethan/surf.jpg

 

[dug777]

I had a DVICO HDTV-lite (DVB-T since i'm in Aus) and it was superb, the IQ was mindblowingly good, the drivers worked without a hitch and were simple to use, the DXVA support meant that it used hardly any CPU...

 

[SunnyD]

I'd say Avoid the ATI 650 at this point. I picked one up for my machine a month or so back, and honestly, the included software sucks. The guide installs and pretty much hangs your system, and if it does update it takes about 2 hours to do so. The Catalyst Media Center locks up and dies a fiery death - often. It may have something to do with my having an 8800 and crappy driver support, but honestly, without the QAM tuner, the 650 just isn't worth it out of the box. (Edit: re-read your post, and the 650 does NOT have a QAM tuner, you will not get HD over Cable. Only ATSC OTA channels with an external antenna)

 

[deadken]

Thanks for the information. I am sorry to hear that the 650 has such problems. I have no idea why ATI can't get thier act together. After my horrible HD Wonder experience I am not willing to go through that again. Thanks for the information that the 650 won't let me watch HD through my Digital cable. If it did, I would consider going through some hassle with it, since it doesn't I will buy a different product.

Honestly from what I see so far I will buy the Leadtek TV2000XP and try that. I am sure that it will be better then the software encoded card that is in there now, and the price is right ($10 rebate until tomorrow).

I am still listening to anyones suggestions though, so PLEASE keep the good information coming!

 

[deadken]

I bought a used Leadtek TV2000XP from the forums. I can't go wrong with the price.


Anyone else have suggestions?

 

[bendixG15]

I dumped my Leadtek TV2000 XP for the Hauppaugge PVR-150 and haven't looked back.

If you just want to watch, that's one thing, but if want to record, then you need good stuff.

 

[dug777]

I honestly can't see why you'd want a hardware decoder, or certainly why you'd pay more for one, most people's CPUs these days are more than enough to handle HDTV, i would assume most decent software would allow you to use the DXVA decode on your graphics card as well, which should knocks the CPU usage down to negligable levels...

As for IQ, i can't speak for anything other than my DVICO HDTV card, but it was superb, and at least software decode means driver revisions can improve it over time, with hardware you're stuck with it...

EDIT: i forgot to mention a few days ago that the remote worked very well, and being able to control other apps as well was very handy

 

[bigsnyder]

ATI 650 works great with MCE 2005 for me. Signal strength meter has a bug (only reads one bar on each channel), but all OTA
stations in my area come in fine. I am using an outdoor yagi style antenna with no amplification.

C Snyder

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: bendixG15
I dumped my Leadtek TV2000 XP for the Hauppaugge PVR-150 and haven't looked back.

If you just want to watch, that's one thing, but if want to record, then you need good stuff.

My son is 11. The thought of recording shows is nice, but right now watching takes priority (and I HATED how the picture looked with the Win TV-Go).

Originally posted by: dug777
I honestly can't see why you'd want a hardware decoder, or certainly why you'd pay more for one, most people's CPUs these days are more than enough to handle HDTV...

As I said, the picture looks BAD on my sons 'Win TV-Go'. I also said that I 'assumed' that it was from the software encoding. I could be totally wrong. I also assume that a 10bit hardware encoder card that has gotten a lot good reviews on Newegg.com (about %84 of the reviews are either 4 or 5 stars out of 236 reviews) will please me.

I would think that my sons A64 3000+ (@2.4ghz) with 1GB Patriot LL Ram, 6600GT, etc... should have more then enough power to allow that software to work at %100.

Originally posted by: dug777...i would assume most decent software would allow you to use the DXVA decode on your graphics card as well, which should knocks the CPU usage down to negligable levels....

I wouldn't care if his CPU ran @ %100 as long as it looked good.



On a different note, the Leadtek should ship tomorrow and I hope to have it in time to tinker with it over the weekend. I will post back with the results.

 

[archcommus]

I have been having problems with my ATI Theater 550 PRO. I am about to RMA it to Newegg, but should I dump it for a Hauppage card instead? Do I want to have a hardware MPEG2 encoder or not? I don't want to have too high of CPU usage while I am recording. My CPU is an Athlon 64 3200+.

 

[deadken]

I got the Leadtek TV2000XP and the picture quality is much better. BUT... not fantastic. I guess this is about as good as it gets at this price point. I did try it with Dscaler also and at least Dscaler recognized the card better, but for some reason I still can't get more then one channel and the picture is HORRIBLE. In Dscalers defense, It did tell me that there is a driver problem between Dscaler and my card. It asked me if I wanted to replace the driver with thier driver and I said no. I didn't want to mess up what was working nicely.

Thanks for your suggestions. I do believe that I am worlds ahead of that Hauppauge software decoded card. I'd bet that to get better quality would require a much more significant investment (this card was $22 shipped (used)). Don't get me wrong, if my 11 year old son uses his TV tuner a lot, I will spen a bunch of money on a better one. If he doesn't I won't be angry at the amount of money I spent (time, yeah, but money no...).


-Thanks again for the help!

BTW: From what I can see, this card is also has 'software' encoding. I am %95 sure that the quality I am looking for just can't be had without hardware encoding. The real shame is that if ATI's software wasn't so crappy, I would have kept the ATI TV Wonder Pro (and remote) that I originally bought for this rig. I have to admit when comparing this card to my daughters (whos rig is a little less powerfull), the ATI beats out the Leadtek in terms of how good the picture looks.

 

[ClockerXP]

Where can I get a nice PCI-Express TV Tuner??

 

[radioouman]

I picked up an ATI TV Wonder 650 in December, and I really like it.
The included software is only so-so. I'm running it with Beyond TV and I never have a problem.

You do have to have a powerful video card to display HD. My old card was an ATI All In Wonder 8500DV, and it wasn't nearly powerful enough to playback HD TV. I upgraded to an NVidia 7600 GS, and haven't had any problems since. I'm running it on an older AMD Sempron system (~1.7 gHz) and it runs just fine.

I don't know how you could connect HD cable to it though, unless you are sure that your cable company sends unencrypted QAM. Just verify that first. I use this card with analog cable and digital over the air, and it is excellent.