Need a tv tuner card, good one, any price range!?

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Serge84

Gawd
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
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693
Can anybody point out some great Tv tuners recorder FM cards? I want to make my comp into a media center. My Tv is dieing so my comp is much better for the task plus I'd want to record and watch high quality audio and video. I want to see low medium and high price ranges to give me some options. That will help me deside better. Have any ideas on some great cards?

Thanks!
 
i have no idea but i have 2 of them and they both stink, low res, poor quality picture. the second one i had was 75$ was like 3x the bitrate as the first had all these reasons that why it was better and was like 5% better then the 20$ one.
 
yea ive gotton a few tv tuners and they were all crap unfortunatly. my friend got a hd tv wonder when there was a nice rebate and he says its awesome.
 
TheWikipediaPwnzJ00 said:
The only tv tuner that is worth getting is the tv wonder elite pro.
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Wow, totaly inacurate. There is another really big hitter on the block. It is the Nvidia DualTV MCE . Dual Tuner that splits internally so only one Coax to the back of the card, but can watch and record simultaniously, or record two things at once with one PCI slot.

Amazing MCE compatibility or will run under XP. Equal or greater picture quality of the ATI part, and perhaps better encoding because of newer hardware.

Also comes with everything you would need to run every configuration you would ever need, including set-top boxes and has a FM Tuner.

Also the best retail packaging I have ever seen.

Add it all up and we have a winner.
 
LOL, I will never understand brand loyalty... the only person that loses out is you...
 
Its not that. I have no problem with Nvidia. I just upgraded from a nvidia videocard to a ATi one. I'm about to get a DFI mATX with ATi chipsets when they come out in OCT. The parts would just perform a bit better with similar chipsets.
 
Serge84 said:
Its not that. I have no problem with Nvidia. I just upgraded from a nvidia videocard to a ATi one. I'm about to get a DFI mATX with ATi chipsets when they come out in OCT. The parts would just perform a bit better with similar chipsets.
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not true. the tuner card is a standalone piece. all of the processing is done on the card. The only interaction your tuner card has witht he rest of the PC is that it transfers the video file ot the hard drive.

as for what tuenr to get, you need to decide what you want to do with it. Just HDTV tuning? Just SD tuning? want SD and HD? what software are you going to use? What is your budget?

if you want HD, the ATI is not the best option. It isn't even the 4th best option. If you want SD, the ATI 550 based cards are a close second. The Nvidia being a dual tuner card puts it firmly ahead of any ATI offereing though.
 
You should be looking at something from Hauppauge. They have the best quality I've seen. The included software is usually horrible, but who really uses that anyway?
 
Serge84 said:
I'd rather go with ATi parts.
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I purchased the ati pro theater 550 card a couple of months back in pci-e 1x thinking that I have that slot, turned out I only had pci-e x8 slots and its been sitting on my desk ever since, had to go back to my external tv tuner instead. pm me if you're interested, I have the box and ALL original accessories including a remote that came with it, its brand new and never used.
 
Outrigger said:
I purchased the ati pro theater 550 card a couple of months back in pci-e 1x thinking that I have that slot, turned out I only had pci-e x8 slots and its been sitting on my desk ever since, had to go back to my external tv tuner instead. pm me if you're interested, I have the box and ALL original accessories including a remote that came with it, its brand new and never used.
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You do realize you can put 1x, 2x, and 4x cards into 8x slots right? 16x slots will take them all.
 
The ATI elite pro or whatever I was talking about is the only tv tuner to receive the science visual thingamabob seal of quality. AFAIK, it is equivilant of video technology's thx certification, except it isn't owned by an old fart who made 3 decent movies a long time ago and has butchered them with plot holes, cliches, and overall stupidity in his latest three. Stick to movies you old SOB, are you trying to ruin my games by flooding the market with everything from a pod racing game to friggen legos?
 
It's called ISF and the NV DualTV tuner is certified for it too. Although it doesn't much matter, much like THX certification.
TheWikipediaPwnzJ00 said:
The ATI elite pro or whatever I was talking about is the only tv tuner to receive the science visual thingamabob seal of quality. AFAIK, it is equivilant of video technology's thx certification
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You do realize that all 550 based tuners (which is what the ATI Elite is) are all equal? The only difference between them is their price and the amount of extra crap that you'll have to pay for, the Elite is hardly worth it.

To the OP, if you're looking for a tuner get one based on ATI's 550 Pro chip. Newegg has a few for around $65-75, if you want a dual tuner card then get NV's DualTV card.

For an HD tuner you'll want to stay away from the pile of crap that ATI calls the "HD Wonder." Nothing good comes of it. Go with an HD tuner from Avermedia, Dvico or Vbox instead.
IDversusEGO said:
not true. the tuner card is a standalone piece. all of the processing is done on the card. The only interaction your tuner card has witht he rest of the PC is that it transfers the video file ot the hard drive.

as for what tuenr to get, you need to decide what you want to do with it. Just HDTV tuning? Just SD tuning? want SD and HD? what software are you going to use? What is your budget?

if you want HD, the ATI is not the best option. It isn't even the 4th best option. If you want SD, the ATI 550 based cards are a close second. The Nvidia being a dual tuner card puts it firmly ahead of any ATI offereing though.
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Exactly, buying a tuner based solely on brand loyality is silly.
 
TheWikipediaPwnzJ00 said:
The ATI elite pro or whatever I was talking about is the only tv tuner to receive the science visual thingamabob seal of quality.
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Wrong AGAIN....

The Nvidia DualTV is certified by Science visual thingamabob seal of quality. Also known as Imaging Science Foundation Compliance and Certification.

And if you dont know for sure about things, please stop spreading lies.
 
turtletrax said:
And if you dont know for sure about things, please stop spreading lies.
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If you think thats bad you should have seen BBA posting about how great ATI's HD Wonder was. Now that was terrible.
 
TheWikipediaPwnzJ00 said:
The ATI elite pro or whatever I was talking about is the only tv tuner to receive the science visual thingamabob seal of quality. AFAIK, it is equivilant of video technology's thx certification, except it isn't owned by an old fart who made 3 decent movies a long time ago and has butchered them with plot holes, cliches, and overall stupidity in his latest three. Stick to movies you old SOB, are you trying to ruin my games by flooding the market with everything from a pod racing game to friggen legos?
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I should have put a disclaimer like AFAIK. Sorry about that :( I saw this thing on cnet.com that said the the tv wonder elite was superior to the tv wonder pro and all other hauppage tv tuners.
 
I never listen to a review of an HTPC product unless it is from an HTPC site. They are horrible.
 
NewBlackDak said:
You do realize you can put 1x, 2x, and 4x cards into 8x slots right? 16x slots will take them all.
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Yes I do realize that it does, however, I have the evga matx sli mobo and there are a total of 3 pci-e slots, but when I stick a pair of 7900gts, the middle pci-e slot is disabled, thus rendering it useless unless you only use one vid card. so I need to get rid of it if anyone's interested.
 
I'll spend a reasonable amount about 100 bucks on a tv tuner. I will not spend 60 bucks more on a Nvidia card that does only alittle better then the ATi Elite. I would like some nice tv software. Can you all point out some of the greatest?
 
Serge84 said:
I'll spend a reasonable amount about 100 bucks on a tv tuner. I will not spend 60 bucks more on a Nvidia card that does only alittle better then the ATi Elite. I would like some nice tv software. Can you all point out some of the greatest?
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It might be 60 bucks more, but it is literally twice the card that the Ati is because it can record two separate channels at the same time.

If you want a card <$100 get an ati 550 based card (look them up on newegg or pcalchemy.com ) or a hauppauge 150 card.
 
Serge84 said:
I'll spend a reasonable amount about 100 bucks on a tv tuner. I will not spend 60 bucks more on a Nvidia card that does only alittle better then the ATi Elite. I would like some nice tv software. Can you all point out some of the greatest?
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do you realize you started a thread asking the #1 most asked question on the board and ignored all recommendations infavor of a banned members advice. Now you are asking the #2 most asked question on the board. At this point I am inclined to say do a search and have some background knowledge to bring to a discussion.
 
IDversusEGO said:
do you realize you started a thread asking the #1 most asked question on the board and ignored all recommendations infavor of a banned members advice. Now you are asking the #2 most asked question on the board. At this point I am inclined to say do a search and have some background knowledge to bring to a discussion.
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Agreed. Go buy the Elite and spend too much on half the card so we can kill this useless thread. I wish I knew the worst TV suite software out there, so I can tell you not to buy, then you can go ahead and buy it.
 
turtletrax said:
Agreed. Go buy the Elite and spend too much on half the card so we can kill this useless thread. I wish I knew the worst TV suite software out there, so I can tell you not to buy, then you can go ahead and buy it.
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Hauppauge's WinTV is pretty bad. WinDVR wasn't much fun either.
 
IanG said:
Hauppauge's WinTV is pretty bad. WinDVR wasn't much fun either.
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Dude, if he's getting the Elite he can use the garbage that ATI bundles with it. :cool:

Anyways....
Pcalchemy.com has acquired some ATI Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner, PCI Express, No FM, OEM cards and for a limited time can be had for $49.95 (that's right, less than $50 for a PCI Express Theater 550 Pro card). We also include both the standard PCI bracket and the low profile PCI bracket at no additional cost.

ATI Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner, PCI Express, No FM, OEM - $49.95
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It doesn't really matter anymore. The only reason why I asked was to get a quick anser from others and their oppinions. I have work and junk. I don't have time to search through forums and crap to find amillion ansers. Besides my friend aready said about the same thing you guys did. I just wanted more oppinions in different price ranges. The software doesn't matter. My cus has most of them. I'll just try them bloody all. Ma hahahaha! See what I like best.

Thanks for the help.
 
or you could go download the free trials since most of them have 15 day trial periods.
 
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