TV Tuner card

alansweeney100

I'm looking to make my gaming PC into a HTPC, thing is I'm more than half way there without planning it, heres what I have;
8800GTS 320MB
Sky box (Pace) with free scart output
Samsung HD ready 37" lcd connected to PC by DVI to HDMI lead
Sound optically connected from mobo to Z5500s
Vista Ultimate edition 64bit (so I have windows media centre)
MCE remote control

I watch dvds though my PC on my current set up and want to be able to record tv. I like the thought of my PC booting up by itself and recording a decent show then going back to sleep. Sky+ without paying for it is my goal.
I've been looking at a few cards and a lot of them are bundled with software and remotes and I figure I already have a remote and MCE so why should I go buy 'a package' when all I need is a PCI card.
I want to go sli in future so I'll b saving my only other PCIE slot for that so I'm only after a PCI card, someone reccommended a technotrend ahead of this AVermedia
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=325775
I went onto technotrends website and its horrendous, dead links everywhere
http://www.technotrend.com/

Could someone point me in the direction of a decent card pls

Cheers,
Al

alansweeney100

Think I'll just go with this one

FusionHDTV7 RT Gold

SouperComputer

alansweeney100 wrote: »

Think I'll just go with this one

FusionHDTV7 RT Gold

That card will be of little use to you in ireland. No QAM serivces exist that I am aware of and NTSC is the USA'a analog standard, IE incompatible with yiour Sky DigiBox.

Unless you mean a PAL version of the card?

mediacentre.ie

why don't you just go down this route?

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/skymceintegration.html

you will by pass the STB and have much better video quality. there is no point having a great PC connected to your TV if you are loosing video quality from your STB to PC input.

It uses firewire as well so you can put it in any PCI or PCIe slot.

alansweeney100

According to that article I need to stick the viewing card back in a Sky box periodically as they send refresh signals to the viewing card - bit of a nuisance; Surely theres an easier way?
After being in use for 2 months outwith of the Sky Box, the viewing card would no longer show encrypted channels and had to be reactivated by calling Sky customer services and reinstalled in the Digibox. Therefore it would be recommended to use a LNB splitter / or swap the cable back to the Sky box once a month and leave the viewing card in overnight to ensure it's kept 'alive'.

Will there be QAM service in Ireland in the near future?
Just had a look at the spec sheet for the fusion HDTV7 RV gold it supports both NTSC & PAL
Host Interface x1 PCI
Input Port S-Video (NTSC/ PAL)
Composite Video (NTSC/ PAL) Via converter
High Definition, DTV and NTSC TV ready Coaxial Connector
Output Port Thru Computer Video Card

Rsaeire

I left a post in this thread detailing how I have connected my Sky box to my PC with great results.

Note that as you need to have a phone line connected to your Sky box at all times, the above costly option of using a CAM module does not seem as viable as a TV tuner via S-Video option.