What Is The Best Tuner On The Market To Record Foxtel

[lay51e]

Hi Everyone,

I am in the process of building a new PC and wanting to connect it to my TV so I can record foxtel onto my external HDD.

The setup will be as followed:

Case/PSU: Silverstone + Antec Neo HE 550W
Motherboard: Asus P5K
CPU: Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad
RAM: Kingston 4 x 1gb PC2-8500 DDR2 1066MHz
Graphics Card: Asus 8800gt
HDD: Internal – SeaGate 80gb, External Samsung 500gb
DVD Burner: Asus DVD RW

TV: Philips 32” With In built tuner
Foxtel: Cable but no IQ
O/S: Vista Ultimate???
TV Tuner: (Still undecided and needing help)

After reading on the forum on how to record foxtel and referring to TiggerK’s guide on how to set all this up: MCE - Foxtel / PAY TV Guide i am now wanting to know everyone’s thoughts on:

a) What tuner would you guys recommend to complete my HTPC?
b) Do I need to buy more than one tuner?
c) Do I need a dual tuner?
d) Is there a recommended EPG to install on Vista MCE which u guys use? Essentially, the EPG allows u to timer record shows correct?

The main reason for the build is to be able to surf the web, play games on my big screen and record foxtel onto my HDD.
At this point I am a total oblivious to how Vista MCE works. Do I need to run MCE to do what I have mentioned, or can I just use Vista? Any recommendations??

Any insights or advice on my soon to be computer will greatly appreciated, I am looking to get this under way asap

Cheers in advanced guys and girls

[ExtremePC]

The best tuner to record foxtel with is the Foxtel IQ box.

[lay51e]

I understand that the IQ box is the best Tuner

But i was speaking about a tuner to add onto my mobo for obvious reasons (ie to have the freedom to record and keep it stored on my HDD)

Any help would be great guys n girls

Cheers
James

[TiggerK]

The IQ box does give you simplicity, but MCE is the way to go.

I'd recommend the Hauppauge HVR-1300MCE hybrid. Works well. The PVR-150MCE used to be good, but not around much any more.

You'll only use one tuner per Foxtel set top box, so one is enough.

Impressive setup you've got there, I'm pleased you'll be doing some gaming, as it's way overkill for a Foxtel MCE setup!! Be careful with your MCE box, don't go installing crappy addon's, toolbars, hacks/cracks/registry cleaners/search bars etc etc... spyware and viruses and incompatible or just badly written software will only make your system unstable, and that sucks for a TV entertainment system!!!

Sorry my guide is a bit out of date as far as the guide is concerned. Our friends at EPGStream provide a guide for Foxtel, works well, with only a little bit of setting up.

Bit of fiddling involved getting it all going as you want for the first time, but be patient, and media centre bliss can be yours.

Cheers
TiggerK

[Auldar]

I use the HVR-1300 to great effect. You'll want to read up on some of my posts about ghosting and smearing though - you'll need to disable temporal noise reduction which is enabled on a very high setting by default. Disabling it fixes the smearing.

[vlad]

I have used 1300 before moving to BT channel. It is very good.
Not as good as BT channel