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I'm fairly new to MC, can you have multiple HD Tuners for MCE??
Are there cards that are twin tuners on the card or do you have to put 2 tuners in the same PC? As I am out of PCI Slots in my Server, what would you reccomend I do??
Yep, there are plenty of dual tuner solutions out there. If you have a PCI-e x1 slot you can use that or if not, get yourself a dual USB tuner.
My recommendations based on quality and service is DigitalNow. There a little bit more expensive than some others, cheaper than most, but they provide an excellent service.
For the record, you can use a number of single tuner cards too (if you have free PCI slots - which you don't). In my Vista rig I use 2 PCI cards. In my MCE 2005 machine, I use 3 USB tuners.
For more than 2 tuners you need to hack the registry to allow Media Center to use all of them.
Justin
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VMC32: Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, 4850e, TMG A2 CPU Cooler, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x HVR-2200 (4 tuners), 500GB Samsung, NSK2480B. Connected to a Metz 32 inch LCD.
Office/Server: Abit A-N78HD, BE-2350, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x AverTV Duo (4 tuners), CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Tower.
Are DViCO that bad? On paper their dual-tuner PCIe card looks better than the Philips SAA716x+TDA10046+TDA8275A clones everyone else seems to be producing.
I guess the key here is "on paper" and how that differs from reality, but given the choice I'd take a card using the Conexant CX23885 and Xceive tuners over the Philips clones any day. The main strike against the DViCO for me in the UK is the cost. For the price of one of those I can get two of Hauppauge Nova-t 500, or nearly three of the Pinnacle Dual Hybrid PCIe OEM!
Sweet guys thanks for the tips... DigitalNow fairly cheap too! $169 for Twin Tuner PCI, thats nice
Does USB work well? I am more inclined to stick to PCI I think as external peripherls look messy I only require a Twin anyway so replacing my current HD Card and using a Twin would work fine.
Not sure how MCE recognizes the two tuners and how it works out which to record on, but I'll work it out when I get it!
There are very few complaints about the Digital Now USB tuners so they do work well enough, there are occasional issues with USB bus management but they are easily worked around. MCE recognises two tuners by default any more and registry mods are needed. There is a dual tuner priority tool somewhere I'll link to it when I remember.
A quick search onsite turned up this.
Last edited by Redwight; 20th January 2008 at 03:11 PM.
Reason: Link time.
If you want a dual USB tuner then a DigitalNow TinyTwin is hard to beat. Excellent performance, value and excellent service.
For PCI dual tuner I suggest you look at the Pinnacle Dual Tuner. Expensive for a PCI tuner but very reliable.
For PCIe I suggest you look at the DigitalNow range, excellent value and very popular. Unlike some others I quite like DVICO tuners. Their Dual Express tuners I find are excellent cards. Most problems seem to be with their PCI dual tuners.
I have a so called Twin Tuner PVR @ home and it will not let me Record two channels at once, only record and watch a different channel. If i get a Twin Tuner for Media Centre will it allow me to record two channels? And if I get a Twin Tuner USB and have a PCI Single, Can I use registry hack and Record 3 Channels at once???
Yes, it lets you record as many channels as you have tuners.
For instance, I have 4 tuners. I can record 4 shows at the same time while watching a DVD or recorded TV (or other videos if I want). It just depends on your PCs grunt.
