card for hdtv and blue ray and the lot

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axlrose

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alright, i'm building a new htpc/gaming rig with the new gtx 280. it's for gaming, but we have one 27" tube tv in our house that doesn't do hd. because of this, i'd also like to make this build into something i can watch hdtv content on. i know nothing about tuner cards, but here's what's currently on my wishlist. i have no idea why this one (good reviews, good company(?), on sale, seems to have two connections which seems to be important).

thanks for any education or advice or opinion.

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit 1128 NTSC/ATSC/QAM/FM TV Tuner Card w/MCE Remote - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015

i'm also thinking of buying the xhd3000 today to use for my build (replacing my ten year old 17" hp crt)
 

doomturkey

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So I was thinking of getting an HDTV tuner for a new PC build just like you, however, I've decided not to, and here's why.

If you notice the reviews on newegg for them, NONE have a 5 star rating. A lot of people have complaints about the software, and my problem with them is that they don't pick up HD with a cable signal, they do it over the air. I want to watch HD from my cable connection, not on a few local channels that might have bad quality. I just don't trust over the air.

My plan now is to just get a HD tivo box, its easy to set up if you have HDMI. It might cost 2.5x more than a $100 HD tuner card, but I think its worth it not having to hassle with anything.

You shouldn't have much of a problem with a blu-ray player, just make sure you get some good software that will play HD content.

Best of luck!
 

axlrose

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i know little about these, but my understanding was that was why to make sure you got the two connections on the card.

here's what newegg.com says about this tuner card...

Hauppauge turns your PC into an HDTV with their WinTV-HVR-1800. This PCIe X1 card has three tuners: FM radio, NTSC, and ATSC/clear QAM. The NTSC tuner is a 125 channel cable ready tuner for all of your standard over the air broadcasts or regular cable TV. The ATSC/clear QAM tuner supports all 18 ATSC formats including 1080i. You can watch the programming live or record it to disk as an MPEG-2 program stream.

the ntsc part seems to deal with this issue does it not? again, don't know enough about these to give advice, that's why i'm here asking for info from someone that does.
 

KyleSTL

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I have the Hauppauge 1600 (which is the exact same thing with PCI interface). It does receive OTA HD channels and cable at the same time no problem. Here's how the ports on the back work:

1. FM only
2. Analog only (cable or ant)
3. Digital only (cable or ant)

If you have cable, you should get HD channels for the network stations (i.e. in St Louis I get 1-1 (fox), 1-2 (nbc), 1-3 (abc) and 1-4 (pbs)) in Clear QAM mode (if you hook your cable to the digital tuner). None of the cable channels (ESPN, HBO, et al) go by Clear QAM (to my knowledge) as they are encripted for digital/HD subscribers only (I'm a basic, non-digital subscriber). You could always call your cable/satellite provider to better clarify what you can and can't get based on your subscription.

Edit: you can use a splitter and hook your cable up to both analog and digital simulaneously so you can get Clear QAM and NTSC at the same time.

That is a really stupid comment. All subsription-based forms of television (satellite, internet and cable) are compressed because of bandwidth limitations of the physical media (satellite signals, cable, et al). OTA is uncompressed because of the nature of transmitted terrestrial signals. OTA HD has better clarity than the exact same station through any other media. While it is true there are few channels OTA (I believe I receive 11 - including sub-channels) you would not receive cable stations OTA, so why would you expect more stations in OTA HD?

Edit: I'm using a $10 P.O.S. un-powered rabbit-ear antenna to get the HD stations, FYI.
 

axlrose

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i'll have to talk to comcast then but can i take my comcast cable and screw it right into the card then and get some hd?

i'm sure i'll figure this all out when it's put together and i can play around with it, but i have NO knowledge on this, so feel to treat me like a 2 year old as for as information goes.

do all of the stations come through just like it would on my tv? how do i know which are hd? how do i get espn on my tv? espn on hd different?
 

KyleSTL

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Yes. Fox, NBC, ABC, CW, PBS, are typical (but not CBS, because they suck, they only do OTA)

If you wanna use WinTV (the Hauppauge program) they have quick install manuals on their support page to download and view in PDF, it take a couple rounds to figure out how to do what you wanna do, but overall, it's a pretty decent program. If you wanna use MythTV, or Media Center in XP or Vista I can't help you out, because I have yet to try them.

Depends on what you mean by 'all the stations'. Standard cable, yes; SD digital cable, don't know probably; HD cable, more-than-likely no.

In the program you can view the channel listings (it has a search function to find all analog and digital channels). You can tell because they'll show up as digital channels not analog.

ESPN can be seen through analog (NTSC) cable on the card. ESPN HD will (more-than-likely) only be able to be viewed through your cable box to your TV (and only if you subscribe to Comcast HD). ESPN HD programming is the same as ESPN, but has a different video format (widescreen 720p/1080i vs. 4:3 480i) and looks much better (obviously because of the video format).
 

axlrose

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okay, i'll have to contact comcast for some help. i hope they give me a straight answer. probably have to up the cable cost for something that sends hd channels through i suppose.

thanks for all of the help.
 

bobbknight

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I have an AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe (Media Center Upgrade Kit) in my Vista box, where I use Vista's Media Center to watch HDTV on my computer monitor. I have both OTA ATSC via an 8 bowtie UHF antenna, and HDTV via my HDTV cable set top box.
The AVerMedia unit was a bit cheaper than the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 when I bought it. I would recommend either one, but if you have a cable box get the kit with the remote.
OTA HDTV is much better than anything off the cable, with the premium content and other HDTV channels a bit better than the normal TV channels.
For me I could care less about buying something with NTSC, it dies in less than a year.
This is about the only reason I would recommend Vista to anyone, because of windows media center.
I did try a Pinnicle PCI card in my system, it did a bit better than the AVerMedia in detection of OTA ATSC signals, but the Vista drivers were not as stable as the AVerMedia drivers are.

A good place to start:

http://www.antennaweb.org

Another Place with interesting information is:

http://www.ce.org/
 

axlrose

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awesome site. it tells me i need a yellow uhf or yellow vhf. but what does that mean? what do i buy and is this something that sits inside my house or on the roof? if on the roof, thoughts on how to attach it and how do i get the line into the house for the computer hookups. there is a non cable tv line into my house. i would think that would help in the process some how.

thanks for helping with these elementary questions guys.
 

axlrose

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okay, just talked with comcast...24/7 chat support! awesome!

they tell me i need their normal cable box and also a separate hd cable box and then i get all of their hd content, local and cable.

i'm thinking this means i don't have a reason to get a tv tuner card then because this is what their hd box will be. i'll have to have two boxes from them already. this doesn't cost me, i don't believe, for the box, but does cost 6.95 for a second cable box per month and 7.00 for the hd box per month.

does this sound right to anyone? can i take the hauppage tuner card off my wish list for tuesday?
 

axlrose

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alright, so the tuner card allows me to record hdtv without comcast getting all upset that i'm copying their tv without subscribing to their service for recording tv? (i believe they have their own that costs money).

here's the e-mail i sent to hauppage. haven't heard back from them yet.




i'm hoping you can help me figure out what i need for my setup. i've never dealt with hauppage before, but my friends in the computer world tell me you are the place to go for tv tuner cards.

i have the parts for a new computer in the mail as we speak. i didn't get a tuner card in the original shipment because i'm still not quite sure what i need. i'm putting together a gaming rig along side the gateway xhd3000. the only way i could convince myself to spend that kind of money on the monitor was if it was our hd tv. as such, i'd like to play blue ray disks on it (have the blue ray drive) and watch hd tv.

comcast tells me i'll need a second basic cable tuner from them for the second tv (we have been running just the 27" tube tv for the last five years or so) and also a second box from them to receive their hd channels and the local hd channels.

basically i'd like to be able to watch hd tv (sports in particular for me, so that i can show off my new computer and the new monitor at 1600p) but i'd also like the option to record tv (probably hd and non-hd through the cable boxes) as we've never had that option and my wife does have some shows she's pretty addicted to.

what i had chosen right before taking it off my last order was this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015

but there really isn't any logic to that choice at all. it is a completely uninformed selection because i don't know what this card can do or if it can do what i've stated above.

thanks for any help getting the right hauppage card for my new build.

matt




any answers/advice you have that would help would be much appreciated too.

thanks.
 

KyleSTL

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I believe Comcast uses Tivo, which in my mind is the root of all evil and was designed to be the most user-unfriend piece of electronic equipment ever.
 

axlrose

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i don't really want tivo (just sounds like another expense). i just want to watch and record hd tv. i just can't seem to get a straight answer anywhere as to what equipment i need to do that.
 

axlrose

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i am often reading in reviews (who knows if it's accurate as such) that using a tuner card with vista mce (because of vista) doesn't allow the use of clearQAM which is the cable box hd content i believe. this is what i want. don't have an interest in the rabbit ears stuff so much. anyone know anything about this?
 

KyleSTL

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I could try this weekend. My HTPC is Vista Ultimate 32 w/ the Hauppauge 1600 (again, the same with a different interface). I will only be able to vouch for the ClearQAM channels that come through with no digital/HD subsciption (just basic cable), which would be ABC, Fox, NBC, PBS and the like. I'll let you know after I've tried, although I'm on Charter Cable so things might be a little different through Comcast, but at least we'll know for sure whether or not ClearQAM works with Vista MC.
 

axlrose

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that would be awesome. as best i can understand, some software that comes with the card is required to watch the clear qam (what i really want it for 99% of the time) and that software sucks. you could also verify/dispute that...

thanks again.
 

axlrose

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this is the entirety of the e-mail response i got to the above e-mail i sent to hauppage...

Hello

The only combination of products that would allow you to do what you are looking for would be our HD-PVR hardware along with sage tv.

now i have to figure out what hd-pvr hardware is and see if i can fill in the gaps for myself.
 
G

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I'm stupid...

I have normal cable from comcast... we don't pay for HD channels...

If I put a tv tuner in my pc... I could get HD channels from comcast?

How would I be able to get all HD cable channels to my pc? would I have to buy the HD service from comcast and then plug it into the tv tuner? I don't get it at all please help lol
 

jayjay

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The new format will be ATSC and will run through the coax cable?
 

ZootyGray

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This is a good thread if the skyjackers could show a little patience. Or post your own thread. please don't clutter the flow. Peace. Be patiently educated. Thx.
 

axlrose

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not sure about all of the lingo, sorry. what most people do with their tuner cards right now is us them to pick up free over the air hd channels. when the transition happens, there won't be over the air channels to get with rabbit ears anymore, so that will stink for a lot of tuner cards.

hence the questions from me about connecting to comcast hd through a set top box.

most of the info i've gotten about the hauppage hd-pvr system that just came out in may (i think) says it's all full of bugs. i think i'm going to wait on it a bit and see if they can get it figured out. also, a nice tuner card is $100 and they want $249 for this new setup. what this hd-pvr does is pretty cool though. it actually records the hd signal, and converts it to something your computer can store as hd. then you can burn it to a regular dvd as hd content and watch it as hd on a blue ray player and dvd media. pretty cool if it works (but again, lots of bugs with the system so far).

what worries me most is that it sounds like when cd burners came out. you could burn anything when they came out because it was new. i'm guessing that this isn't a solid investment because places like comcast aren't going to like you copying their hd content and burning it with your hauppage set up instead of paying monthly for theirs. i'm guessing this is going to run into problems and cable companies will make it so you can't use this hardware after you invest in it.
 

jayjay

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I been researching this TV tuner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815101002 (they carry it retail at circuit city) It has basicly perfect feed back on lots of sites, the only thing keeping people from rating it 5/5 was because of a CC problem it had, but they released a software update that fixes that so there really isn't any complaints any more.

Found out that the February 17, 2009 it will still work perfectly and receive digital through ATSC coax cable. No converter box needed. Also has DVR and can record video from game consoles ect.

Axlrose, I wouldn't be worried about not being able to record tv shows in the future either, it would cost alot of money and be nearly impossible to stop all the software and tuners from recording their programs. Even if they were able to, there would be "hacks" to bypass there security.

A good comparison, I had Comcast before I switched to WOW, and it would be like there internet. They actually charge you more money a month to split the Ethernet by router and run it to other computers, how ever all you need to do is go to the store and buy your own router and it works just fine.

Forgot to post this review I found, read through it, it has screen shots of its quality and video demo of its quality looks great http://www.stokedgamer.com/2008/05/evga-indtube-digital-tv-tuner-review.html
 
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