What TV Tuner card is best for me?

[Brian_W]

jksmurf,

Tivo for the US satellite market, ie DirecTV, can use dual inputs (two physical cables from the dish to the STB) off of the same dish so that you can record two things at once, or record one show and watch another. Basically like having two capture cards for our PVR systems. Cable is different in that you would need a box for each channel, unless you have a a DVR from the cable company (Adelphia has Moxi) which can internally split the signal like the PVR500 does.

Brian

[steveklein]

incidentally... instead of using s-video, i think i'll buy a DVI--->Component changer for my ATI Radeon 9700 Video Card (can be found for $10)... and then run component cable from that to my TV. i think that would give me a far superior picture than s-video, right?

now i just gotta figure out how to handle audio... gotta get it from my PC to my receiver. there is just a single "audio out" jack on the back of my PC... (it's not optical or coaxial) so i guess i'll need to somehow convert that into R/L analog RCA audio which can plug into my receiver with those old school red and white plugs.

[jksmurf]

Tivo for the US satellite market, ie DirecTV, can use dual inputs (two physical cables from the dish to the STB) off of the same dish so that you can record two things at once, or record one show and watch another. Basically like having two capture cards for our PVR systems. Cable is different in that you would need a box for each channel, unless you have a a DVR from the cable company (Adelphia has Moxi) which can internally split the signal like the PVR500 does. Brian

Ah, I see, interesting stuff, thanks for that. I wasn't aware of that (I'm not in the US). They are good to you .... I only have a DSL STB, like your cable and that's one feed

k.

[cosmocat]

Seems like my only real option is the 500 as it is the only one with 2 tuners... and it evidently is pretty new.

Not necessarily. GBPVR supports multiple tuner cards. You can fit 2 x PVR150 cards, or 3 or 4 if your motherboard has the PCI slots, and if you run out of slots you can use USB tuners as well as your internal tuners.
Doing it this way may benifit as you can add more tuners as budget and needs allow.

[jim08127]

Hmmm. so 2 cable or sat tv boxes? that's not all that cool. my parents have a tivo system with directv and i know they can record 2 things at once, but i don't recall them having 2 boxes.

Look at their system closer, there has to be two satellite receivers there somewhere.

[steveklein]

Not necessarily. GBPVR supports multiple tuner cards. You can fit 2 x PVR150 cards, or 3 or 4 if your motherboard has the PCI slots, and if you run out of slots you can use USB tuners as well as your internal tuners.
Doing it this way may benifit as you can add more tuners as budget and needs allow.

does the 150 allow for hardware decoding (or maybe its hardware encoding...) whichever the one is that reduces the load on your main CPU...?

also, why is it so cheap compared to the 250, 350, and 500?

[Brian_W]

The 150 does hardware encoding so your cpu usage during recording will be lower. It does not support hardware decoding, only the 350 supports that from the Hauppauge lineup (which the tv-out hardware decoding has serious issues and is no longer supported in GBPVR). The 150 is the newest of the tv capture cards and basically replaces the 250. The 350 has the built in mpeg decoding, and the 500 is basically 2 150's on the same card with an internal splitter.

Brian