What TV tuner should i select??

[cgilson33]

I am looking to build a new PC, mostly to create a PVR and blu-Ray player (blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVDRW/CD-Rom drives are only $100 for those interested!)
I am in the midst of choosing the best option for my money when it comes to TV tuner cards.

My setup is going to be for basic Cox Cable in Omaha, so I will need an analog tuner for the basic cable and a QAM for the unencrypted HD that comes through the cable... Is that correct?

I want 2 tuners, each with QAM capabilities (probably choose 2 of the same tuners, Duh)

Originally I had selected using 2 Hauppauge HVR-1250s ($49x2), but I read on here that you need hardware encoding for GB-PVR to work with analog cable... Is this correct?

I had also looked at the new HVR-2250 ($109)... which has 2 hybrid tuners on the card, but I thought I read that it can only support one QAM channel and the other would have to be analog in my case... Does anyone know if that sounds correct?

I also looked at the ASUS - My Cinema-ES3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/RC ($49x2)... I thought I had seen hardware encoding on this card, but now I can't find that anywhere so maybe that was a different card... Does anyone know if this has hardware encoding? What about the quality of the card?

Last I looked at the AVerMedia AVERTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E (H788) ($56x2)... Same questions with this one, Encoding? Quality?

Though the reviews were mixed for all of these tuners it seems most had problems with recieving a signal (ATSC.) I will not be using ATSC only NTSC and QAM so I should be able to have better luck with the lower end tuner (i think/hope.)

Anybody with suggestion would be greatly appreciated
Please suggest different tuners if you have a similar setup

I was looking to stay around $100 give or take, maybe up to $150
(prices i got off newegg)

Probable Set-up as of now...
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz
Gigabyte ATX 780 Mobo (Radeon HD 3200 w/ crossfire)
Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 (w/ crossfire)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner
2x TV Tuners???????????????????

Thanks so much

[sub]

Originally I had selected using 2 Hauppauge HVR-1250s ($49x2), but I read on here that you need hardware encoding for GB-PVR to work with analog cable... Is this correct?

True. This device would only be usable for digital in GB-PVR. Not analog.

I had also looked at the new HVR-2250 ($109)... which has 2 hybrid tuners on the card, but I thought I read that it can only support one QAM channel and the other would have to be analog in my case... Does anyone know if that sounds correct?

This device has two tuners. Each of which can be used for either digital or analog.

I also looked at the ASUS - My Cinema-ES3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/RC ($49x2)... I thought I had seen hardware encoding on this card, but now I can't find that anywhere so maybe that was a different card... Does anyone know if this has hardware encoding? What about the quality of the card?

Last I looked at the AVerMedia AVERTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E (H788) ($56x2)... Same questions with this one, Encoding? Quality?

I'd stick with the Hauppauge devices. Better supported, more users using them, HVR2250 has the hardware encoder (fairly sure these devices dont).

[khaver]

I have an HVR-2250. It has 2 digital and 2 analog tuners but only 2 can be used at a time. Depending how the QAM stations are set up where you are, using multirecord with the digital tuners allows you to record several shows at a time using just 1 tuner so in effect, if you are recording 1 show on an analog tuner, the digital side could be recording several shows.

Where I am, Salem, Oregon area, Comcast has all their basic cable channels in unencrypted QAM along with 2-30 also analog for the old folks who don't want to go digital. I don't even use the analog side any more. With the 2 digital tuners and using multirecord, I usually have no problems recording 3 or 4 shows at once.

[johnsonx42]

I am looking to build a new PC, mostly to create a PVR and blu-Ray player (blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVDRW/CD-Rom drives are only $100 for those interested!)

Be aware that blu-Ray/HD-DVD support in GB-PVR is very much a work in progress, and appears to require purchase of Slysoft AnyDVD-HD. See here:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=39575

I haven't bothered with buying a blu-ray drive so far, since it looks rather touchy to get it to work. It may well be possible though to just setup whatever software the drive comes with, and call it with a Custom Task off the GB-PVR menu.

Where I am, Salem, Oregon area, Comcast has all their basic cable channels in unencrypted QAM along with 2-30 also analog for the old folks who don't want to go digital.

I do seem to be hearing that more often these days, that Comcast is putting all the basic cable channels on ClearQAM. But every local Comcast is different... I see plenty of reports of NO ClearQAM at all on Comcast too. My local cable co (Time Warner) won't admit there's even such a thing as ClearQAM, and insists I MUST have their digital STB to get any digital cable signal at all (even when I asked specifically about local broadcast channels)... so I'll stick with OTA ATSC for now.

[cgilson33]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies!!

Maybe I'll go ahead with the 2250 then... here's the quote from the specs on newegg that scared me
"Watch and record two TV programs at the same time: two analog cable TV channels, two digital TV channels or one analog cable and one clear QAM digital cable TV channel."
but if you're using it, khaver, thats enough for me haha...

So you say that I can in fact record 1 or multiple QAM while I am watching another QAM?
You said "Depending on how your QAM stations are setup"... Should I look up, or talk to my cable company to find out how my QAM stations are set up? What exactly should I find out?

I do already have 2 TVs with QAM tuners, so I know that I can recieve the networks (fox, nbc, abc, cbs, and cw) Thats about all we get so far but i mostly just watch sports and House, so thats all i "need" though I can't wait for the day when all cable is HD!

Oh and johnsonx42, I'm just buying the Blu-Ray for playing discs, probably be using PowerDVD 7.(something). Actually hadn't even seen that GB-PVR supports them. If I can ask, whats the point? Just to have a free player and ripper? (thats enough of a reason for me, but i was just wondering)

Thanks again guys

[johnsonx42]

Maybe I'll go ahead with the 2250 then... here's the quote from the specs on newegg that scared me
"Watch and record two TV programs at the same time: two analog cable TV channels, two digital TV channels or one analog cable and one clear QAM digital cable TV channel."

Yes, the wording is a bit strange. If you understand "digital TV channel" and "clear QAM digital cable TV channel" to mean the same thing, then the quote is accurate. Really though, it would be more accurate to simply say ""Watch and record two TV programs at the same time: two analog TV channels, two digital TV channels or one analog and one digital TV channel.", with the understanding that on the digital side the device supports both OTA ATSC and ClearQAM.

So you say that I can in fact record 1 or multiple QAM while I am watching another QAM?
You said "Depending on how your QAM stations are setup"... Should I look up, or talk to my cable company to find out how my QAM stations are set up? What exactly should I find out?

Each digital channel includes multiple program streams. Normally you just watch or record one program stream, but in fact every stream on a given channel (or frequency) is available at the same time. Multi-record can split up and record any or all of the streams at the same time. This is rarely useful for antenna users (me), but is extremely useful for QAM users. Since you already tune QAM on your TV's, you should be able to tell which TV channels are part of the same QAM channel, because they'll have the same starting channel number with a different sub-channel number.

You can also look yourself up here: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels_us
If they have correct info for your area, you'll see exactly which channels you should be able to get, and what QAM channels they're on.

Oh and johnsonx42, I'm just buying the Blu-Ray for playing discs, probably be using PowerDVD 7.(something). Actually hadn't even seen that GB-PVR supports them. If I can ask, whats the point? Just to have a free player and ripper? (thats enough of a reason for me, but i was just wondering)

GB-PVR plays DVD's right from the menu, and some people had thought it would simply play HD-DVD's and Blu-Rays as well. It doesn't, though I suppose sub will add that support as soon as someone buys him a Blu-Ray drive

[cgilson33]

haha, nice, well i'm sure he deserves something for all the time and effort he's putting into these forums