Pros and cons of tv tuners

H

Hyperian

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
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So I want to upgrade my current crappy and old ATI TV tuner card. but there are some more options of streaming TV to the computer than before. There are tons of USB based TV tuners, there are the network tuners, and the PCIE TV tuner cards.

I am leaning toward getting HDHomeRun dual that can get me video through my network. Cause right now my computer will hang if i try to watch TV and play games at the same time. I am thinking that if i offload the processing to a set top unit that I can do both at the same time.

So what are some pros and cons with the 3 types of products?
 
What ATI Tuner are you coming from? What's your PC's spec. Your PC is still going to be decoding a fairly high bit-rate video stream.

As far as I know, you need cablecard get anything on top of basic channels from a cable providers. Which means you should be looking at the HDHomeRun Prime range or the Centon TV tuners.
 
HDHR is awesome. I have the CableCard version. Love it. Easy to setup. Integrates with WMC like a charm.
 
I love the Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe Cable Card tuner. Streaming over gigabit network I can even do it over wireless without issues to Xbox extenders or laptops walking around my house without a single wire. It is amazing.
 
I have had nothing but bad luck with tv tuners but then again, I live in a crappy area and the tv comes in bad and even dish sucked.I have heard some great things about HDHR though.
 
I don't know what I have right now, not even the driver says what it is. but i know it is old.

i have a old computer, core2duo 6300. 4GB ram

I don't need a cablecard cause i just watch network television. i don't even have a comcast cable box. I did not know my computer will still need to process the TV stream.

in terms of processor usage, which method of TV streaming would use the least?
 
the cpu usage isn't gonna change between a network card vs internal card.

The best thing about the network card is you can have multiple users using it with out one computer dependent on being the "server". I have 2x HDHomeruns with a total of 4 network tuners that I can use across 4 computers in the house.
 
Your computer has plenty of power to handle a TV tuner. If you are having issues, I suspect it is either driver/software related, or your tuner is bad.
 
Hyperian said:
I don't know what I have right now, not even the driver says what it is. but i know it is old.

i have a old computer, core2duo 6300. 4GB ram

I don't need a cablecard cause i just watch network television. i don't even have a comcast cable box. I did not know my computer will still need to process the TV stream.

in terms of processor usage, which method of TV streaming would use the least?
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It's likely that your card that's failing, and is now no longer further supported by the manufacturer and is not supported at all in Windows 7 or newer. (This goes for anything with a chipset earlier than the Theater Pro 600 for USB tuners or Theater Pro 650 for internal PCI/PCI-e cards, or for anything ATi that lacks hardware MPEG-2 decoding at all whatsoever.)
 
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I've been using the infinitv4 and I like it. Has some issues with stability from time to time. But overall I really like it.
 
another vote for the infinitv 4 (although I never tried the HDHR). Setup can be a bit of pain but after that its pretty hands off. I can watch live HD tv on my laptop over wireless (N 5ghz) without an issue and SD over wireless G without an issue. I wish there was some other good alternatives to using WMC for watching/recording but thats not Ceton's fault so I cant complain.

as for the resource utilization, my original media server using this card was a 1.8ghz (I think) opteron 146/2gigs ram/nforce4 (I think) running windows 7 ultimate and it did pretty well for me.
 
I have a Centon Infinitv 4 and I'm not the biggest fan. I needed a cablecard compatible solution since all the FiOS channels are encrypted and this was the cleanest I could find at a reasonable price. I'm running WMC7 and it works pretty well but there is a big delay when changing channels and every couple days I get a dialog box that asks if I want to setup a CableCard Tuner because one was just found. If I ignore that a couple hours later all recording and viewing will die until I reboot.

I'm definitely looking for a more stable solution.
 
I have an InfiniTV 4 in my HTPC and it's been okay. Missed 2-3 recordings (not too bad, considering 10+ recordings/week for the last 3 months). There is a bit of a delay in changing channels, really not that bad. But I do have problems from tmie to time where I get an error when trying to tune to a channel I should have. Switching to another channel, then coming back, usually fixes the issue.

For $200 I'd say it's a good deal - I mean, a Comcast DVR is $18/mo in my area. And from what I've heard, Ceton support is fantastic.
 
I have been using a ceton card going on a year now. The setup was a PAIN but this is mostly due to Time Warner techs being dumb and not bring the right equipment and telling me my signal was to week. After I got it setup it has been great. I have around 28 hours of tv scheduled shows a week (the girl likes to record all Seinfeld shows every day even though we have the DVD's and files available via the network its just not the same as "live") I have had maybe 3 failed recordings in the past year. All of these issues are do to the tuning adapter failing, to fix the issue you unplug and plug it back in. Is a known issue from what I read online and is easy enough to deal with. As of late I have not missed a recording and only maybe 1 time in the last 2 months have I had to reboot the TA.

All and all I really like the ceton, only real problem i have is the xbox extender lag but that is mostly due to wireless.
 
is the lag changing channels Ceton's fault or WMC7's fault? can an HDHR owner comment to their experience with this?
 
maademperor said:
is the lag changing channels Ceton's fault or WMC7's fault? can an HDHR owner comment to their experience with this?
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Thats the Ceton. Its mainly because its digital. Digtal channels take a few seconds. Even with a STB it takes a few seconds for the channels to show up. If you need a tuning adapter it can take a few seconds longer.
 
Yes, digital channels combined with SDV can take 5-8 seconds on my end with InfiniTV4. I believe this is more a limitation to the technology and not necessarily the CC tuner's fault - tunings may be faster/slower depending on time of day/traffic. However, I have heard slightly faster tunings on the HDHR prime w/out SDV; I haven't heard comments from folks with SDV and the HDHRP however.
 
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