TV tuner USB or PCI ?

medire

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Messages
107
Which are better ?
I'm affraid i can't get a PCI tuner,because my GTX 285 graphic card covers the PCI free slot i have,and the other PCI is for sound card.My mobo is Gigabyte GA EX58 UD5.
In this case i will have to remove the GTX card from PCI EX16_1 _1 to PCI EX8_1,but the cables form case ( cooler master 690 CM ) are in my way on the end of the graphic card.
So i think the best way for me is to get an USB TV tuner.
Are they any good ? Is there a difference between USB and PCI TV tuners ? I mean,picture quality,stability,and averything.
Thanks.
 
I've had both and vastly prefer the pci-e ones. You can always put the tuner card in that bottom port you talked about moving your video card to if you're not planning on using SLI. Thats what I ended up doing with mine (its actually in the middle of the 3 16x ports).

The USB ones tend to have much worse quality IMO.
 
I will attach here a printscreen with my motherboard slots. GIGABYTE GA-EX58 UD5.
On the PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX4_1 is free.
On the PCI EX16_1 is my graphic card GTX 285.
The empty slot PCI 1 is covered by the graphic card.
The slot PCIEX16_2 is free ,but i can't put there the graphic card because i have on PCI 2 (underneath) my sound card,so the last posibility is to remove the graphic card to
PCIEX8_1,but there the only problem is,on the end of the graphic card i have some cables from my Cooler Master 690 CM case,and i don't know if i could fix them right.
Can i find a TV TUNER which is compatible with the PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX4_1 slots,from the printscreen??
Thanks for your help,any ideas are welcome.
 
I've had both and vastly prefer the pci-e ones. You can always put the tuner card in that bottom port you talked about moving your video card to if you're not planning on using SLI. Thats what I ended up doing with mine (its actually in the middle of the 3 16x ports).

The USB ones tend to have much worse quality IMO.

You mean , i can put the tv tuner in the PCIEX8_1 slot ?? I thought ,tv tuners PCI are compatible just for PCI slots.
I'm confused now. Is there more different kind of tv tuners PCI ?
PCI / PCI E ... ?? Please explain me.
What about the free slots i have ? PCIEX1_1 and PCIX4_1 ? Are the compatible as well, with some tv tuners?
 
Buy a pci-e and use the 1x slot.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

Okay,cheers.
I checked it now in google.
I'm gonna buy PCI-E. Now the question is " which tuners are good"? :D
I wanna have some good quality. I'll spend about 100 euro for a TV tuner.
Advices ? Thanks again.
 
I have the ati HD 650, however I haven't gotten around to using it.

It is a pci-e 1x though.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
You can use the PCI-E 1x cards in any slot. I have a hapuagge (I know I spelled that wrong) 1800 and have been pretty happy with it. It works great with media center and has rather decent quality. Before that I had 2 USB tuners and have had standard PCI tuners for years.
 
If you are in Europe I think you will need a DVB-T one correct? Unless you are in the States.
Look into Hauppauge. I am not sure if they make a PCI-E x1 DVB-T one though. As I live in the States and don't keep track of what they make for the EU.

I also recommend the HVR 2250.
 
USB user here.

Pinnacle HD Stick Pro. It's not a bad little tuner, high quality image, sound is good, etc.

It does take a bit of a bite out of your CPU though... my laptop is maxed out with it, AMD 2Ghz Turion. My desktop though, no problem with it's e8400.
 
I've only tried one USB stick tuner. It worked well enough but on a big screen the video was not the best quality. Not sure if the PCI types are better. In generall you get what you pay for though.
 
USB tuners are fine if the source is broadcast already encoded as mpeg2 (HDTV, etc); however my huppauge usb stick tuner gets lost by the drivers every few weeks and i have to reinstall things which is annoying.

I prefer pci-e, i just got a dvico fusion 7 dual express for dual hdtv tuning goodness, but i dont know what kind of card you are going to need in euro-land. (dvb-s? i dont know your broadcast tech at all).
 
So,i decided to go for PCI E.
But i have a problem with my mobo free slots. That's funny.I repeat:
On the PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX4_1 is free.At the end of the PCIEX1_1 is a blue "cover /lid /cap" so the end of the TV tuner PCI E card wont fit there. Geeeez.
On the PCI EX16_1 is my graphic card GTX 285.
The empty slot PCI 1 ( underneath) is covered by the graphic card.
The slot PCIEX16_2 is free ,but i can't put there the graphic card because i have on PCI 2 (underneath) my sound card,so the last posibility is to remove the graphic card to
PCIEX8_1,but there the only problem is,on the end of the graphic card i have some cables from my Cooler Master 690 CM case,and i don't know if i could fix them.
So my question is : can i buy i tv tuner to stick it into PCIEX8_1 or PCIEX4_1 ??
I think that's all i can do.
Here some links /pictures with my mobo slots.
http://www.jatoncomputers.com.au/images/GA-EX58-UD5.jpg
http://www.expreview.com/img/news/2008/10/20/x58/X58-ALL-14.jpg
Please ,heeeelp :)
 
HVR-2200 is for Europe. The HVR-2250 is for the US.
Put the HVE-2200 in the yellow slot PCI-E x4.
The HVR-2200 is a PCI-Ex1 card and it will fit and run fine in your x4 slot.
 
Thanks a lot,Jon Doms. I see that the slots PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX4_1 are a bit different,but i trust you.
 
I looked at :
http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=425
http://www.custompc.co.uk/labs/220149/hauppauge-wintv-hvr-2200.html
http://www.ginger6.com/components-cards-asus-cinemape6300-hybrid-tuner-pcie-profile-p-30953.html
Guys,please tell me: is there a difference between PCI and PCI E,at all ? I mean quality ,speed,stability,clearer picture image....?
There are a lot of tv tuners,but PCI ,so i won't be able to stick in my free PCI slot,unless i remove the graphic gard to PCIEX_8 ,and i'm affraid to do that ,for 2 reasons:
1) cable managment doesent look very well,for the end of the graphic card
2) PCIEX X8 = slower ( i'm not sure)
If i'd buy a tv tuner PCI ,could i put an adapter PCI - PCI E,and stick it in PCIEX4 ?
Is that possible at all ?
 
A PCI card will not work in a PCI-E card (no adapter either). The bandwidth of a PCI-E 1x is the same as a PCI, quality wise there is no real difference between them. The electical specifications are different and the PCI-E will be better for forward compatability since PCI slots are becoming rarer, and often stuck in out of the way places on boards now. I don't have personal experience with any of the three cards you've listed so I can't really comment there. I have a different Avermedia card and it works ok, but doesn't play as nicely with QAM as my H1800 does.
 
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