A few noob questions

[Filby]

Im already going to apologise for the following newb questions, but Ive done some searching and haven't really come up with an answer.

1) Why would you need a analogue and digital receiver? With all channels now broadcast in digital surely you wouldn't want to use the analogue signal?

2) Are all digital tuner cards HD? It seems that some that are HD dont even advertise in their specs that they are!

3) What is the current 'flavour of the month' regarding tuner cards? The Hauppauge cards seems to be a good choice but which one?

4) Do most cards have hardware compression for when you capture the video or is the CPU doing this work?

5) (not tuner related) Do HDMI outputs on motherboards do video as well as audio?


Thanks!

Fil

[DDH]

Originally Posted by Filby

Im already going to apologise for the following newb questions, but Ive done some searching and haven't really come up with an answer.

1) Why would you need a analogue and digital receiver? With all channels now broadcast in digital surely you wouldn't want to use the analogue signal?

2) Are all digital tuner cards HD? It seems that some that are HD dont even advertise in their specs that they are!

3) What is the current 'flavour of the month' regarding tuner cards? The Hauppauge cards seems to be a good choice but which one?

4) Do most cards have hardware compression for when you capture the video or is the CPU doing this work?

5) (not tuner related) Do HDMI outputs on motherboards do video as well as audio?


Thanks!

Fil

1. Analogue only is still in some outer metro areas I believe? Other than that they tend to get used for Foxtel, Austar inputs.
3. My favourite at the moment is the Hauppauge HVR-2200. I have used a number of brands and models and just found this one very easy going. Most people have an opinion on this. Best to search and read.
4. This of course is only relevant for analogue cards. Read the specs and see if it is doing hardware compression, either is possible
5. Again read the specs on the Mobo, not a generically answerable question

[dgaust]

1) Why would you need a analogue and digital receiver? With all channels now broadcast in digital surely you wouldn't want to use the analogue signal?

Some people still capture an analogue signal. Maybe from a foxtel set top box, or because they're in a non-digital area.

If you don't use either, you only need a digital card.

2) Are all digital tuner cards HD? It seems that some that are HD dont even advertise in their specs that they are!

Yep.

3) What is the current 'flavour of the month' regarding tuner cards? The Hauppauge cards seems to be a good choice but which one?

Most people are recommending the 2200 at the moment. It's expensive though due to it being a hybrid with hardware encoders.

4) Do most cards have hardware compression for when you capture the video or is the CPU doing this work?

No, the digital ones don't. Some analogue ones with hardware encoders will do the work for you (on the analogue signal only).

5) (not tuner related) Do HDMI outputs on motherboards do video as well as audio?

That's why they're there.

[bigdonk]

Originally Posted by Filby

Im already going to apologise for the following newb questions, but Ive done some searching and haven't really come up with an answer.

1) Why would you need a analogue and digital receiver? With all channels now broadcast in digital surely you wouldn't want to use the analogue signal?

2) Are all digital tuner cards HD? It seems that some that are HD dont even advertise in their specs that they are!

3) What is the current 'flavour of the month' regarding tuner cards? The Hauppauge cards seems to be a good choice but which one?

4) Do most cards have hardware compression for when you capture the video or is the CPU doing this work?

5) (not tuner related) Do HDMI outputs on motherboards do video as well as audio?


Thanks!

Fil

Hi Fil,
No need to apologise, there all perfectly good valid questions IMHO..

1. Not all channels are yet broadcast in digital, eg here in Melbourne ch 31 is still analog. And from a tuner card manufactures point of view, does make a lot of sense to produce a hybrid card.

2. Most if not all cards on the market these days will do HD, certainly most of the ones discussed on this site will do SD and HD.

3. Yes the Hauppauge HVR-2200 seems quite popular at the moment.

4. digital tuner cards don't need hardware compression or decompression, the cards are simply a DVB-t FTA QAM simplex modem, to demodulate the signal and extract the TS stream. The mpeg decoding is actually handled by VMC and your video card, if it supports DXVA mpeg decoding.

5. is a real mixed bag, not many HDMI PC video cards correctly support audio, especially HD audio, such as Dolbly TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in bitstream mode. A proper fully compliant HDMI 1.3 video and audio card will be some time off.

[Filby]

Ok thanks for all the answers!

Which opens up a couple more quick questions:

6) So if I don't really need analogue tuner, is it cost effective to buy a digital only tuner card or I might as well just buy one with analogue because the volume of hybrid cards out-weights any saving of going to digital only?

7) So when you capture a digital signal to ya PC it doesn't have to do any re-compression of the video because its already in a compression codec that can be dumped straight to ya HDD ?


Cheers again!

Fil

[DDH]

Originally Posted by Filby

Ok thanks for all the answers!

Which opens up a couple more quick questions:

6) So if I don't really need analogue tuner, is it cost effective to buy a digital only tuner card or I might as well just buy one with analogue because the volume of hybrid cards out-weights any saving of going to digital only?

7) So when you capture a digital signal to ya PC it doesn't have to do any re-compression of the video because its already in a compression codec that can be dumped straight to ya HDD ?


Cheers again!

Fil

6. If you don't need analogue then go dual digital. It is possible you'll get a dual hybrid, so what, you may simply never use the analogue side. Shop on features you want, recommendations and price. If you get more than you need, ie analogue too, then who cares.

7. Correct. DTV is simply a data stream saved into a file on your HDD.

[LeFtBehinD]

Originally Posted by dgaust

4) Do most cards have hardware compression for when you capture the video or is the CPU doing this work?

No, the digital ones don't. Some analogue ones with hardware encoders will do the work for you (on the analogue signal only).

Just to clarify this, I was about to buy the Compro E800 because of its hardware decoding but this feature is only helpful when watching analogue tv?

If so, then I wouldnt need it. (only plan to watch digital tv)

Anyone care to recommend a better tuner around the $100-$130 mark?

[Dream]

Originally Posted by LeFtBehinD

Just to clarify this, I was about to buy the Compro E800 because of its hardware decoding but this feature is only helpful when watching analogue tv?

If so, then I wouldnt need it. (only plan to watch digital tv)

Anyone care to recommend a better tuner around the $100-$130 mark?

Have a look at this one
http://www.digitalnow.com.au/product...alDigital.html
or this one
http://www.digitalnow.com.au/product.../TinyTwin.html

[F1]

Two thumbs up for the tinytwin. Delivered in 2 days and it hasnt missed a beat since i plugged it in!

[Filby]

A couple more questions:

Does PCIe fit into a PCIe16x slot?
Is the Hauppauge 2200 still the cream of the crop regarding tuners?
Is there a good tuner that is PCI (I dont need the analog tuner..just digital) ?


Cheers

Fil

[dgaust]

Originally Posted by Filby

A couple more questions:

Does PCIe fit into a PCIe16x slot?

Yep. No problems.

Is the Hauppauge 2200 still the cream of the crop regarding tuners?
Is there a good tuner that is PCI (I dont need the analog tuner..just digital) ?

It does seem to be, although Digital Now have just got stock the Dual Hybrid S3... the S2 was a good card, so I'd say the S3 would be just as good.

They also have a Dual Digital PCI card available