After searching the card I'm realizing this may not be the solution for OTA HDTV.

Is it capable of OTA HDTV reception along with the proper antenna?

Uhh no.. Sorry, it's not an HDTV card. Crap, didn't read the thread title properly! :)

The Dvico card is what I'm about to go for. The stream already comes compressed so there isn't much for your computer to do except having a fast hard drive. Fast storage is important.

I would like to know from your experiences/venerable knowledge which tuners use the least of your computer ressources.

I'm still debating between the STB and a tuner either PCI or USB and my main concern is that the PC tuner will be a CPU hog.

My system runs Win2k on an Athlon XP 3200+ w/ 1GB DDR. I know it's enough to run most tuners out there but I sill want to save those cpu cycles for other things.

Thanks for the help! :D

I'm running MythTV on Linux. I had three PCI OTA HDTV tuners.
- 1 pcHDTV 5500 (really only good for Linux... Windows drivers are experimental)
- 2 kWorld ATSC110 (Windows drivers out of the box)

While recording three HD programs simultaneously, my CPU load barely hits 10%. (And the MythTV backend is a lowly P4-2600.)

You should only really see a CPU spike when you are watching HD content... recording ATSC OTA HDTV is just capturing the stream and feeding it to the hard drive. No processing of the data should be required. I can't comment on NTSC capture - I've only done it a few times.

OTA HDTV capture is really not CPU intense. As mentioned by others, you just need a fast hard drive to save everything as it comes in.

I think Windows will have slightly higher CPU loads, but not enough to be of concern. Though with Windows you definitely will benefit from having more RAM to keep the system from swappping to virtual memory heavily.

Just make sure the software you use for capture does not try and alter the video capture real-time (like re-encode it to save on space). Otherwise, that will definitely spike your CPU utlization. I think 1GB should be enough... but you'll need to keep an eye on memory use initially. Fortunately, Win2K has a smaller RAM footprint than XP so that should help too.

Out of curiousity, what software are you planning to capture the video with in Win2K? I'm only familiar with capturing HDTV OTA with XP and Linux. I suspect a lot of the XP solutions work with Win2K... I've just never checked.

Hmmm... the ATSC110 looks tasty!

Just found this combo: ATSC 110 and MCE-200 on TigerDirect for 153$. Not too shabby! :p


They claim it requires MCE but I guess that's some more marketing BS... right? :confused:

You should only really see a CPU spike when you are watching HD content... recording ATSC OTA HDTV is just capturing the stream and feeding it to the hard drive. No processing of the data should be required.

To add to that, if you're planning to do some post-processing like using Comskip (to mark commercials) and VideoRedo (to snip them out), then the CPU may become an important factor.

I use Comskip after hours and it bumps up my CPU usage.

I want to clear out something though. I am running win2k and I don't intend on running anything else in the enar future.


Ooops. Scratch the kWorld ATSC110 that I have. According to their site it only supports WinXP.

I think you are going to have to be careful to ensure any OTA ATSC card you get is supported in Win2K. A USB OTA card might also be a problem as the USB support in Win2K is not as good as WinXP.

It looks like dVico cards support Win2K... but you should double check that.

To add to the confusion I actually have my kWorld box and it says the following as a system requirement:
------------------------------
Microsoft Windows, Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2000/XP
------------------------------
This is verbatim. And yes it is confusing. I have no idea what that means requirement wise!

Well I finally end up ordering the ATI HDTV.

I know it has its feats (especially the software) but I know the hardware is going to deliver. And it just seems logic since I have a 9600 SE in my 1337 h4x0r1n6 rig!

They're the tuner manufacturer we love to hate I think! :rolleyes:

Now onto an antenna...

To add to that, if you're planning to do some post-processing like using Comskip (to mark commercials) and VideoRedo (to snip them out), then the CPU may become an important factor.

I use Comskip after hours and it bumps up my CPU usage.Another CPU intensive task would be to reencode to MPEG-4/Divx/H.264/WMV9. Even with a fast CPU you are probably looking at about 4-5 hours to re-encode a 1 hour show.

Of course the reason to do so is to save hard drive space - which is not insignificant when HD recording takes about 9 Gig per hour.

Well I finally end up ordering the ATI HDTV....

I hope you get a newer model than the one that has been recalled recently. A lot of people are mad at that product.

I hope you get a newer model than the one that has been recalled recently. A lot of people are mad at that product.

Well if TigerDirect sells a card that's been recalled by the manufacturer that's plain dishonest!

What did you heqr exactly and where?

Got the card last Friday and I was able to play with it last night.

I just wanted to report my impressions on the ATI HDTV Wonder as this info may be useful to those looking into HDTV tuners. Most comments I read on forums were those of users struggling with the card seeking help so I suspect those who didn't run into any serious issues simply didn't report it.

To start with here's a brief description of my system:

AMD 3200+ 400Mhz bus
1Gb Samsung PC 3200 RAM
MSI KT6V-LSR
ATI 9600SE 128MB DDR
OS: Win2K SP4
HDD used for TV on demand: Samsung 250Gb SATA2 (connected to SATA 1 port)
Monitor: Viewsonic 32" TV/Monitor connected with DVI to HDMI cable

After installing the card in a PCI slot, the computer posted and booted into windows 2000 without a problem. The card's multiple devices were detected by windows and I pointed to the CD that ATI provided for drivers. No problems here.

Meanwhile I connected the small indoor antenna to an existing coaxial cable going to the attic where I can access a trap leading to the roof. More on that later.

I brought up the DTV program and was prompted to run an auto detection of DTV stations. This is where one must consider the fact that the antenna provided is not good enough for proper HDTV reception. I had to place ti on the roof (from a trap in the attic) and was able to get a lock on CBC (channel 6) and SRC (2) while detecting channels 32 and 38 without locking onto them (should be PBS.)

While my plan was to get the card to work first and then get a decent UHF antenna after I am not concerned at all by this issue but if you don't have the space or budget for a full flegged UHF setup you will be deceived.

With the antenna on the roof I was getting great reception of CBC and SRC. Here are my brief non-scientific impressions:

Watching TV: very smooth, the image is crystal clear and quite impressive during 1080i broadcasts. SD content looks much better than Videotron or Bell Expressvu on a regular TV so there's a real gain there. Takes about 30% of CPU time.

The TV on demand feature does not add a lot of CPU time consumption but can lead to some hanging in full HD. I suspect this is a bus issue with my motherboard but that's beyond my knowledge.

The TV on demand feature is quite cool, I didn't even notice it was turned on until I installed the ATI remote and accidentally pressed the REW button. Very sweet feature.

My overall rating is "works for me!" :D

Hi all, I've lurked for many months, only recently deciding to post with a question.

My current system includes -among other things - a Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK Plasma and a MCE 2005 box (http://www.blogofboredom.com/images/picture.jpg). At the moment, I subscribe to Cogeco and I use their Motorola 6412 STB, for HD and PVR capabilities. After discovering the wonderful world of OTA, I've decided that I can handle leaving TSN HD and Discovery HD behind and move to enjoying free OTA signals. My only problem is how to go about doing that.

My two options are as follows:

-Take advantage of a decently specced MCE box and buy an ATSC/QAM PC Card for it.
-Buy an ATSC/QAM STB from Samsung or LG.

I'm leaning towards the first one, since I already have the MCE box, but I have nagging doubts about whether it's the right choice or not. What am I losing, by going with a PC Card, over a STB? My hope is that there's actually no difference and I'm just saving money, by buying only what I need, in the form of a tuner.

If that is the case, then my next question is which card I should be buying. Right now I have two Sapphire Theatrix 550 pro cards in my MCE machine. I'm looking at the DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite, since it has an LG chip (which I assume is the magical secret sauce that makes everyone like the LG STB). I'd like to pair that up with a simple indoor antenna, like the Zenith Silver Sensor, or if that's not feasible, I'd have to take the plunge and pick up a Channel Master 4228.

Any input would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

It's difficult, if not impossible to record HDTV on a PC using a STB as a source - there are capture cards but they are very expensive. I don't know of anyone that has gone that route.

So you're basically painted into a corner and will need to go with the MCE / ATSC tuner card. (Note: you don't necessarily have to have MCE - many cards will work without it.) The caveat with this solution is it's not very stable. You WILL spend hours or days installing, configuring and re-installing the card and software. Just look at typical applications like FFDSHOW and PowerStrip... the variations are mind boggling.

As for a card the only thing I'll recommend is that you stay away from the ATI HDTV Wonder. The software it comes with is complete junk.

Just so I understand your question - you want to get HD PVR capabilities and you're evaluating the options. Right now it's between an off-the-shelf PVR that does ATSC versus doing the same thing with a Media Center PC.

If I got that right, I'd be happy to offer my opinion. I've never used a Samsung or LG PVR so my comments will be based on assumptions that are quite possibly wrong.

First, let's talk about MCE:
1. If you plan to at least keep your basic cable subscription then you can feed the Cogeco coax into your 550 tuners and get timeshifting for CATV channels that way (ie discovery, space, etc). Note that you won't get your digital cable channels - MCE2005 doesn't support QAM and most of the QAM channels on cogeco are encrypted. With Cablecard (basically encrypted QAM) being supported in the US, I would expect that at some point in the future unencrypted QAM can be "made to work" in Canada via some powertoy or registry hack. But not right now. So it's analog-only for your cogeco feed.
2. I have used the DVICO fusion5 card and it was good. I actually get better reception with the dvico Fusion5 USB, so if you're looking to save room inside the case I can recommend that card too.
3. MCE machines, unless you spend good money on them, can be sometimes awkward in the living room. Cost comes mainly in the form of a nice case and silent cooling. In general I would expect the STB to look better and be quieter than an MCE PC.
4. MCE generally has a better UI and more intuitive logic than most of the STBs I've seen. Again, this may be old info though.

Set-top-box:
1. Once you buy it, that's it. No upgrading (again I could be wrong there) to keep up with newer standards, no slapping in an additional tuner, etc. It is what it is.
2. I wouldn't rely on QAM, the fact that there are channels available I consider to be gravy and not the intent of the cable companies to let you have those signals. Until Canada gets some sort of standard for subscription like Cablecard, I'm personally leery of investing in QAM. That said it seems to come "for free" with some ATSC tuners.
3. The STB will give you less headaches on outputting to your specific TV, matching up codecs, etc. It will work out of the box.
4. The STB will look and sound better than the MCE PC in most cases.
5. The STB may or may not give you access to extra functionality like music, pictures, downloaded videos, movie library management, etc. Whether or not you care is personal opinion.

If I were in your shoes (and I have been) here's what I'd do. I'd upgrade your existing MCE machine if possible, maybe put in a bigger hard drive if required but that's about it. Add a USB ATSC tuner or two. I'd then spend my money on an XBox 360 and use that as your "set top box" for media center. Running the extender interface you'll get almost all of the MCE functionality, it'll look good in the living room, and while not silent the noise level is decent in extender mode. The connections "just work" for video and audio in high-def. In fact that's exactly what I did and I'm loving it!

Hope this helps, and before I get jumped on remember that this is just my opinion. In the end you should choose what works best for you.

Check out www.sensuz.com for a Canadian e-tailer.

Pete

Thank you for the replies! Just to clarify a few things, by STB, I meant a PVR, with ATSC tuner built in. Also, I've spent a fair amount of money making my system completely quiet, with regards to case fans, an aftermarket heatsink/fan and a noise dampening cage for my hard drives. Additionally. my computer is a relatively unobtrusive (http://www.blogofboredom.com/images/picture.jpg) addition to my room. That said, I think I can do without the Xbox 360, for asthetic purposes.

Other than that, you're right on the money with what I'm looking for, pnear. For me, the $64,000 question is, what's the big difference in image quality? You've said that the STB will generally look better than the PC Card, but how much better? I know it's not a quantifiable figure, but do you think it's a massive difference or a marginal difference, to the trained eye?

I don't want to break the bank on any given solution, but at the same time, I'll spend the money if I have to.

Had to re-read my post because I thought you misquoted me but no indeed I mis-typed. Aesthetically speaking, the STB will look and sound better but I didn't mean to imply anything about picture quality.

ATSC is already a compressed data stream that either the PVR or the MCE box will be writing to disk, so video and audio quality at least on the recording side of things will be identical. Playback will depend on the quality of the MPEG decoder and the video hardware being used, but at HDTV resolutions with a good component or DVI connection I would expect the MCE machine to have excellent picture quality. Audio is all ac3 digital, so there should be no difference for audio.

Let me say it a different way... if you're getting a pure digital signal into the box and outputting a pure digital signal out to the TV (ie DVI or HDMI) then theoretically they should be pretty much the same.

Only a side by side test will prove that out though.

pnear, that's a huge relief to hear. I'm appreciative of all your helpful info and a big thanks for posting that website. I'd been having a lot of difficulty finding a website to buy from.

One last question for you. I was going to purchase the Cannel Master 4228, but I'm now pondering the 4221, since the Buffalo transmitters are only 75km away. My only problem is, I can't mount the antenna on the roof. I'm wondering how bad it would be to mount the antenna on my back deck. Do trees give the 4221 or 4228 much grief? I notice that you have your mounted in your attic, so I'd imagine not.

I'd check out the OTA reception results forum for your area to see if anyone else can comment on their success with that antenna in your area. I'm just not sure, but would expect that a 4221 is good for you. Deck mounting probably won't work that well to be honest, if you can get it up to the attic or roof you'll be much better off I think.

Hi

I have been using an ATI AIW 9600 for almost 3 years now, mostly to watch TV on my second computer screen. To transfert VSH on DVD, I was using Pinnacle Movie Box bought also about 3 years ago.

I have not been satisfy with the picture quality of ATI card when I venture myself in recording TV Show

I would like now to use my PC as a real PVR and burn on DVD more TV show and would like to obtain the best picture as possible

I have the intention of recording from a Cable Box, not an analog source.

I am reading that the newly released ATI Theater 650 card would be the best outthere.

Here is my questions:

Since I will be using a cable box, the TV Tuner will be rather use as a capture card. Considering thing, does it make sens for me to care about the TV Tuner.

If I should not care, should I then use my Pinnacle Move Box as a capture card. Is there anything better outhere?

Is the ATI Theater 650 make sens for what I want to do (i.e. record from a cable box).

Thanks