Tuner versus Encoder question

[DittoMuch]

Forgive if this appears to be a basic question if its answered in the wiki I apologize in advance.

I'm currently using a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 and only use the standard analog cable tuner. Now I believe that this card has a hardware mpeg 2 encoder as well as technically two tuners one digital (that i don't use) and one analog.

My question is this...

Do I need a second tuner + hardware encoder or can i get away with just a tuner card for my second channel? Can I use the hardware encoder from the Hauppauge for recording and the other tuner for watching, Can the encoder be used by both cards?


As an aside...


Got GBPVR working as a client on my eeepc 701 series, surprisingly it works pretty well.

[sub]

The hardware encoder is only needed for the analog tuner. Digital broadcasts are encoded by the broadcaster sometime prior to transmission.

[DittoMuch]

^^^^ totally understood


however if I add another tv tuner card, thus giving me 2 analog tuners do I need another hardware mpeg encoder or can i get away with one mpeg encoder and two analog tuners.

[sub]

The analog tuner is hardwired directly to the hardware encoder. It cant be used across the PCI bus to another tuner card in PC or anything like that.