NextPVR Forums

I am a little over whelmed by what card to get.

I have a new media PC I have build and now am ready to put in a tuner card.

I want to access freeview in NZ (DVB-S) and want to be speced for HD even though I currently don't have HD screen - Yet.

I know I do want to have the dual channel (watch & record) and would perfer to only have a single input from the dish - but that is not a biggy.

Set up as it is at present:
Mobo Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G
Onboard graphics and sound - will add a graphics card later if need it.
4 Gig Ram
case - Antec Fusion with remote.
plus the usual other bits
Running XP SP3

So what card to get? Also will the remote that is with the Fusion box do the trick? Seems fine to me.

tuner card
there are no dual dvb-s tuners that are commonly available in NZ so you will have to buy a splitter$10
if you just wanted dvb-s then the hauppauge nova-s is fine
since you want HD later on then you need a dvb-t(old uhf aerial)the the hvr 3000 or hvr 4000
if you only want hd and you have pci-e slots the hvr2200 would do nicely as this has 2 dvb-t tuners and 2 analog tuners (for prime tv since they are not on freeview)note you can only use 2 of the hvr2200 tuners at any one time but any combo to make that up

option 1:if you wanted best bang for buck with dvb-s i would go for 2x nova-s $125ea (this would let you record anything off tvnz or canwest(tv3 c4 etc)
then later on buy a hvr 2200$190ea for dvb-t HD

option 2 buy 2 hvr 3000 $185ea gives you dvb-s and dvb-t but no analog for prime
cost less than option 1 but you have to spend more now which in my opinion with computer stuff always getting cheaper is not the best option

option 3 GO HD buy a hvr2200$190 hope you have big hard drive and fast machine

any remote that controls the pc should be fine
you can look at programs like eventghost or HIP to modify what and how it controls your pc

Great thanks, Thats reduced the options list down to something I can manage.

cheers stustunz

Hi, you have mentioned you were looking at DVB-S - is that becasue of whee you live? I believe that DVB-T is not available in all areas - so this will limit what cards to get also - maybe find out if DVB-T will be available (or is it available now) in you area.

DVB-S does not have HD (not sure if there are plans for this in the future or not), so if you want HD, then you have to go DVB-T (at this stage)