Tuner Card Q?

sarahn11

ok, just got a htpc set up, bought it off gline

its perfect for what i wanna use it for, but i need to be able to get a tv tuner card into it. this means i must sacrifice a pci slot... which i really dont wanna do

so, are there any decent usb tuner cards out there?? or any other alternatives??

8T8

Is the OS MCE 2005 as the number of external tuners isn't terribly higher that are compliant ? A full list can be found on Microsoft's site where you will find some of the usual suspects.

I haven't see any picture quality tests done on external tuners myself so cant say anything really about which one to get. I read a good review in terms of picture quality of AverMedia's non-MCE external USB tuner & they have a brand new external USB tuner that is MCE certified so it may be worth checking out.

Komplett don't stock the MCE version but do have the non-MCE one available which is a pity they also have the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 which according to here also has decent image quality but some forum members say otherwise.

HLF

I use a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 as I could not get a PCIex1 analog tuner. Could not watch TV with the software that came with it. But once I set it up through MCE I have no complants, only watch TV through it now.

sarahn11

yeah it has mce 05 on it.....i was aware of the compatabilty problems of certain hardware with mce, but i thought maybe a year on they might have ironed out some of those kinks....

ok...how about this one: should i splash out on that Hauppage one? or wait until vista comes out and the new batch of hardware comes along???

i will be running vista on this pc, MCE is just a stop gap for the moment

SouperComputer

I wouldnt hold out for vista TBH. Not due for release until Q1 next year and you can be pretty sure that there will be lots of bugs.

sarahn11

whoa...THAT late?? last i had read it was october....jesus they are taking their sweet time aint they!!

sarahn11

so i found this one http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=321743

Does anyone have this one?? anyone know if its any good??

i dont want to get the terriesrial channels, i only want it to watch/record sky?

8T8

No that's a DVB-T tuner for receiving digital over the air signals it has no input for a set top box like Sky.

I think the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 is the only one on Komplett that is MCE compatible and has the inputs (s-video & composite) to allow recording from a set top box.

There are only 4 companies listed on Microsoft's site that have MCE compliant USB tuners AverMedia, Hauppauge & two Taiwanese companies by the sounds of it that you probably cant get there products here anyway.

sarahn11

thats faily expensive.....nearly 200e with shipping...havent seen them cheaper anywhere else either!!


hummm....what to do what to do......i really don't wanna sacrifice a pci slot....argh!!!