The Avermedia Duet wouldn't work in my Dell Vostro 220s, so I went with Hauppage. It was the only one that would display a video for more than 2 minutes without crashing my computer in Win 7 Media Center (x64). Even Avermedia support told me to buy another brand
It is a dual tuner, but the splitter is inside the unit. 1 analog input and 1 digital input. I paid about this much (no rebate) back in December for the card only. Seems like a good deal with the remote / receiver.
As far as the tuner goes, it is a little less sensitive than my Vizio's single tuner in the TV (probably because of the split of the signal in the card). Being 20 miles away from my local TV station's towers I can pick them up with no problems or drop outs.
a-max said: Hauppauge are crap. Tuner sensitivity sucks. I went from a Hauppauge to an Avermedia Duet and I'll never look back.Rly? I love my PVR-150. It'll even pick up a signal (albeit poor) if I plug the coax into the passthrough output.
I plan to use with my cox cable, so sensitivity is not an issue. Can someone confirm if this card will work fine with vista MCE? Do I have to buy another 3rd party DVR software like beyondTV or vista MCE would me enough? Also does the card come with a DVR s/w? is it any good?
sivartk said: It is a dual tuner, but the splitter is inside the unit. 1 analog input and 1 digital input. I paid about this much (no rebate) back in December for the card only. Seems like a good deal with the remote / receiver.
As far as the tuner goes, it is a little less sensitive than my Vizio's single tuner in the TV (probably because of the split of the signal in the card). Being 20 miles away from my local TV station's towers I can pick them up with no problems or drop outs.
It has 1 ATSC/NTSC/QAM and 1 FM (yeah, the radio) input. Dual tuner from the TV RF input. Not sure about the FM.
If the tuner's sensitivity is low, it is a deal breaker. All digital tuners decodes signal into same data. It is the capability to tune that set them apart.
gopalag said: I plan to use with my cox cable, so sensitivity is not an issue. Can someone confirm if this card will work fine with vista MCE? Do I have to buy another 3rd party DVR software like beyondTV or vista MCE would me enough? Also does the card come with a DVR s/w? is it any good?
-GA
Not sure if you want to record digital or analog. Vista Media Center in Windows Home Premium works fine but it does not record QAM (digital). For that you need the Vista TV Pack or Windows 7.
Not to thread-crap (I am currently using a Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600). The Holy Grail a lot folks on cable are waiting for is the Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner due out later this month for around $400. This will work in conjunction with a single CableCARD and let you watch/record Four Live HD Channels At Once (including premium channels). Given that most cable providers have started (or already done) encrypting their Clear QAM channels, other than the local OTA transmissions, this seems like a good option to explore.
If you are only interested in recording your local OTA transmissions, the Hauppauge is a good deal.
The Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner Card is the world's first multi-tuner PC card for watching digital cable TV on the PC, including support for premium cable channels. It enables Media Center PCs to play or record up to four live channels of HDTV at once, and stream live HD channels or recordings to multiple HDTVs throughout the home, all from a single cable connection and a single CableCARD™. Replace your cable set-top boxes and their costly monthly rental fees and enjoy premium cable TV throughout the home, all from a single PC. With the Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner Card your Media Center PC becomes a complete entertainment platform for all your media, including premium cable TV.
jazzwig said: a-max said: Hauppauge are crap. Tuner sensitivity sucks. I went from a Hauppauge to an Avermedia Duet and I'll never look back.
Wrong, they make the best tuners. I've used them for years with zero problems (MythTV). My new favorite is the HD PVR.Wrong, they make the worst tuners. Proven time and time again. You're using the term "best" on no basis other than your own. But for anyone receiving OTA DTV, tuner sensitivity is a huge issue. Get back to us if you've done A-B tests, otherwise the opinion about "best" is meaningless.
ChalPhut said: Not to thread-crap (I am currently using a Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600). The Holy Grail a lot folks on cable are waiting for is the Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner due out later this month for around $400. This will work in conjunction with a single CableCARD and let you watch/record Four Live HD Channels At Once (including premium channels). Given that most cable providers have started (or already done) encrypting their Clear QAM channels, other than the local OTA transmissions, this seems like a good option to explore.
If you are only interested in recording your local OTA transmissions, the Hauppauge is a good deal.
The Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner Card is the world's first multi-tuner PC card for watching digital cable TV on the PC, including support for premium cable channels. It enables Media Center PCs to play or record up to four live channels of HDTV at once, and stream live HD channels or recordings to multiple HDTVs throughout the home, all from a single cable connection and a single CableCARD™. Replace your cable set-top boxes and their costly monthly rental fees and enjoy premium cable TV throughout the home, all from a single PC. With the Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner Card your Media Center PC becomes a complete entertainment platform for all your media, including premium cable TV.
It will be nice to start to see some cable card enabled tuners come out for purchase for do it yourself builders. The cable companies have been trying to control that market and force you to rent their DVRs for way to long. The retail for the linked card is $400 though...ouch.
a-max said: jazzwig said: a-max said: Hauppauge are crap. Tuner sensitivity sucks. I went from a Hauppauge to an Avermedia Duet and I'll never look back.
Wrong, they make the best tuners. I've used them for years with zero problems (MythTV). My new favorite is the HD PVR.Wrong, they make the worst tuners. Proven time and time again. You're using the term "best" on no basis other than your own. But for anyone receiving OTA DTV, tuner sensitivity is a huge issue. Get back to us if you've done A-B tests, otherwise the opinion about "best" is meaningless.
Jaxxwig,
A-max is merely proving his ignorance again. You can easily see Hauppauge is an excellent tuner by doing a little googling...
New Egg reviews are showing excellent quality on nearly every Hauppauge item, and we are talking about thousands of non-biased posts, compared to one negative a-max.
Here you can find the thousands of reviews that prove clearly that a-max is not only wrong, but also terribly misinformed.
I just spent about 6 hours trying to get a new HVR-2250 card to work in Windows 7. Media Center doesn't work at all, tries to display 1 channel that is not even there,
WinTV7 program works sometimes, if you try to tune to one of the channels it totally crashes the whole PC. Total crap.
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