What TV card is best for my needs. There are sooo many! (1 Viewer)

[alexisbatman]

As I have seen from the list there are loads of TV Cards out there and pros and cons to each. I need a TV card for my HTPC (I live in the UK) and I was hoping that someone could recommend the 'best' card for my needs....

- Must be able to watch and record freeview TV

- Ideally dual turner but will be happy with single turner

- strong turning as reception in berkshire (SE England) isnt amazing.

- Must come with Remote control compatible with MP.

- Ideally recording in a format compatible with ipod or Zen Vision M (preferably both).

- It needs to work when resuming from standby which I understand rules out the WinTV-NOVA-T-500

Recommendations welcome.

Thanks,

Alex : )

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

It needs to work when resuming from standby which I understand rules out the WinTV-NOVA-T-500

fixed, my pc goes in and out of standby at least 6 times a day. Remember this is pci, but has amazing reception in comparison to a Dvico dual i have as well.

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK, pinnacle pci-e and at that price add under £20 for a european mce remote and you have a bargain.

ps moved to correct part of forum.

 

[alexisbatman]

Ah... the win TV Nova T 500 card works without issue? I heard that it was a PCI card that used some kind of USB dependents (not sure how that works!) Cant find the thread now.

Might go for the cheaper card then, the pinnacle with a WMC remote if its cheaper. What am I paying for with the more expensive card then (the hauppauge one)?

Sorry for the misplaced post by the way : )

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

AFAIK all reports point to the hauppauge having better reception, yes its 2 usb tuners on a pci board with a VIA usb controller.

Now with the TVServer has a delay setting before it detects TVCards (mines set to 20 secs) the slow resume of the usb tuners is overcome.

There was another problem with decomposing the Tuner graph, when both tuners where used at the same time, this was fixed in svn 19069 (update for MP1RC), this only ever affected TVServer users, but as TVServer has so many more advantages over the inbuilt MyTV which is no longer supported by the MP team.

The main advantage is being able to record without MP running (TVServer Monitor is a good systray app for monitoring what is going on) with the pc turning itself in\out of standby for recordings.
Also the ability of recording every channel that is broadcast on a single transponder, for me that means a possible 12 recordings (6 channels per transponder).

Hopefully this has answered some of your main questions.

Apparently the pinnacle card is the same (drivers at least) as the blackgold 6in1 card, so you may want to do some research, although i have not heard anything particularly bad about it.

 

[SciDoctor]

The twinhan AD-TU700 USB2 dual tuner. (edit typo)

These are badge engineered, the Azurewave being easily sourced in the UK. Try Zebra for excellent low prices.

I use two (or three of these when not testing) covering all UK mux.

Best reception form any tuner I have tried.

No standby/hibernation issues.

The supplied remote is good with most basic commands controlling MP (unfortunately a lot of the buttons aren't mapped to MP) I haven't loked onto this further as I have always used the excellent ATI remote wonder RF remotes with the inbuilt MP X10 code.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

twinhan TU-700 USB2 dual tuner

I cannot find a single retailer for this, a link would be good.

 

[SciDoctor]

twinhan TU-700 USB2 dual tuner

I cannot find a single retailer for this, a link would be good.

Azurewave DVB-T AD-TU700 Dual Tuner Freeview USB2.0 TV Stick - Components - Zebra Computers Ltd

 

[alexisbatman]

Found this pinnicle one.

Great price too... will it work though? its on Play.com

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

For the price, i would grab the one SciDoctor pointed you too.

Pinnacle, are a little bit hit and miss in my book. :sorry:

and the extra is your paying for there software, not just the card.

 

[Tech Geek]

I have a Pinnacle PCI HD card and it's not bad. The drivers are pretty new though so occasional problems are likely.