Time to upgrade equipment, need suggestions

[skreien]

I just got a new HDTV, 16x9 aspect ratio. I want to start recording in HD on the PVR, it's a 3GHZ with 1gig of RAM, so it should be more than adequate after I add more disk. The video card in my PVR has an analog video out that I currently take and feed into a video modulator with audio, which feeds it onto the antenna cable that feeds the house on channel 3. This is all analog, and not even close to HD of course. So I need to do a few things.

1. I need to get an ATSC HD capable tuner card or two for recording

2. I need to figure out how to get a 16x9 HD signal out of the PVR machine and into the TV, which is approximately 100 feet away from the PVR machine. This is two parts, getting a 16x9 aspect ratio on the PVR machine, and getting that signal in HD and out to the TV.

Recommendations on tuner cards would be appreciated. ATSC US only please. The second one is where I'm most stuck though. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm somewhat of a newbie to the digital TV/HD/16x9 aspect ratio stuff. I've been around and into TV for a long time (dad worked at a TV station), but this is my first foray into anything beyond traditional analog TV.

Thanks for your help!

[TornadoTJ]

I'm using an ATI Theater 650 with mixed results. I sitll don't have it all working perfectly, but it is passable.

To get the 16x9 aspect ratio, you do two things. First, you set your video card output to the TV to a format that's 16x9 compatible, and one that the display can use. Second, in GB-DVR you set it to display widescreen. Pretty simple, actually.

My computer is connected to my TV via an HDMI cable. 100' is long... you can't do anything to get it closer?

[skreien]

In its current state, no, I can't get it any closer. The PVR machine is also my wife's office computer, and our office is on the second floor. That's why I'm feeding it on channel 3 back onto the house cable to get it downstairs to the main TV. That and combined with the ATI remote I can watch and control it on every TV in the house.

Is there a hotkey that can switch the display aspect ratio, or does it have to be done in the configuration options? Since I'm watching it on TV's of both display types I don't really want to hard code it one way or the other in the setup.

All in all, it sounds like I may need to build a small box downstairs for the widescreen TV.

[skreien]

Anyone else have any ATSC tuner cards working? I haven't searched for which ones are supported yet, I know it's been problematic so I was hoping to hear of at least one or two which are known to work without problems.

Thanks for the info tornadotj!

[TornadoTJ]

I've been through hell tonight. I "supposedly" found out why my video is jerky. Evidently, the newer versions of ATI's drivers don't like the Intel or the VIA chipsets. They recommended I go back to 6-4 versions. I am honestly almost at the point of reinstalling XP from scratch and starting over (!). I think if I can just get all the right driver versions installed and everything stable, I'll be fine, but damn it's a hard row to plowto get there.

Currently, my install is hanging on the WDM installation. I have to figure that one out now. CRAP!

Oh, anyway, I saw something today at BestBuy that might interest you.
I'm sorry I can't check it out for you since I'm into 6 hours of trying to get my DVR set back up right, but go look this up at D-Link's website: Model DSM-520