best TV tuner card?

J

JonnyK

2[H]4U
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Jul 3, 2004
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I'm looking to get a TV tuner pci card to go in my comp so i can record tv on my hard drive and burn it to dvd's. What are some of the best cards? I'd like to be able to watch HDTV, i'd like to be able to hook up my consoles and play in HDTV resolutions on my monitor, and i want to be able to record with good quality.

anyone who has any experience with tv tuners and recording plz tell me exactly how it works and what limitations there are.

thanks.
 
Try the HTPC forarms

Maybe this will help
Check out this for more info
Hauppage has been berry berry goood to me
Hauppauge

What ever you end up with,
go with Hardware encoding , decoding
 
I'll second the Hauppauge cards. They are about as good as it gets without going
to more expensive pro level cards. Bought the PVR-350 and have been very happy with it.

Since you plan to watch on HDTV I'd recommend a card with an onboard hardware encoder as
opposed to software based offerings. If you were to watch on a regular 32" TV the difference
probably wouldn't be noticable. But on a 65" HDTV the difference can be striking.

Here is the Hauppauge WINTV-PVR comparrison page : http://www.haupauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html
All of which have hardware encoders.

The PVR-350 has an onboard decoder with S-Video and Composite out. Which is nice
if you want to play the video direct from your HDD back to the TV.
 
Those look pretty nice. I'm liking the PVR-500MCE with dual tuners, i've got that and the beyond tv/media/firefly package in my cart at newegg for around $235, it would only be $205 if i get only beyond tv and not the remote or other software, have you guys had any experience with the other programs besides beyond TV? is it more convenient to have all of them? i think i would like the remote at least. What do you guys think?

Also, here at my house we have mediacom digital cable. Does that work fine or is there a certain type of cable/satellite that you are supposed to use with these tuners/beyond tv software? And would i need a dual tuner cable box to get any use out of the dual tuner video card or does the card still work dual tuner style with only one tuner in my cable box?
 
i don't know many TV Tuner cards that have the component inputs..

i am using the PVR250 and am very happy with it, although from what i have read the card you want to get is the PVR150, its just like the PVR250 only its cheaper (60$ opposed to 100$)


as far as component in, the only one i know about is the ATI HDTV card for about 150$, but i have no idea of the quality that card produces..
 
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