Best HDTV card?

[collindv]

I'm sorry if this has been brought up before (though I did search quite a bit yesterday). I am considering adding a second tuner to my current GBPVR setup. I currently have a Hauppage 150.

I am looking to receive over the air HD content here in the US, and would like a card with hardware encoding.

I am looking at either the ATI HD TV Wonder, or the KWORLD ATSC-100 (I think that's the correct model, not sure if it has hardware encoding or not though). I also hear that ATI dropped a new HD tuner card recently, the TV Wonder 650. Anyone know if this works natively with GBPVR yet?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'll be using an indoor antenna to receive my signal (hopefully).

[David]

I have the KWorld ATSC-110. My understanding is that it doesn't have or need hardware encoding for the digital side. It simply passes the digitally encoded signal to GB-PVR. I doubt there is much difference between the two cards for configuration. Pop the card in, load the driver, configure GB-PVR tuning source (should be detected automatically) and then the hard part is manually configuring the channels and tuning (guide available on the Wiki).

The analog side is more difficult, and ATI cards are usually worse. They both require the Software Recorder, which Sub discourages. They do not have hardware encoding.

The 97.x series still seems to have some quirks when dealing with ATSC which I hope will get worked out in the next few versions.

[nitrogen_widget]

The new 650 coming out does hardware encoding on both the digital & analog side.

That I like.
It would take some overhead off watching live TV in either HD or SD.

But you still need some grunt to record HD with the K-world correct?
I probably would stick it in my server & only record My network shows off HD for playback in another PC.

What would be the minimum for playback only of HD on an SD tv?
Or is that just stupid?
It sounds stupid now that I think about it, but I like the way letterbox gives me more picture.
I have an athlon 1.7ghz with a radeon 9550 & havn't attempted to play back true HD content.
There is probably a lot of scaling being done somewhere to make it fit on an SDTV, right?

[collindv]

The more I read about the new 650 the more I think that is the way to go. I know it was supposed to release yesterday, but I haven't found anywhere you can actually order it. Even ATI's web site says it's out of stock.

Anyone have try on of these with GBPVR yet?

[yuss]

You might want to check out the OnAir USB HDTV GT Personal Video Recorder - I heard a review at the HT Guys (htguys.com) they loved it. I 'm tempted to grab one for myself.

[collindv]

Hmm. Had never heard of that. It looks interesting, but pricey in comparison to the new 350 ($129 vs $179). Not sure if it would work with GBPVR either. Anyone have any experience with either?

[daphatty]

A word of caution, sub has stated that he has no intention of supporting the analog side of cards that support both OTA HD and Analog Cable. That being said, if having a second analog capture device is important to you then I would advise against combo devices like the 650.

For the record, I own the DViCO Fusion 5 lite and I like it for the most part. The only downside is the manufacturer is based in Korea and support for the US version of ATSC can be spotty. Apparently, our implementation of ATSC isn't "by the book" and therefore issues can arise depending on your provider. This is more evident on the QAM/WDM side than OTA but that only affects the Fusion software and not GBPVR since GBPVR uses the BDA drivers.

[sub]

A word of caution, sub has stated that he has no intention of supporting the analog side of cards that support both OTA HD and Analog Cable. That being said, if having a second analog capture device is important to you then I would advise against combo devices like the 650.

Thats usually correct advise, but the 650 is a bad example to give. In its case, it sounds like the first device where both the ATSC and analog will work. It seems like a good device to me, and should be fully compatible with GB-PVR. The analog side of this device has the required MPEG2 encoder hardware (effectively the equivalent of the ATI 550).

Other hybrid devices like the Fusion ones and the older ATI HDTV Wonder lacked the required MPEG encoder hardware on the analog side.

[collindv]

Thanks sub, I think that's cinched it for me. I will wait until I can track down one of the new 650's. This will effectively give me 1 OTA HD tuner, and 2 analog tuners (when used with my Hauppage 150).

Now I just need to find a powerful indoor antenna. I'm only 4-6 miles from my broadcasters, but my HTPC is in a basement and I really don't feel like putting up a rooftop antenna. Anyone have any suggestions?

[collindv]

One more question. I checked out the DViCO Fusion 5 lite and noticed that it "Supports digital cable (64/256 clear-QAM)". From what I can decipher this means that I would be able to plug in my coax straight from the wall and receive any un-encrypted HD channels (as well as the rest of my cable digital channels). Is this correct?

If so, which channels are un-encrypted? I really only need the big 4 (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox). Do they encrypt some programs and not others, or is the encryption either on or off?

Let me know if I'm way off base or if this doesn't make sense.