I ordered the card directly from the Terratec website towards the end of December. The cost of the card including shipping works out to about $180.00.
The card arrived on the 3rd January and after I got in from work I promptly opened the package.
In the box was the card, in an anti-static bag, a CD, a registration card, a customer service form and an information document about product returns.
Before powering off my MCE system I deleted all the detected services from within MCE and uninstalled the existing DVICO Fusion drivers. I powered off the system, uninstalled the 2 x DVICO Fusion HDTV DVB-T Plus cards from their PCI slots and installed the Cinergy card into a PCIe slot (see note later for problems experienced with the motherboard).
The card is a full height card so forget any notions of getting it to fit into a low profile case unless a PCIe riser is utilised. Below is a picture of the card next to a DVICO Fusion DVB-T Plus
Even though The Cinergy 2400i DT is a dual tuner card there is only one antenna connection with the signal splitting being done on board the card itself, a distinct advantage over other dual tuner cards.
After powering the system up the card was recognised and the drivers installed painlessly from the supplied CD. Interestingly the same driver revision was also located on the Microsoft update site.
After rebooting the computer I started up MCE and went about setting up the cards and the TV Signal. Each separate tuner on the Terratec card is uniquely named and MCE recognised that you have two distinct tuners fitted. They appear like this in the MCE tuner setup screen.
Once configured services were scanned relatively quickly, and as I'm in Melbourne all 29 services were discovered first time around. (note that the tuner was tested with MCE 2005 RU2 + RU2 patch).
The Cinergy 2400i DT has been in use everday since it's installation and it has been extremely stable. The channel change delay is shorter than that of the DVICO and Tiny USB tuners.
Overall I am extremely happy with the card and I would highly recommend the card. Currently there isn't an Australian Distributor but you can purchase the card from the
Terratec online shop
Technical Details
Technical details: Cinergy 2400i DT MCE
* Dual reception of two independent stations
* Record while Play
* Digital Video Broadcasting via antenna (DVB-T)
* Lossless TV recording
* TimeShifting
* Electronic Program Guide
Software
* BDA drivers for Windows XP / Windows XP Media Center Edition
* Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.0
System Requirements
* 2 GHz Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon CPU
* 1 free PCIe slot (x1, x4 or x16)
* 512 MB RAM
* Sound card with DirectX support
* Graphics card with DirectX and Video Overlay support
* CD or DVD drive for software installation
* Windows XP MCE 2005
* Digital terrestrial TV reception (DVB-T)
What's Good- PCIexpress card
- Dual Tuners on one card (less space used, no USB headers used)
- Single antenna connection
- Uses less power than 2 separate tuners therefore less heat
- Fast channel changes
What's not so good- Full height card
- No Australian distributor
- Doesn't work in AOpen i915GMm-HFS x1 PCIe slot and this problem appears to be common to the Intel 915 chipset motherboards. Terratec are aware of the problem and are investigating it. A new revision of the 2400i DT will be released that will address the compatability issues with the i915GMm-HFS.
Problems with AOpen i915GMm-HFS motherboard and Shuttle SD11G5
Unfortunately when trying to install the Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT into the x1 PCIe slot on the motherboard, the card would not install correctly with Windows flagging an error code 12 (not enough resources). This problem has been seen by a number of people in Europe with the same motherboard type. Installing the card into the x16 PCIe slot fixed the problem, but of course this means I can't use a PCIe GFX card. From posts in Europe and on this board, there have been problems seen with the Shuttle SD11G5 as well.
As far as I'm aware there are no issues with other motherboards.
STOP PRESS!!
There is a BIOS update from Shuttle which allows the Cinergy to install correctly in the x1 PCIe slot. Terratec have indicated that there is a compatability issue with the i915GMm-HFS and this will be fixed in a new revision of the card which will hopefully be available in May 2006.
Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT MCE Edition
