Best Tuner? $100 or lower price range

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Gam3theory

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Jan 5, 2008
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Hey, lately i've been so confused, searching for the perfect tv tuner, there are just so many!!
Since, im dorming at college i basically need one since im in the middle of nowhere. I've been reading review after review of about as many tv tuners i could find. Could you guys post the ones you have and anything good or bad about them? This would be a great help as i've been looking for one for about a month and a half.

Im looking for one with "clear qam" around 100 dollars or less, thanks!

So far i have my eye on avermedia combo pci-e http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100015&Tpk=avermedia+combo+pci-e

my specs: Evga 680i-a1, E6600, 8800gt 512, Vista Ultimate x32bit
 
i just got mine in today!! I'm still setting up the rig though, I have to copy over my HDD to my new Samsung (my old IDE drive was LOUD), and I finally swapped out my old PSU which was also whirring up unwanted noise. I heard good things about it's quality for the price, and figured why not :D

Once I get everything copied over i'll swing online to grab the drivers. Still not sure how I want to use it, i'll probably start by just using my coax output on the cable box to the card to see how the SD quality holds up, as far as i've heard the only way to get HD channels is to either use a HD antennea for free OTA HD, use the cable line directly to the card, or use a cable card tuner.

Good luck :cool:
 
ATI 650 HDTV Tunner

I have been using PCI version and picture is as beautifull as it can be. I have tried almost every one, but ATI is the best.
 
I have the avermedia and I have to say that I am not at all impressed with it. I ordered the ati 650 pci-e one but I haven't installed it just yet. I am hoping that the ATI one will be better so I can return the avermedia one.
 
Viscero340 said:
I have the avermedia and I have to say that I am not at all impressed with it. I ordered the ati 650 pci-e one but I haven't installed it just yet. I am hoping that the ATI one will be better so I can return the avermedia one.
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annaconda said:
ATI 650 HDTV Tunner

I have been using PCI version and picture is as beautifull as it can be. I have tried almost every one, but ATI is the best.
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board2death986 said:
i just got mine in today!! I'm still setting up the rig though, I have to copy over my HDD to my new Samsung (my old IDE drive was LOUD), and I finally swapped out my old PSU which was also whirring up unwanted noise. I heard good things about it's quality for the price, and figured why not :D

Once I get everything copied over i'll swing online to grab the drivers. Still not sure how I want to use it, i'll probably start by just using my coax output on the cable box to the card to see how the SD quality holds up, as far as i've heard the only way to get HD channels is to either use a HD antennea for free OTA HD, use the cable line directly to the card, or use a cable card tuner.

Good luck :cool:
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woot thanks guys for your input, if i could wait one month i might as well wait a little while longer until you have your cards up and running!

Annaconda would you have a link by anychance, all i've been finding are sapphire and visiontek cards!

anyone else feel free to post as to whether what kind of card you're using and how good you think your's is! this'll benefit not only me, but a lot of others looking for a good tv tuner!
 
Yeah, I was in the same boat as you are. I had it narrowed down to the avermedia m780 and the ati 650. There seems to be many fans of both with mixed opinions on both sides. I thought that since the avermedia one was cheaper I might as well try that one. It seems like an okay card but the analog quality just isnt great and the bundled software for doing digital stuff is just horid. You can trick MC into doing the digital thing with their new drivers but it hardly ever picks up the signal for the OTA/QAM stuff.

If you are into using another front end you might have better luck with the avermedia but it just wasn't a good fit for me.

I will let you know how the ati does. Should have that one up and running within the next day or so.
 
i'm tryin to decide too... wanna gamble? kworld atsc 340u. it's supposed to be able to do lots and lots. all in a little usb package.
also $10 off if coupled with a qualifying 8800gt. almost bought it with the ecs 8800gt i got today, but for some reason i didnt want to take the gamble.
 
Thats good cause KWorld has had some terrible support for mediocre tuners in the past. Not a very track record.
 
Whatever you do, avoid Pinnacle cards, I have dealt with a number of their tv cards over the years, all different series and styles, and the physical card, the software, and the support behind them is terrible. Their packages are basically false advertising, forget using one with windows MC, contrary to what the box will say. Completely horrible stuff, I avoid all of their cards even when I am able to get them for cheap.
 
I'm planning on buying a tuner card soon as well, and I'll throw out what I've been looking at and hopefully someone can offer some advice.

I've been looking at the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600. I've heard problems with x64 Vista and 4GB of RAM. I have the fix someone linked, does that work? Also, what's the difference between the regular HVR-1600 and the MCE edition?
 
MCE edition includes a handy dandy MCE remote control.

Are you looking for PCI or PCIe?

What software are you planning on using? (You - the OP - say you want a card that supports clear QAM, which puts Windows Media Center out of the running, for the time being...)
 
LhasaCM said:
MCE edition includes a handy dandy MCE remote control.

Are you looking for PCI or PCIe?

What software are you planning on using? (You - the OP - say you want a card that supports clear QAM, which puts Windows Media Center out of the running, for the time being...)
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I was honestly thinking about using beyond tv or sage tv, but anyone with info on other software is free to post :)
 
Gam3theory said:
I was honestly thinking about using beyond tv or sage tv, but anyone with info on other software is free to post :)
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Software-wise, I've been a fan of SageTV for a few years. Once its up and running, it works really well. Initial setup can be a bit of a PITA sometimes, but that's probably no different than any other. I've tried BeyondTV a few times, but just never felt comfortable with it. Fortunately, with all of those packages, you can try it before you decide to buy it.

As far as cards go: I wasn't thrilled with the picture quality on the ATi 650 cards when they first came out. (I know they had a few early problems that might be worked out by now.) The HVR-1600 (PCI) and HVR-1800 (PCIe) cards from Hauppague have been nice for me, but as hybrid tuners require multiple cards if you want to watch something while recording something else.

I'd avoid any of the Vista View cards right now - hardware-wise, they're great, and when you can get them to work, the picture quality is actually pretty damn good. The problem is that they only work well with MCE (so no clear QAM - only OTA HD) or some of the freeware solutions (GBPVR, Mediaportal). They have a very spotty record with BeyondTV and Sage - it might work, but the odds are against you.
 
I use a Hauppauge PVR-150 and love it. Wouldn't hesitate to get another of their cards. For software I use GB-PVR and it works very good as well. Only downside is the TV guides require a Zap2It free account and the Zap2It Scraper software that is also free but that is easy.
 
Gam3theory said:
oh i was looking for a PCI-E, so far i found this:

Hauppauge- HVR-1250= $54
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116024
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Tuner-wise, that's okay. However, it doesn't look like it does hardware MPEG-2 encoding, so your CPU will be doing most of the heavy lifting, which would interfere with using your PC while it's recording.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116016 is basically the same tuner, but supports hardware MPEG-2 encoding, for around $95.
 
LhasaCM said:
Tuner-wise, that's okay. However, it doesn't look like it does hardware MPEG-2 encoding, so your CPU will be doing most of the heavy lifting, which would interfere with using your PC while it's recording.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116016 is basically the same tuner, but supports hardware MPEG-2 encoding, for around $95.
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oh so that's what it's for :D

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=BW&Date=20080107&ID=8001628&Symbol=US:HAUP

"To make the WinTV-HVR-1250 more affordable to PC users and still deliver high performance, it supports Hauppauge's SoftPVR and SoftMCE software MPEG-2 encoders. SoftPVR and SoftMCE are software driven MPEG-2 encoders which allow the recording of analog NTSC cable TV onto a PCs hard disk in a compressed format without needing an expensive hardware MPEG encoder."

if it's software driven, does it still have the same benefits as a hardware added encoder?
 
Gam3theory said:
oh so that's what it's for :D

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=BW&Date=20080107&ID=8001628&Symbol=US:HAUP

"To make the WinTV-HVR-1250 more affordable to PC users and still deliver high performance, it supports Hauppauge's SoftPVR and SoftMCE software MPEG-2 encoders. SoftPVR and SoftMCE are software driven MPEG-2 encoders which allow the recording of analog NTSC cable TV onto a PCs hard disk in a compressed format without needing an expensive hardware MPEG encoder."

if it's software driven, does it still have the same benefits as a hardware added encoder?
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Not quite. The software encoder means that your CPU is doing the heavy lifting when encoding, rather than the card itself. If you're not using your PC for anything else at the time, no big deal. However, if you're watching TV/recording TV while doing something else (browsing the web, checking e-mail, playing a game), you'll notice a difference. Depending on what else you're doing, it might be too much of a performance hit to stomach.

From what you've said so far, I'd guess you just want to stick a tuner into your current PC, not have a separate box in the corner just for recording TV. If that's the case, if I were you, I'd go with the extra cost of a card that does hardware encoding.
 
Alright, I've been playing around with the ATI 650 pcie for the last hour and I have to say I would definitely suggest it to someone over the avermedia m780. The analog signal quality is better. The catalyst media center is a breeze and works great with the OTA/QAM digital channels. Channel changing is snappy and responsive in both VMC and CMC. The only negative thing I experienced was when doing an express install with the latest catalyst software package it tried to automatically install the usb version drivers along with the pcie drivers which resulted in a bsod followed by a memory dump. After reboot I simply re-ran the install package and chose a custom install where I deselected the usb drivers and everything went fine. I should mention that I downloaded the latest catalyst install package from the website and then manually browsed for and installed the CMC from the provided CDROM.

The specs for this particular machine are listed in my sig as the "backup pc". I am running vista ultimate x64 on this build and so far everything looks great.

I am having some trouble getting the EPG in CMC to download but I think that may be a firewall issue which I will look into. Its not a high priority for me since I will only be using the CMC for the digital channels which there are only like 5-7 worth watching so I don't really need a big fancy tv guide for them just yet.
 
infamous gooch said:
I saw on that Circuit City has the Happauge 1600/with remote for $60+shipping atm. Just thought you'd like to know.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&searchType=user&keyword=happauge+1600&searchSection=All&go.x=0&go.y=0
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woot, $60 for a regularly $100 tuner. this is a steal thanks infamous_gooch, you should post this in Hot Deals. i'll probably pick this up today


Edit:
i bought it, installed it...included software is really bad, extremely pixelated video (not sure if it's the university's connection...or just bad hardware, but i'm giving hauppauge the benefit of doubt), works well with Vista MC...

this card's ok i guess...i wouldn't know how to rate it since this is my first pc tv tuner.
 
LhasaCM said:
I'd avoid any of the Vista View cards right now - hardware-wise, they're great, and when you can get them to work, the picture quality is actually pretty damn good. The problem is that they only work well with MCE (so no clear QAM - only OTA HD) or some of the freeware solutions (GBPVR, Mediaportal). They have a very spotty record with BeyondTV and Sage - it might work, but the odds are against you.
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I've been running into problems with GBPVR, when i open the program and go into any of the first selections for subcategories (video, guide, etc) it freezes and i have to kill the process. I haven't been able to find anything on that problem.
 
Gam3theory said:
I've been running into problems with GBPVR, when i open the program and go into any of the first selections for subcategories (video, guide, etc) it freezes and i have to kill the process. I haven't been able to find anything on that problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I never have gotten GBPVR working well. Have you tried it in Sage yet? (you can get a free 21 day trial from the website, to see how you like it before buying it). The only reason to go with Sage, in your situation, is if your university also has clear QAM signals coming through (which you can check using the company's software, doing a channel scan on the digital tuner). If not, Vista's Media Center software is perfectly fine.
 
Gam3theory said:
woot, $60 for a regularly $100 tuner. this is a steal thanks infamous_gooch, you should post this in Hot Deals. i'll probably pick this up today


Edit:
i bought it, installed it...included software is really bad, extremely pixelated video (not sure if it's the university's connection...or just bad hardware, but i'm giving hauppauge the benefit of doubt), works well with Vista MC...

this card's ok i guess...i wouldn't know how to rate it since this is my first pc tv tuner.
Click to expand...

one thing that nobody likes to mention is that any hardware encoder introduces degradation in signal quality. the cleaner the signal, the better the encoding. If you are using an already dirty signal like most cable sources, it will be more noticeable. I have had Charter cable and directv at the same time and the difference was huge. Cable can be improved with signal boosters sometimes.
 
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