1) Yes, you'd have to split it to get the QAM, but I doubt there will be. This is Canada after all, where the huge monopolies prefer to keep things nice and tight to pump up those profit margins :)

2) Video quality should be comparable to your TV's tuning ability on SD. I haven't used VMC, but generally, computers are better at upscaling SD material to HD resolutions (i.e. fit your screen)

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Is there a card out there that I wouldn't have to split the coax into the PC and would just scan analog and digital open QAM?

Geological1, have you confirmed that any Clear QAM channels are available? I see in an earlier post that you mention Shaw Cable, whiich does not have any. What is your location?

I am in Calgary.

When I first got the Sony and scanned I did get a couple of open QAM.

Some PPV's that kept scrambling, PBS HD (which I can't find now) and the audio channels (which are still there).

Ya, it will be really hit-and-miss trying to get any off Shaw. The audio channels are CBC Galaxie (http://www.galaxie.ca/en/0/) feeds.

Are you getting CFCN-DT OTA? Global will be DTV OTA soon too.

I am in rural SW and might have a tough time getting an OTA HD signal if that is what you meant.

Also, architectual controls for the hood might make it tough to put up an HD antenna....as butt ugly as they are.

OTA antennas are beautiful, satellite dishes are ugly. :D

Anyways you can see how people are doing for OTA in Calgary here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=81023

But as I say to everyone, suit yourself.

From reading the Fourm I have the impression that:

1) Tuners built in to TV's are superior to Tuner Cards

2) ATI cards are not as good as Hauppauge

3) Online vendor sites seem to favor Avermedia

Comments welcome especialy from the fringe or near fringe.

For my second HDTV I am now leaning towards at 24 inch monitor and tuner card.:confused:

1) Tuners built in to TV's are superior to Tuner CardsNot so. That's too general - any ATSC tuner, whether HTPC, internal HDTV, or Set Top Box with the latest Generation 6 chipsets are excellent, so it all comes down to implementation, and in terms of HTPC devices (USB, PCI, PCI-E) that means whether the drivers and apps are of good quality.

There is some truth to that though. Many PC tuners are NOT generation 6 yet.

Stampeder, would you be so kind to provide some info

I am loooking at the top 2-3 recommendations for a pure OTA card, no cable, with all the bells and whisles for PVR functions, how do I check if its a 6th gen.

I currently have an external ATSC tuner, digital stream hd 1150, will I see an improvement.

thks for your usual help

I don't have one but a lot of people really like the HD Homerun - I believe it has dual tuner functionality built in and it is a network device - it doesn't have to be plugged directly into a PC. I believe it has the added benefit of working with Windows Media Center in Canada which makes it somewhat unique.

I should have clarified, I am looking at a pc card for an htpc build, not an external atsc tuner.

thks

The HD Homerun is not technically a "card" but it is a device that plugs into an antenna and your LAN. But effectively it works just like an internal tuner card although it is not inside the case. If your HTPC is going to sit by your home theater then that is an advantage because it gives you the option of using a smaller mobo, PC case and will reduce heat and therefore noise.

The big problem with the HDHomerun is that it doesn't have an NTSC tuner so it is pretty much useless until 2011. Only when all channels are broadcasting digitally can I live without an NTSC tuner. Even for those in Toronto, TVO and A aren't broadcasting digitally yet. Things are even worse in the rest of the country.

The big problem with the HDHomerun is that it doesn't have an NTSC tuner so it is pretty much useless until 2011. Only when all channels are broadcasting digitally can I live without an NTSC tuner. I wouldn't say it is useless. I believe that pretty much all of the tuner cards/devices only tune either NTSC or ATSC unless they have dual tuners but you generally have to run each tuner in either NTSC or ATSC mode. Therefore if NTSC is still important to you then buy something like a PVR-150 which you can get for less than $50 along with a remote/blaster. And if you are building a serious HTPC then you may want multiple tuners - I have 4 tuners in mine.

And I bet that a lot of people don't care about A channel or TVO. I have an OTA antenna in my attic that I set up about two years ago. In the current aiming direction it gets all of the Buffalo stations and CBC Toronto but no other Canadian stations. I haven't bothered reaiming because there isn't anything on the other channels that is worth recording - I record some shows from CBC, mainly hockey and Raps games, and any other stuff that I want comes from the US. The only reason to try to get other channels, mainly CTV, will be for Olympics coverage. (Note that I also have 3 TV tuners hooked up to cable boxes to get all channels but that is not relevant to this argument)

It is all personal preference. I find some of the best programming is on TVO .

Here in Ottawa though, the only digital stations available are CBC, SRC, SunTV, OMNI1 and OMNI2. With a good antenna, you might get PBS and if you are really lucky you may also occasionally get CBS (with FOX on an SD sub channel). ABC is too weak to get and there is no NBC affiliate nearby. At a minimum I would need CTV and Global to start broadcasting to get much use out of it at all, but I don't expect that until 2011.

Stampeder, would you be so kind to provide some info

I am loooking at the top 2-3 recommendations for a pure OTA card, no cable, with all the bells and whisles for PVR functions, how do I check if its a 6th gen.

I currently have an external ATSC tuner, digital stream hd 1150, will I see an improvement.

thks for your usual help
Best OTA ATSC card is the Hauppauge HVR-1250, I have 3 of these and 4 other ones and none of the other one compares. Incidently, the worst ATSC card is the Hauppauge HVR-1600, that chip is a dud.

The funny thing is, with a little work, the HVR-1250 added to Vista Media Center will give pretty much full function and even that dang remote is fully functional in VMC and works better than when using in WinTV.

It is pretty safe to assume the TV's tuners are generally better, the only hiccups are the TVs use PSIP data and sometimes things can get screwy in some brands. But then some will give you a useful EPG guide up to a few days. The HVR-1250 is pretty good and almost as good as my Samsung plasma's tuner.

Some of you have mention 6th generation tuners. Do any of you know of any tuner cards that are 6th gen?

(Also, does anyone have a link with more information on the advantages of 6th gen tuners? This is the first I've heard of this)