Digital Tuner NZ

[Lindsay]

Looking for some NZ based advice. My main recording channel is TV1 but this has the worst reception for some reason, even though my aerial points directly to Kaukau. The other higher frequencies are excellent. I use the SKY decoder for TV tuning so this is not a goer for the bulk of my recordings as it is likely to have its channel switched! I am not in a Telstra Clear cable area.

I am planning on swapping one of my PVR150s for a HVR-3000 or 4000. This will solve the TV1 quality issue and set me up for future HD offerings (presumably!).

The remaining PVR150 would be used for the occasional second concurrent recording and for Prime.

Is there any advantage to the HVR-4000 in NZ? The S2 HD isn't relevant is it?

Does the above scenario sound optimal? Any fish hooks?

TIA.

[stustunz]

im pretty sure the hvr3000 is the card to go for
you could get mce remote and use the ir blaster to change channels so you could record sky aswell into your pvr150

[Lindsay]

Seems the 3000 is the best value. Tastech have them for $145 incl GST. If I sell the old 150 on TM the difference is not very much.

Nah, I can't remotely change the SKY channels - 'er indoors would kill me if I switched channels on her and the chance of her zapping a recording would be VERY high as well! Let's not go there

Cheers.

[psycik]

Remember the hvr3000 is not a dual card!! It can do dvb-t or dvb-s but not both at the same time.

[Lindsay]

Or should I buy the Nova-T 500 HD with two tuners for $125? Any fish hooks with this card?

[stustunz]

nova t is not a sat card though
so you wont be able to use it yet or do you guys have Terrestrial already

[Lindsay]

I was just going to wait for the terrestrial feed to start. I could feed from the SKY dish right now but thought the terrestrial feed was going to be the one to use. I can't find any other start time indication except "early 2008". I thought I would be able to find a more definite date by now. Perhaps I should ring them.

[psycik]

The problem with that is, if you have crap tv1 now you'll be hitting the same repeater for the dvb-T wouldn't you? I don't know if it's more forgiving or not (the dvb)

[JonnyCam]

I don't know if it's more forgiving or not (the dvb)

I would have thought it would be less forgiving on the dvb - as it's digital. At least with analogue , you get snow - with a digital, it's either an mpeg stream, or nothing. (I could, and probably am, wrong)

I think the sat service is going to carry all of the same channels as the terristial. Not sure about the HiDef though, maybe thats only on dvb-t?
(woohoo, HD olympics )

[Lindsay]

No, all the higher frequencies are great. The PVR 150s seem to struggle with the low TV1 freq. Both spend several seconds flashing colour bars before locking and the picture just wasn't very flash. The image from the SKY tuner is WAY better than the analogue one. We always use the SKY tuner for live viewing.

The other point about digital is that you either get it or you don't. With a direct line-of-site to both satellite and Mt Kau Kau, there is absolutely no reason to be concerned about the signal.

The way I see it, we all have to switch to digital sooner or later so it may as well be sooner. The dvb cards aren't that expensive and there is still a market for the 150 to offset the cost. (May as well sell the 150's while the market still exists). However, I will still have to keep one to be able to record from SKY. Gets complicated!