Tv tuner card

R

Rebeldawg

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
251
Could someone suggest a good tv tuner card that can also receive digital channels
as well as analog ones? Thanks in advance.
 
2nd. might be cheaper options, but not by much and nothing will be easier.
 
If you have no immediate need, it might be a good idea to stall this a whee bit longer, as several companies (Hauppauge, Centon) has announced intend to release cablecard-compatible tuner cards.
 
I recently bought a HDHomeRun dual tuner. I really like it so far. What I like the most about it is I'm not "tied" down to a computer like an internal card would be. I can use it either on my desktop or take my laptop out on the porch and watch the ball game through my wireless network. I recommend a fast wireless setup like "802.11n" ... my old 802.11g setup couldn't quite handle the wireless HD streaming. Hardwired is great on either setup though.
 
how is that setup on the client end then? is it setup like a virtual video input or is it just like a webstream video?

and, are you able to watch your channels over the internet, outside of your home network without much trouble?
 
HDHomeRun is a digital tuner only -- it can't do analog channels. OP wanted one that did both, and unfortunately, it won't work. I recommend it as well, though. I've been using one for over a year now and can't say enough good about it.

The client end has the drivers installed. Once they are installed it's just like the tuner is installed on the machine. The new drivers even have a TV Player application that you can use if you just want to watch TV.

If you don't need analog, HDHomeRun is the way to go. Their support is second to none, and their product is very solid.

I mentioned their support and I have to comment on that -- I had a problem with viewing TV. It turns out there was a bug in Windows Vista with TV Pack that was causing problems with the many tuners, not just the HDHomeRun. I jumped into IRC and one of their techs was there. This guy was helping me troubleshoot (and resolve!) the issue from about 8pm to 11pm (EST). He ended up swapping some files out from the Win7 beta install to make it work, and I believe they later released a patch that allowed a work around for Vista with TV pack. Their support is fantastic!
 
how is that setup on the client end then? is it setup like a virtual video input or is it just like a webstream video?
Click to expand...

The computer talks to the driver - thinks it is a tuner. Think of it as a virtual tuner. The "virtual tuner"/driver talks to the hardware and receives the data just like it was a physical card in the machine, but instaed of going over PCI/PCIx, the data is transfered over ethernet. It only has a 100mb interface, but that is plenty to stream two HD channels.

and, are you able to watch your channels over the internet, outside of your home network without much trouble?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming you're thinking about hooking it up on your home network and watching it at work (or some similar situation). Given that you have enough bandwidth (I doubt you do!) to upload one or two HD streams, you shouldn't have a problem. I don't believe this is the intended purpose for the device, but it should work fine if you've got the proper forwarding at your router and enough bandwidth to do it. It's more meant as a LAN solution, but I'm not aware of anything preventing it from working over an internet connection.
 
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