Best TV Card

[Gameross]

I'm surprised not to see this anywhere in here, but since I'm about to buy a TV Card, I thought I would get some input as to who's card to buy or avoid.

Maybe from a cost/performance perspective.

Personally, cost is an issue since I'd like set up a system with a couple cards.

[defuicus]

I would consider the avermedia m150. It does have a small quirk now with gbpvr, but I am confident sub will solve it in no time.

I ebayed a pvr 250 mce edition and had problems with the tuner. fortunately, I was able to return it. The m150 comes with a philips tuner, the picture quality is much better than a hauppauge wintv tuner card (not pvr 250, just a tuner) I have. So, I have the impression (might not be accurate) that the tuners hauppauge uses is not as good as the philips on the m150.

The mpeg encoders on both are the popular Conexant chipset.

And the price of the m150 is good too. I will buy another one after we have all the problems ironed out.

[glassvial]

I have a PVR350 card. I've found that the tuner is *very* sensitive to bad cables (perhaps that was your problem?). In any event, I've replaced all the coax runs with quad shield RG6/U cable and the picture is great. The old RG59 stuff just didn't cut it, the picture looked terrible. Perhaps other cards are less sensitive to bad cable, but either way, if you're planning on putting in a PVR box I'd suggest making sure your cabling is of good quality.

[defuicus]

my cables are all new runs I did last year, with a line amplifier. TVs thoughout the house pull in excellent picture. The m150 has excellent picture, compared to the two hauppauge cards, from the same cable. So I have to suspect the tuners hauppauge uses.

[glassvial]

Everyone's setup is different. TV's here are all fine as well, even with the cheap 59 cable I had. Again, I still hold my theory that other tuners are more forgiving than Hauppauge's. RG6 QS is the way to go for the future anyway, HD

[ranger]

I am trying to determine what minimum features I would need for a TV tuner card and its components given my current requirements, this PVR app, and future support for HDTV.

My main goal is to try to output the TV signal from the same TV tuner card if possible. I tried an ATI wonder card and was not able to do this of course. So I am evaluating cards based on what limited info I know. I am evaluating the PVR 250 and 350 but also wondering why there isn't support for the Hauppauge WinTV-D 697 and WinTV-HD 698 cards. Maybe I don't need them. Your input is appreciated. Thanks.

What I believe is needed: (Advice is appreciated)
- Built-In MPEG2 hardware encoder and decoder (eliminates need for software to do this and slow the machine)
- 125 Channel Cable Ready Tuner
- Audio output (goes to line in on my existing sound card which then outputs to my Stereo tuner for TV sound output)
- Infrared or radio freq Remote control transmitter and receiver
- S-Video out?
- Coax Input from cable (Not sure if the other cards additional HD coax lines are output or not)

What I have for this machine:
- VGA card that supports Direct Draw (I don't want to output to the TV from my video card if possible but instead from the TV Tuner and then just remote desktop to this machine if I really need to)
- Sound card
- 1ghz AMD Athlon with 512Meg Ram
- S-Video input on my TV
- Available PCI slot for the TV Tuner
- GB Pvr installed
- Internet access to this machine for TV guide XML feed access
- 80 gig hard drive

Thanks
~ranger

[glassvial]

The only hardware encoder/decoder card I know of is the 350. As far as the -D and -HD cards, I haven't seen ANY PVR prorams that support those yet, but I'd guess that they are out there somewhere. Sounds like you're pretty much on the money, depending on what inputs your TV/Receiver/whatever else you want to hook things up to is.

[ranger]

It sounds like the m150 might be an option too. I assume there will soon be support for the HD cards, so I was thinking about that. So my questions are this...

1) Am I able to output only to the TV from the tuner card?
2) Are there usually options for both S-Video out and Coax out? Or just one or the other?
~ranger

[sub]

The only tuner card I've seen that has a TV output on it is the PVR350. All others only have inputs, and require playback via your normal TV card.

[glassvial]

Quote[/b] (ranger @ May 06 2004,16:47)]It sounds like the m150 might be an option too. I assume there will soon be support for the HD cards, so I was thinking about that. So my questions are this...

1) Am I able to output only to the TV from the tuner card?
2) Are there usually options for both S-Video out and Coax out? Or just one or the other?
~ranger

1) as opposed to?
2) The 350 has Composite and SVideo out (as well as in). There are no TV cards that I've seen that have Coax OUT.