Some Tv tuner questions

D

Donar

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
143
Ok so first off I just want to say I am a complete newb when it comes to HTPC things...however!

I was looking at picking up a tuner for simple viewing/recording and from what I read on these boards so far, it seems like the Nvidia dualTV is the way to go, if there is something else I should be looking at, please let me know...

I want to be able to watch normal channels, and of course some of the digital cable channels like the HBO's ect.

Will I need anything or to do anything special other than get the tuner, something like sageTV and use a settop box?
 
with any front end, sage, myth, beyondtv or MCE

to watch HBO you'll need to connect the tuner card to a set a top box. the digital feed is encrypted by the cable company. so dont get a dual tuner because you'll have to use 2 boxes anyways and single tuners are cheaper


get 2 of these if you have 2 pcie slots open... 16x,8x,4x, or 1x will all work.
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...uners?osCsid=afdea0ce3396659421ec26c98a15abc3

x2 = $100 you could get another one for the same price as the dual tuner....

also you'll need to connect the set a top box and the tuner card with an IR blaster...
in order to do this you need a non-MCE version of the card... MCE or OEM versions dont have remotes or IR blasters...

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/pName/hauppauge-wintvpvr150/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners $90
or
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...r-pci-express-retail/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners
$90
either way it gets to be alittle expensive... $180 but you get a nice RF remote, actually 2 and two good card and the IR blasters...

the dual tuners dont have 2 IR blasters, from what I have seen and cannot control 2 SABs

if you dont want to watch HBO then it is easy plug the cable in and go!!
 
for HBO you will need to wait till vista which will add cable card support.
 
zainali said:
for HBO you will need to wait till vista which will add cable card support.
Click to expand...


Or he could plug a cable box into a tuner card and use an IR blaster to change it's channel.
 
There are also ways of doing this via Firewire from your cable box into a HTPC running MCe. Check out the FireSTB application over @ www.thegreenbutton.com

Or check you any QAM based tuner like the MyHD 130 or the Fusion based cards, the QAM based tuners will also be able to tune those channels, but only and if only your cable providor hasn't flagged them with the C5 encryption.

- Josh
 
zainali said:
for HBO you will need to wait till vista which will add cable card support.
Click to expand...
Actually I read tha Vista will NOT support Add in Cable Cards. They will only support OEM manufactures that supply cable cards with their pre configured systems.
 
actually one last question, I have an xfi and we all know how much bandwidth those things hog, should I be focusing on a PCIe tuner for that sole reason, or will there be a non-issue with a pci one?
 
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