I'm trying to set up a PC to use with ORB so I can watch my home TV through their site. I have Comcast digital HD cable. The PC is running XP. I'm looking for advice on what TV Tuner card to buy. The research I have done has lead me to believe that Hauppauge (card not usb)is the best way to go. Also I was hoping to keep this under $100 if possible.
If anyone could provide some advice as to what TV Tuner card would work best with this setup I would greatly appreciate it.
Also if anyone has any experience with using ORB I would like to hear about that as well.
Originally posted by mb1: I'm trying to set up a PC to use with ORB so I can watch my home TV through their site. I have Comcast digital HD cable. The PC is running XP. I'm looking for advice on what TV Tuner card to buy. The research I have done has lead me to believe that Hauppauge (card not usb)is the best way to go. Also I was hoping to keep this under $100 if possible.
If anyone could provide some advice as to what TV Tuner card would work best with this setup I would greatly appreciate it.
Also if anyone has any experience with using ORB I would like to hear about that as well.
Thanks,
Matt
Hauppauge cards are good, but I doubt that you will find a good one for under $100.
get the Hauppauge pvr 150, you can find it on the internet for less than 70 dollars. It's a standard definition video card but that's all you really need for streaming video, anything more and it'll be very bandwith intensive.
I have 3 of these pvr150's in my computer, basically I can record 3 programs at one time. The reason I recommend this card highly is because it has a built-in mpeg hardware encoder, this means the tuner card does all the heavy lifting in recording video. The only thing the computer cpu has to do is write to the hard drive. Also on this card the audio is taken directly from the cable wire bypassing your computer soundcard. All the video recording or streaming takes place in the background, I can play video games or watch a dvd with absouloutly no slowdown, but I recommend you put a seperate drive in just for the video recording and streaming.
As far as reliability, the computer with my 3 tuners runs non-stop 24/7 for the past 2 years and I am still using the same tuner cards. The video quality is very good and I'm only using the good setting of 1.6gb an hour, you can go as high as 6gb an hour if you want.
Whaatever you do , don't buy any of the cheap tuner card's that use software encoders, those will require your cpu to do all the work plus they require exclusive access to your soundcard.
I've ran the tuner cards on a amd 2000 cpu, and currently using it on a semprom 2800 cpu with 512 system mb ram and using windows xp pro.
The recommended cpu for this card is a minimun of 1.2 ghz cpu.
There are different versions of the tuner card, I bought the oem version that comes in a white box with no remote, which is the least expensive. Thats all you need especially if you want to build a multiple tuner card system.
I just ordered another one last week from amazon.com and recieved it today, I ordered the hauppauge-wintv-pvr-150mce non fm white box model. It cost 52.99 plus 3 day shipping was another 10.00. It just comes in a whitebox with a driver cd and a instruction sheet. When I checked the card, it does have a connecter where I can hook up an fm antenna. Either way for 65.00 it's a good deal.
I think the only difference between the prices, is some come with a remote and some come with no remote but in a colorful retail box. But the guts of the card are the same either way. Unless you have your computer hooked up to a big screen tv, I don't see any reason to get a remote.
