DVB-T Cards (1 Viewer)

[klinkerhoffen]

I`ve whittled my selection for a digital TV card down to the following:

Vision Plus Freeview Digital TV PCI Card
Compro VideoMate DVB-T300
Pinnacle PCTV MediaCenter 300i

I know that the 300i has been a bit hit and miss for some users but any comment as to the best option from these cards would be appreciated.

Any advice on connecting my AOpen EZ18 to my CRT TV would be appreciated. The EZ18 has a TV Out from the on board NForce2 chipset - I looked at the BIOS settings for TV Out and was confronted with a whole range of options to choose from based on NTSC v PAL. Any advice?

 

[Surf4pay]

Hi Klinkerhoffen,

I have the 300i and I have to say, when I firts bought it, I thought I'd been ripped off (it doesn't work properly with pinnacles bundled media centre software). It has been a struggle getting it to work with Mediaportal, but if you were to buy one now, it'll work straight out of the box with MP (really well too).

I ditched the pinnacle remote in favour of the MCE2005 but the one that comes with the card is fully programmable to keyboard strokes so can be coded to work with MP.

Hope this helps

Surf4pay

 

[SiLenTYL]

personally i use the Dvico Fusion DVB-T USB2 ...and it really works a dream....

the question of NTSC vs PAL is really up to your TV ....
if u live in a country where PAL is common then use PAL...
if u live in a country where NTSC is common then use NTSC.....

however for true HD display on a LCD screen, plasma or projector using proper DVI cables...then it doesnt follow that standard anymore

true HD is 1920x1080....which is neither PAL or NTSC....
PAL is 720x576
NTSC is 720x480

so in summary ...if u have a HDTV then the resolution setting is enough for the output to work.....however if u have an NTSC TV then use NTSC...and if u have a PAL TV then use PAL....

its pretty straight forward

 

[klinkerhoffen]

The Pinnacle 300i is probably my prefered choice - I noticed that the Compro DVB-T card supports the MS BDA drivers (?) so is supported by MCE also.

I`ve estabished that my TV set is PAL - my BIOS in the EZ18 gives me lots of options;

PAL-N
PAL-NC
PAL-M
PAL-BDGHI

:?: What do these mean and which one should I plump for?

 

[cheezey]

PAL-N
PAL-NC
PAL-M
PAL-BDGHI

:?: What do these mean and which one should I plump for?

Depends on where you are....have a read of http://kropla.com/tv.htm

 

[Marcusb]

I just bought the compro T300 on the weekend.
Media Portal recognised it straight away and it works perfectly.
I used to have the Aver 771 which did not work with MP and I have to say that the picture quality in the Compro card is excellent. It tunes in much stronger than the Aver and has much better picture quality.

It also has other bonus features like being able to power your PC on for a recording (from totally off) as well as analogue tuning.

All this and it was only AU$125.

I know I sound like a Compro employee, but I am just so much happier I decided to ditch my Aver card...

 

[alexeix]

Hi Marcus,

I too have a Compro DVB-T card and am very happy with it (so far!).

Have you managed to get the remote control working with Media Portal? If so, can you provide details please?

Thanks.

 

[Marcusb]

Hi Alexeix,

The compro remote has a great layout and would be excellent with MP. I spent some time trying to get it to work using WinLirc and a serial receiver but it was too much stuffing around. I ended up buying the MS remote which works great. I figure the Compro card was so cheap that adding on an extra remote is not too much of an impact