Budget Cards

[miramarboy]

Hi All, i am still at the planning stage of my 1st media center and i need some advice. I will be using the media center through my 42" plasma and i want to be able to watch and record programs i have no games or other devices connected. I have read the review here on the MSI TV anywhere card at$70 and have also looked at the specs of the winfast DTV 2300H&$80 would either of these choices do what i require. Thanks Dave

[jimbojumbo]

From experience (leadtek, Dvico) buying a cheap card will be buying trouble. Reject this path and spend a little bit more and a get an Avermedia ( http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Prod...Id=20&device=1)

It's not that more expensive (arounf 100-110) and you'll be way, way happier as there is no greater pain than a card that doesn't work reliably and consitently. And i've experienced child birth... well my missus did but I had to watch

[miramarboy]

Thanks for the advise budgets are bummers but thats life. Have priced the card and its available priced from $107-$110 here in Brisbane so this is the way i will go will have to look at cutting back on cost somewhere else, Cheers Dave

[jimbojumbo]

budgests are indeed a pain, but I'd get less memory, a smaller hard drive, a cheaper case than scrimp on a tuner.

You've made the right choice

[downforce]

Originally Posted by jimbojumbo

From experience (leadtek, Dvico) buying a cheap card will be buying trouble.

I'd have to disagree, I have a DVICO Dual Digital (first revision!) and a Leadtek DVT-1000S (ultra cheap) and both were painless to setup and haven't had a issue with either.

In fact the Leadtek one I had up and running in record time for any new peice of hardware! Literally, plug in, install drivers, configure VMC and was watching TV.

The TV software with both is a bit rubbish, but if you're using MCE/VMC or MediaPortal (I use this) then it's fine.

Oh, ok I have one one problems, Linux support for Dual Digital when it first came out didn't exist but now it's in the kernel, no problems!

[miramarboy]

Thanks for input guys. I should have mentioned my reason for the budget card in the original post,it's not only a cost issue, i have never tried a media center build before so i didn't want to spend over much on a card that i may never use again if i ain't happy with center, for the same reason i have now decided to build the center using my Themaltake lanbox lite rather than spend two-three hundred on a media case. The AVer media card i can get for a $107 the Leadtek DTV 100 with remote is only $37 thats a big difference. I think in this case my wallet might win. But hey i'm in no rush will see if there are anymore post. Thanks again Dave