Best Tuner for MCE with Coax, RCA, S-vid, etc.

O

oldpablo

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Now that MCE2005 has been out awhile, could everyone post your experiences with various TV tuners (maybe specifcally from the newegg list)? I know I have a few customers that would love to have this as their next OS, but when I hit newegg and see all the different tuners, I don't know which stand out as the best (though I like the ATI USB). I see some real high priced ones, but I can't help but wonder how bad the ones lower down the money scale are. Hate to spend $90 when $40 will do just fine. Does anyone know of a good site that not only compares TV tuner cards efficiently, but maybe also tests them with MCE2005 (yes I know its a bit premature to want this)? These people would primarily be interested in video editing/archiving probably more then time shifting, etc. Hence the swiss army knife inputs for old VCR's, old camcorders, etc.

And I like to stick with Newegg because their RMA process is a dream. I have funneled thousands of dollars through them and several RMA's and they have always been no hassle, including a video card that died days before the year mark. I got a nice check for the exact amount a few days later. :D
 
Well, I haven't looked into it for a while, but from memory...
The USB 1.1 tuners were a joke; the USB 1.1 interface was too slow. I've heard that USB 2.0 tuners are Ok, but I have no experience with it. I've heard that the cards with hardwre encoding (Hauppaugue comes to mind) use fewer resources (I'm still kind of pissed at Hauppauge though...I had a card that was made before XP, and their XP drivers for it were pitiful). There's a good site here.
 
Great site, thanks O[H]-Zone. Any chance there are other sites with them fancy "round-up" style reviews? That one is great, but to pick through it all and compare them will definitely take some time. I'm on it!
 
I have the PVR-150MCE. Same quality has the higher models, but at a lower price. I got mine cheap from Newegg.
 
djnes said:
I have the PVR-150MCE. Same quality has the higher models, but at a lower price. I got mine cheap from Newegg.
Click to expand...

That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Not too expensive, excellent quality per testimony, and "certified" for MCE2005.
 
OldPueblo said:
That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Not too expensive, excellent quality per testimony, and "certified" for MCE2005.
Click to expand...

I spent weeks combing the various forums and reading reviews. Seems like that was a winner. It installed without a problem in MCE2005 and the recordings look great.
 
I have read nothing but good things about the Hauppauge cards, and they don't have to be the higher end ones as djnes attests to.

Hit up the HTPC subforum and do some reading/searching. Good stuff there.
 
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