Which TV Tuner?

P&L

I'm finding it quite hard to get good explanations of which tuners do what..

At the moment I have a digital satellite picking up free German TV, I have a Sky dish pickup up just the free channels (no subscription) and I can just about get RTE2 with a booster from the ariel.

Is there single tuner card that everything will plug into, what specs do I need to be looking for...?

I'm actually going to go for pupose built Media center PC - so can one be recommended for my setup? ...is this one suitable / not suitable...
(2 x Hybrid Analogue and Digital TV Tuners)

Im getting more and more confused

hshortt

If you already have a digital satellite system then look at what outputs exist on it, then choose a tuner card with a suitable input so you can pass the signal. This will not automatically tune for you, but rather it's like hitting AV1 on your TV to switch to VCR, the tv just shows whatever channel the video is set to.

There are instances where you can remotely change the channels using a digital setup, like sky for instance, where media centre can use it's little infra-red extender and then change the channels on the sky box. Going this method means you can use the standard EPG and set it up for all the sky channels.

If you buy a dual tuner, you can record two channels at once or watch one/record the other.

Digital tuners can pick up the digital free to air channels once fitted with an appropriate antenna.

I've had a peep at the spec of your system and it looks really nice, the only thing that seems odd is the integrated graphics, that doesn't tell you how much memory is available, or if it's shared with the system RAM.

Cheerio
Howard

P&L

Cheers Howard that is a BIG help

So I want a dual tuner... now i know that much and why

As for the shared video, that seems pretty par for the course in the pupose built media centers, you can get them with cards too, but that's only really needed if you want to use it as a games machine aswell (which I dont).

Now, ideally I would like to get rid of both the satellite decoders and the VCR, not just for neatness and convenience - but they are a big fire hazard.

The VCR will go as soon as the few videos I want to preserve are captured.

Is it possible to replace the SKY decoder with just a card? (since it is only for free-to-air channels anyway).

I think I seen cards that will replace the German satellite receiver, are they standard fare or specialised - would a suitable one be fitted in the PC linked above, or could one be fitted...?

so many questions

P&L

just found a clearer spec for that machine...

I see it also explains the function fo a dual tuner

Im guessing DVB-T stands for 'terrestrial' (not really available in Ireland? - the free variety, I mean)
and DVB-S is what I want, but doesnt usually come built-in...

Tom Dunne

P&L wrote:

Im guessing DVB-T stands for 'terrestrial' (not really available in Ireland? - the free variety, I mean)
and DVB-S is what I want, but doesnt usually come built-in...

DVB-T trials are ongoing in Dublin at the moment, so depending on where you live, you may be able to get a signal. Check the terrestrial forum for full details.

You can replace the Sky box with a DVB-S card, they also come in USB format.

hshortt

YUP! As Tom has said (I'm sure I've already said that today!) you can get digital free to air right now. In my area (Bray) it works fine, I've tested with a 20 euro set of digital enabled rabbit ears, it's great but I do need a better antenna. Recording of a digital signal to media centre would give great results. Currently I only record of analouge NTL.

Make sure that every component in the spec list for your pc is Vista capable, especially graphics where unless its got a minimum of 128MB you will be losing features of the Vista operating system. That's only really important if you want to go to Vista when it's availble.

cheers Tom for the heads up on the DVB-S cards, must have a look into that too.

Cheerio
Howard

P&L

tom dunne wrote:

You can replace the Sky box with a DVB-S card, they also come in USB format.

Thanks guys - that's all a great help, now I can look around with some idea of what I want / need.
No hope for DVB-T for me, I think - since I cant even get RTE properly :mad:
Harold, no I wouldnt have any intention to upgrade to Vista for this machine - assuming I get more than 3 years life out of it. I'm still using WIN2K when I can!

Tom Dunne

hshortt wrote:

In my area (Bray) it works fine, I've tested with a 20 euro set of digital enabled rabbit ears, it's great but I do need a better antenna. Recording of a digital signal to media centre would give great results.

What's the gear you have, Howard? I'm considering getting my HTPC hooked up with something to receive the DTT signal. My crappy analogue is unwatchable.

hshortt

My telly has a digital tuner, so it was a simple matter of hooking up a 20 euro all-4-one digital antenna. I can get a good signal but the shaggin' ariel has to be in the middle of the room. When the time is right I'll run an antenna to the roof. But if I go fishing any more cables the missus will kill me!

My telly is a Pioneer 435-XDE, dual tuners. The MCE is just using an analouge tuner which is grand, it would be great to get a digital tuner for this and to enable much better quality recording, but again the missus factor kicks in here.

Cheers
Howard

RuggieBear

hshortt wrote:

but again the missus factor kicks in here.

lol

Oh, do i know how that feels:D

hshortt

RuggieBear wrote:

lol

Oh, do i know how that feels:D

heh heh don't get me started! Thought I'd 'save' myself 80 euro and run a cat5 cable from the xbox to the router. Router is under my bed and the xbox is almost directly underneath... After about 3 hours and half a dozen holes in the wall the pain started, but I was determined to finish. Now that it's actually done it's great and I've been told the bruises will clear up soon!

cheerio
Howard