Has anyone tried a 950Q in an older MCE2005 machine? Currently has a HVR-1600 + an older analoge turner (for a current total of 2 analog & one digital).

It's a P4 3GHZ with 1.5 Gig of RAM - think it (and MCE 2005) can handle another digital tuner?

My reason for upgrading is that the HVR-1600 loses my OTA Buffalo channels on occasion. Not often, but it happens. :mad:

If there's a better tuner for my situation - by all means share - but by reading this thread it seems like the 950Q is the current heavyweight champ.

My Buffalo channels are pre-amped, so splitting the cable should be np. :p

Has anyone tried a 950Q in an older MCE2005 machine? Currently has a HVR-1600 + an older analoge turner (for a current total of 2 analog & one digital).

It's a P4 3GHZ with 1.5 Gig of RAM - think it (and MCE 2005) can handle another digital tuner?

My reason for upgrading is that the HVR-1600 loses my OTA Buffalo channels on occasion. Not often, but it happens. :mad:

If there's a better tuner for my situation - by all means share - but by reading this thread it seems like the 950Q is the current heavyweight champ.

My Buffalo channels are pre-amped, so splitting the cable should be np. :p
I have only used a HVR-1600 and find my Buffalo OTA's unstable, except for CW23 (WNLO-DT). For example I can usually get PBS or ABC fine for a short time before it drop outs completely or partially. Also it seems I can only get a few Buffalo channels at a time. Yesterday I got CBS but no ABC. Today the other way around, very frustrating. Of course having an indoor SBGH indoors (condo rules) and some trees partly restricting my 2nd floor SSE view does not help. Love to know if other tuners are better though at locking in on Buffalo from the GTA.

It's a P4 3GHZ with 1.5 Gig of RAM - think it (and MCE 2005) can handle another digital tuner?
Absolutely it can. Even a 1GHz P3 could handle a pair of digital tuners -- there's practically zero CPU usage involved in recording from digital OTA.

Playback is where the dynamics are different -- some GPU and/or CPU horsepower is definitely needed there.

Absolutely it can. Even a 1GHz P3 could handle a pair of digital tuners -- there's practically zero CPU usage involved in recording from digital OTA.

Playback is where the dynamics are different -- some GPU and/or CPU horsepower is definitely needed there.
Well - bombs away then - I'll give it a shot & advise the result. It's easier then a DBGH or M8.

I hate touching my MCE2005 machine though - once it's working well it's best to leave it alone. Of course, everything is NOT working as well as I'd like...

It's a P4 3GHZ with 1.5 Gig of RAM - think it (and MCE 2005) can handle another digital tuner?Many P4 boards predate USB2.0, so while I would expect that it has USB2.0 it wouldn't hurt to check first before buying anything. If it has lots of PCI slots then you can go with a full ATSC/NTSC card or cards too with plenty of performance. Still, the USB 2.0 devices sure are simple to use.

I have only used a HVR-1600 and find my Buffalo OTA's unstable, except for CW23 (WNLO-DT). For example I can usually get PBS or ABC fine for a short time before it drop outs completely or partially. Also it seems I can only get a few Buffalo channels at a time. Yesterday I got CBS but no ABC. Today the other way around, very frustrating. Of course having an indoor SBGH indoors (condo rules) and some trees partly restricting my 2nd floor SSE view does not help. Love to know if other tuners are better though at locking in on Buffalo from the GTA.

It does seem that the 950Q is the better tuner. Personally I'm opting against it though. My observations;

Big surprise was that splitting the preamp'd output of my 4221 DID hurt the reception on the HVR-1600. Once split, the HVR-1600 got no signal on my weakest channel, while the 950Q could pull in a spotty signal. Thus the 950Q must be better.

That said, MCE2005 allows only two tuners. My existing configuration with an analog & an HVR 1600 actually leaves me with THREE, because the HVR 1600 has both digital & analog tuners that can operate concurrently. Since the HVR didn't perform well on a split cable, using the 950 Q permanently would mean I'd have only two tuners, not three. Basically my problem's just not that bad, I can tolerate 1 or 2 brief pixelations over a half-hour on PBS. And ION, there's nothing good on there I can't get from other sources..like my memory :) I don't remember the last time I had an issue with any of the other Buffalo stations.

So at the end of the day I'm actually better off without the 950Q, due to MCE2005 limitations, in spite of the fact it does seem to be a little better the the HVR 1600's digital tuner.

The analog tuner on the HVR 1600 seems pretty good though, it is better then my older Hauppauge (I forget the model #).

This thread needs a post in the beginning that ranks pc tuners, so you don't need to read for hours.

I tried doing that. There are a lot of posts where the person says one tuner is better than another. So I thought I could fit the jigsaw puzzle together to get definitive rankings. But, USB tuners and PCI/PCIe tuners fall into separate categories. and there are gaps and reversals. Anyways, here is the raw rankings with post numbers for reference:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42094&page=4


pcHDTV 5500 (48)
pcHDTV 3000 (48)

WinTV 1600 (138)
HDTV Wonder (138)

ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI Express (202)
ATI HDTV Wonder (202)

Avermedia Combo PCI (216)
ATI HDTV Wonder (216)

VisionTek TV Wonder HD 650 PCI Express (238)
Vista View Saber DA-1N1-I PCI (238)
ATI HDTV Wonder (238)

Hauppauge HVR-1250 (296)
KWorld PCI ATSC-120 (296)

KWorld PCI ATSC-120 (298)
Hauppauge HVR-1250 (298)

Hauppauge HVR-1250 (359)
Hauppauge HVR-950 USB (359)

Hauppauge HVR-950Q (378)
ATI HDTV Wonder (378)

Hauppauge HVR-1250 (458)
Hauppauge HVR-1600 (458)

HVR1600 (473)
HVR-2250 (473)

Hauppauge HVR-1250 (551)
Hauppauge HVR-1600. (551)

Hauppauge HVR-1250 (554)
Hauppauge HVR-1600. (554)

I'm not following the logic of that ranking list... could you explain it further?

I think he's just listing every post that compared 2 or more tuners and placing them in order from best to worst of that post (?)

That's exactly right Spencer.

Unfortunately I couldn't order the entire list. Some problems are:

Contradictory rankings like the KWorld and HVR-1250
No direct comparisons. The ATI 650 and Avermedia are both better than the ATI HDTV Wonder. But there is no comparison between them


But it looks like the 1250 is always better than the 1600 and the HDTV Wonder trails the pack.

I recently started using two AverMedia Duets in my SageTV box (Win7 64 w/ Sage V7). They are replacing an HVR-1600 and an HVR-2250. So far I'm very happy with them -- I'm getting solid reception of all Buffalo and Toronto OTA stations. Differences compared to the Hauppauge tuners are steady reception of WPXJ and the OMNIs (I could throw a stone and hit the CN and BMO towers so i think my Hauppauge tuners had trouble with the amount of signal they were getting). I've only been using them for about 10 days though so time will tell.

Side note on the 2250 -- wouldn't recommend it for anyone running Sage (and/or a 64-bit OS). I was having non-stop issues with it running both WHS/Sage6 and Win7-64/Sage7. The Sage support forums are littered with threads related to this card, mostly by those running 64-bit OSes including XP.

Does anyone have any experience with the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 PCI-E?

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can suggest something, please.

I recently purchased an ATI TV Wonder 650 USB (no free PCI slots on my computer). I briefly had a clear signal a couple days ago, but no matter what I do I can't get it back.

I have Rogers, and I'm using a cable box.

Preferred setup:

wall - splitter (modem and cable box) - VCR - splitter (TV, TV Tuner)

Going straight from the cable box to the TV Tuner improves the signal, but not to a watchable level. Also, my brief clear signal included the VCR etc.

I'm running XP, SP3. NVIDIA/GEFORCE 9500 GT graphics card with the latest driver.

I've tried changing coaxial inputs on the cable box (DTV instead of CATV/FM). I've tried changing what signal I'm telling the software it's getting.

I've also tried running S-Video instead of coaxial (I don't have any long enough audio cables atm) but I get no picture at all.

Naturally, I've redone the connections many times. Nothing clears up the problem; and whatever I run into my TV works fine.

What else can I try?

I realized I hadn't tried S-Video from my cable box to my tuner, so I tried that - clear picture.

I really wanted my VCR in the loop so I went back to that. Still nothing. Accidentally hit DVD. Up comes a picture!

Apparently, and the labeling on the back of my VCR isn't clear, the s-video output is DVD only. TV and VCR signals aren't passed through. (Why on Earth... who thought that would be a good idea... why couldn't they at least label it more clearly???)

So I bought more cables (composite video and L/R audio), connected the VCR to the tuner... there I go. Picture and audio.

I guess I'm all set. Next step: search this forum for IR blaster recommendations!

Hi,

I've searched through the archives, and I haven't found much in the way of OTA tuner card suggestions. Is anyone out there familiar with a really good single-tuner ATSC card?

Thanks,

Vince

In a desktop application, I like the Hauppauge ATSC tuner cards. I use a HVR 1600 which has one ATSC and one NTSC tuner. For a few dollars more, you can buy the newer model HVR 2250. This new card has a internal splitter for two tuners. With this card, a person can tune two analog, two digital OR one analog and one digital. Gives max flexiblity for recordings in areas with both digital and analog signals. The Wintv software (comes with the tuner) has greatly improved over the years but, IMO, is still bit lower in quality than commercial software or good freeware (GBPVR). If you only want to watch live or make an occasional recording, the Wintv software works fine.

If you have an indoor antenna and a laptop, you could a USB ATSC tuner. Note, they require a good CPU since decoding is software rather than hardware based. I've not used one so cannot give a fair recommendation. Several on-line sellers provide purchaser reviews. I strongly urge to look at those reviews since there are some poor performing USB tuners out there...

HTH

For a single-tuner card, the HVR-1250 is great.
For double, the 2250 as mentioned should work well.

I know the OP is asking about tuner cards, but a similar product, the HDHomerun does the same job, but I think is much more flexible if you are using a fixed, outdoor antenna. Set it up near where your antenna connection is, run ethernet to your router and then run another one to your PC.

I have a dual tuner model (they do have signal tuner models) and once the software is set up and installed, I just plug in my network, anywhere I have ethernet in my house, and I can watch digital OTA.

I don't know what the advantages of a specific tuner card installed in one computer are, but based on my usage patterns (multiple PC/laptops in the house), the HDHomerun network tuner meets my needs very well. I have some outlets where there is ethernet available, but I also have a 30' or so ethernet cable that reaches many corners of my home and deck outside. If you are dragging or wiring up cables, ethernet cables provide much more than coax does, so they are my choice for wiring.

The Hauppauge HVR-1250 and HVR-2250 are generally considered best for ATSC (digital.) The HVR-2250 has a hardware encoder for NTSC (analog) so it's a little better for analog recording and puts two tuners in one slot. (That is important with mATX boards and you probably will want two tuners eventually.) The HVR-1600 is considered to be good for analog but not as good for digital. You also want to be careful when buying dual tuner cards. Some of them only have one digital tuner whereas the HVR-2250 has two hybrid tuners that can each receive both digital and analog. Application support is also important. Hauppauge cards are well supported but I've found one application that supports the HVR-2250 and not the HVR-1250. The HVR-1250 and HVR-2250 are heavily discounted from some vendors so it pays to price check on the web.

I know the OP is asking about tuner cards, but a similar product, the HDHomerun does the same job, but I think is much more flexible if you are using a fixed, outdoor antenna. Set it up near where your antenna connection is, run ethernet to your router and then run another one to your PC.
HDHR is a great concept and piece of hardware.
In fact, I'd love to get one.
unfortunately, not all of my channels are rock-solid, meaning the HDHR's tuner just isn't up to the task :(
(HDHR is roughly in line with my HVR-950[old], which is easily outperformed by my HVR-1250 on many channels that could be borderline depending on weather)