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afterdawn.com > forums > home theater > home theater pc > need to know about pci/usb tv tuners
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need to know about pci/usb tv tuners
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wade0510
Junior Member
_ 		30. September 2009 @ 15:36 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
i need a pci OR usb tv tuner for my new htpc. i know nothing about these, and have posted in several forums and haven't gotten a clear answer. i know good ole afterdawn will help me out.

what i need to know is.......

what tuner will work with a basic cable connection? no cable box. no converter box needed for old tube tv. just a basic, 55 channel cable subscription. straight coaxial cable.

I prefer one that works in vista x64, but beggars can't be choosers. The lower the price, the better. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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jony218
Suspended due to non-functional email address
_ 		30. September 2009 @ 20:39 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
As long as the tuner card has a coaxial input (almost all tuner cards have them), it will work with your basic cable. I have cox cable and it lets me tune all the expanded basic channels (no cable box required).

There are 2 type of tuner cards 1.)hardware encoders(expensive) and 2.)software encoders(cheaper).

If you want to watch/record more than 1 tv show at a time get the hardware encoder tuners. I have 4 of these PCI tuners installed on my mediapc it lets me record 4 shows at one time. The hardware encoders on the tuner cards do all the video/audio compressing. You can install as many hardware encoder tuner cards as will fit in your computer. These tuner cards won't slow down your PC.

If you want a simple mediapc, where you only watch the occasional tv show and do very few recording get the cheaper software encoder tuner. On these tuners your computer cpu does all the video encoding, so it will slow down your computer.

I use the hauppagauge pvr-150 pci tuner card, very reliable and they have been working non-stop 24/7 on my mediapc for the past 3 years. You can still find them on the internet for under $50.00.

I also have a "msi tvanywhere plus" software encoder PCI card, it works fine for a basic tuner card. Cost $40.00.
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wade0510
Junior Member
_ 		30. September 2009 @ 21:00 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
afterdawn comes through again.

thanks for the response. what would your opinion be on the following:

Hauppauge HVR-1250 PCI-e:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028

AVerMedia AVerTV Volar Max USB 2.0:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100035

ATI TV Wonder 600:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815306009

I should probably add that I'm looking to use it as a primary TV in my bedroom.

My HTPC Specs:
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI MicroATX
4GB DDR2800 (upgrading to 8 soon)
1*500GB HDD (boot) 2*1TB HDD (storage)
HannsG 24.6" 1080p LCD
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 1. October 2009 @ 00:32
jony218
Suspended due to non-functional email address
_ 		2. October 2009 @ 00:47 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
All 3 are software encoder tuner cards.
Myself I prefer the internal tuner cards instead of the USB type tuner cards.

I would go with the hauppagauge brand, even there software encoder tuners are good.

The pci-e adapter should fit as long as you don't plan on adding any video cards, some of the wider video cards might interfere with a pci-e that is too close to the video card.
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KillerBug
AfterDawn Addict

1 product review
_ 		6. October 2009 @ 03:52 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
My Hauappapapapugggueee HVR-1600 PCI recieves analog cable channels 02-99 just fine, at least with bright house networks cable.
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