Best TV tuner card around?

[mikepg]

I would like to make a computer system that can incorperate into my home theatre system. I have an ATI AIW X600 w/ 256mb ram but the quality of TV is pretty bad :( . I would like to have one that is also capable of HDTV if it is possible. I'd like to hear some reviews of different tuner cards. Thanks a lot for any help!

[gary_hendricks]

You should consider the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250.

This is probably the best quality tv card you can buy for the money. Picture is clear and crisp with no dropped frames, and is much better than previous ATI and Hauppauge tuner cards that I have used.

Performance-wise this card is much better than the cheaper TV cards that do not include a MPEG encoder. Using an ATI TV Wonder I would routinely get 30-50% CPU usage when recording programs at fair quality on my 1.3Ghz CPU. The PVR 250 uses less than 5% CPU while recording at much higher quality.

If you're building a serious Home Theater PC you should consider this card. I know it costs more than double the cheapest tv card you could find, but the quality and performance more than make up for the cost.

On the other hand if you're just planning on watching TV on your computer or digitizing some old VHS tapes you have lying around, this card is probably overkill as you won't benefit as much from the hardware MPEG encoder and there are cards out there that have better software packages and remotes for less money.

Hope this helps.

[mikepg]

Thanks for the input. I am trying to build a home PC cerver that can do a lot of things at once. MP3 server, PVR, whatever. Maybe have dual processors. Thanks again for the info!

Anyone else have any opinions? I've heard that the 250 is a good board.

[LiteBright]

I've had the MyHD card for a few years and really like it. The software it comes with has improved a lot over time. It integrates with the www.titantv.com TV Guide site so you can click on a show you want to record and it also plays DVDs.

It records cable TV to *.AVI files and HDTV to *.TP files. Unfortunately it doesn't do PVR.

The site www.avsforum.com in its Home Theater PC forum has so much discussion about this kind of thing, you could waste years (or decades) of your life trying to figure out what is the most optimal solution for home theater. ("Waste" is the appropriate word as I can testify, don't do it! :mad: ). A search for HDTV cards though could answer a lot of your questions about what's out there.