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Thread ID: 82938	2007-09-13 20:43:00	What do you look for in a TV tuner card	netchicken (4843)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
590906	2007-09-13 20:43:00	I want a TV tuner to put in my desktop machine, but not sure just what are the elements that make up a good package. They range in price from $75 - Dick Smith - to well over $150. I want to get vhf and uhf, to save programs, but beyond that what options are there?	netchicken (4843)
590907	2007-09-13 20:53:00	A normal tuner is fine, there's also tuners for satellite for something like Freeview. But then u need a dish. Or you can wait until Freeview Terrestrial comes out, then a normal tuner will be good enough. Most come with a program, so u can record whatever. Or you can download free programs that may give u more options. There's also internal and external tuners. It depends on whether you want a basic tuner, or a tuner thats got something like PIP / or dual tuners, which will cost a bit more.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
590908	2007-09-13 22:01:00	It really depends on the specs of your computer. There are software TV Tuners, which use the computer CPU to encode the signal to an mpeg file and there are hardware TV Tuners, which do all the processing themselves. I would recommend a hardware TV Tuner as it allow you to continue to use the computer as normal while recording or watching a program. The hardware tuners are more expensive though. Something like the Hauppauge PVR150 would be best for a single tuner or the PVR500 which is a dual tuner card so you can watch one thing while recording another channel or record two channels at the same time. There are also digital tv tuners which will allow you to receive Freeview but as stated by Speedy you need to have a satillite dish (Any old sky dish will work) Then there are also hybrid cards which can do normal analogue TV as well digital via satillite (DVB-S) and digital via terrestrial/UHF (DVB-T) For the software to utilise the TV card I would highly recommend MediaPortal.	CYaBro (73)
590909	2007-09-13 22:29:00	Fantastic! Thanks for the advice I never thought of the drain on the computer. That would be a nuisence as I want to watch TV and work at the same time. Thanks for your help :-)	netchicken (4843)
590910	2007-09-13 23:20:00	I got a new Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000 yesterday. Hopefully it can do what i want. Support for HDTV and DVB-S. I also have a Hauppauge PVR-350 which has been fine but not suitable for Freeview. Just got to split my sky feed and run a lead to it, hopefully get that done in the next week or so.	Bantu (52)
590911	2007-09-13 23:41:00	Most cards will be good, get one with DVB-T/S support if you want to get that later, but above all make sure it has hardware encoding, hardware decoding might also be useful if your video card isn't that great but most cards can handle fine	Agent_24 (57)
590912	2007-09-14 01:01:00	Just got to split my sky feed and run a lead to it, hopefully get that done in the next week or so. That is no trivial task with satellite dish feeds, in comparison with normal coaxial splitters for analog signals. The supply voltage carried in the coax to the dish LNB can only be from one device at a time, as that device sets the polarity (depending on the voltage) of the LNB.	godfather (25)
590913	2007-09-14 01:09:00	That is no trivial task with satellite dish feeds, in comparison with normal coaxial splitters for analog signals. The supply voltage carried in the coax to the dish LNB can only be from one device at a time, as that device sets the polarity (depending on the voltage) of the LNB. Good thing Sky and Freeview are now both on Horizontal polarity. I need to actually try my sky decoder and freeview PC on the same dish to see if it does work.	CYaBro (73)
590914	2007-09-14 01:48:00	My Sky dish works well with Freeview and Sky both connected (the Zinwell Freeview set top box has a pass-through so both devices can share the dish fine) . But for some reason at my weekend place, my Freeview dish refuses to work with the Sky set top box, even without the Freeview box in or out of the mix . No Sky signal at all, even if I rotate polarity (which I should not have to do now, as you mention) . Yet a good Freeview signal, from the same satellite?	godfather (25)
590915	2007-09-14 02:51:00	That is no trivial task with satellite dish feeds, in comparison with normal coaxial splitters for analog signals. The supply voltage carried in the coax to the dish LNB can only be from one device at a time, as that device sets the polarity (depending on the voltage) of the LNB. I had both MySky and a second Sky decoder running off the same dish for 4 months so it can handle two devices ok. A friend (Sky Installer) is coming to do it so I doubt there will be a problem.	Bantu (52)
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