Dual Digital Tuner - what does it really mean?

Batou · **24th August 2008, 06:09 PM**

This may be a noob question that a lot of you out there know but I'm going to go ahead and ask it anyway

When a TV Tuner card is said to be a Dual card does this mean that it can record or watch 2 different digital channels? Or is it a Dual card because it can record or watch Digital and Analogue, in this case I'm referring to the HVR 2200 in particular.

I have seen a lot of Media boxes in this forum that have 2 tuners installed in them, is this so that you can tune into 2 digital channels at once?

I'm looking at the Hauppage HVR 2200 as so many are saying that it is the cream of the crop as far as tuners go. however if I want to watch/record 2 digital channels at once, am I better off getting 2 $100 tuners.

My other question is does it really matter if you watch HDTV and record Analogue, is there many here that do it frequently and recommend to have both as Digital?

Cheers,
Mike

nickwil · **24th August 2008, 07:10 PM**

Mike,

A true twin digital tuner is just that. So you can record up to two shows and watch a third (that has been previously recorded). Just be careful as a lot of computer shops will try to sell you a tuner with both analogue and digital tuners. My advice would be to stay away from them and get a true twin digital. Oh, almost forgot. Once up and running install Life extender to remove the ads.

Nick

Vico · **24th August 2008, 07:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickwil

.....install Life extender to remove the ads.

Were do i get that program?

nickwil · **24th August 2008, 07:38 PM**

You can get it from here http://www.lifextender.com/

It's free and works a charm.

Nick

krypto · **24th August 2008, 10:37 PM**

Or dvrmstoolbox to remove or mark ads on the fly. Its a bit more involved to set up. The advantage is that you can set it to just create a file marking the ad points and then choose to skip ads manually or automatically when you watch recorded tv.

Best of all you can set t to start processing ads while you are still recording. Hence you can start watching after say 1/2hr and skip all the ads.

TheRob · **25th August 2008, 12:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Batou

When a TV Tuner card is said to be a Dual card does this mean that it can record or watch 2 different digital channels? Or is it a Dual card because it can record or watch Digital and Analogue, in this case I'm referring to the HVR 2200 in particular.

Dual tuner cards have two tuners in them. This means that you can record two differnt channels at the same, or watch one channel and record another.

The HVR2200 is a dual tuner card. It will do the above. The HVR2200 happens to have two HYBRID tuners. A hybrid tuner can be switched between digital or analogue tuning mode. So each tuner in the HVR2200 can receive either digital TV or analogue TV, depending on how the software drives it. So with the HVR2200 you could set it up to receive two digital channels, two anlalogue channels or one digital channel and one analogue channel. This all sounds good in theory, but Vista MC will only natively let you receive digital TV OR analogue TV - not both. So the last configuration (one digital and one analogue) can only be achieved by hacking Vista.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Batou

I'm looking at the Hauppage HVR 2200 as so many are saying that it is the cream of the crop as far as tuners go. however if I want to watch/record 2 digital channels at once, am I better off getting 2 $100 tuners.

IMO no. There's no real technical reason why two singles are better/worse than one dual, but I think it's just easier to have one card in one slot providing both tuners. The choice is yours, however. Two single cards will work just as well. You'll need to split the antenna signal yourself if you go this route, though.

I agree with those saying the HVR2200 is the best dual tuner card on the market today. I switched from a DigitalNow Dual Hybrid S2 card, and find the HVR2200 to be more stable, have faster channel changes and excellent sensitivity. It's also a lot more expensive

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Batou

My other question is does it really matter if you watch HDTV and record Analogue, is there many here that do it frequently and recommend to have both as Digital?

If you are in an area that receives all channels in digital format, then you are better off with a dual digitial configuration. In some areas certain channels aren't available in digital, so getting a digital/analogue solution working has benefits. Keep in mind that if you intend to use Vista MC to watch TV, you will need to do some hacking to get mixed tuners working. There are instructions for this in the stickies at the top of this forum.

Batou · **26th August 2008, 12:08 AM**

Cheers Mate, that makes much more sense!

They don't really explain the difference between the terms "dual" and "hybrid" on their website, or maybe I skipped it..

I shouldn't need to use analogue, I'm after dual digital for watching an recording simultaneously. Though it is good to know if I need it I can setup digital + analogue.

Having one card vs 2 is important as my motherboard only has 2 pci-e slots (1 is a 16x) and I may need to upgrade the graphics depending on how the onboard 8200 performs.

Thanks for your help,
Mike