HDTV Tuner supporting foxtel as well for Vista

[darkmenace]

Hi all

Simple question, im after a name brand, reliable, PCI tv tuner card that supports Dual HDTV channels (ie ability to record two at once) but also has the capability to accept a connection from a foxtel box which can then be controlled within Vista MCE.

Is this a reality or a pipedream?

If its possible, can you recommend cards that you have had success with?

As soon as a concensus starts to emerge, thats when i'll make a decision (hopefully in the coming days) and go out and buy one.

Cheers
Darky

[darkmenace]

Noone has any ideas?

[Allegiance]

PCI or PCI-E?

DNTV(digital now) have a new PCI-E Dual Tuner coming out called the S3. This has a component input, and a HD Dual Tuner.

[logifuse]

Pipe dream.

Dual DVB-T PCI cards are USB tuners on a PCI>USB bridge, so there's not much scope to add another tuner in there.

Even the dual hybrid PCIe cards don't really do what you want as the tuners can't operate as both a digital & analogue tuner at the same time.

Best bet is a dual DVB-T & a seperate MCE compliant analogue card (Hauppauge PVR-xxx).

Justin

[darkmenace]

Thanks guys, I think the 2 seperate (dual HDTV & single hauppage analog card) is probably going to be the way to go. Now to find 2 good ones that are compatible with Vista MC

[iain.shepp]

If your running your Foxtel in its most likely going to be an analog connection to the media centre (i have only used Austar which was analog), the limitation in Vista MCE is that it cant support Analog / Digital on the same card.

So I would run the following as it worked well for me

1 x Happauge HVR-1300 (Hardware MPEG2 Decoder) for the foxtel
1 x Happauge HVR-2200 for the dual HD Digital.

That will give you 3 tuners for Vista MCE, 1 x analog and 2 x digital.

[darkmenace]

Cheers Iain.

I'll check out what those 2 cards are worth these days.

Are Hauppage still effectively the #1 tv tuner card brand going around like they used to be? I imagine they're still right up there....

[iain.shepp]

From my understanding they are, The HVR-2200 is the latest and greatest

[Astrotoy7]

yep, getting the 3 that you want isnt likely to happen on PCI.

Ive always wondered about the 2200, isnt an 'dvbt + payTV' possible if you are capping through the s-vid input? (after applying relevant reghacks or TVpack update) ??

astro

[logifuse]

Originally Posted by Astrotoy7

yep, getting the 3 that you want isnt likely to happen on PCI.

Ive always wondered about the 2200, isnt an 'dvbt + payTV' possible if you are capping through the s-vid input? (after applying relevant reghacks or TVpack update) ??

astro

It is, but not in a 3 tuner sense (i.e. 2 x DVB-T + analogue capture). You would have to use 1 tuner as DVB-T & 1 as analogue, oitherwise you run in to tuner in use issues (being 2 hybrids & not 2 DVB-T + 2 analogue). As it's targeted at VMC/MCE it made perfect sense to have hybrid tuners instead of 2+2.... until the TV pack came along.

Pobody's nerfect I suppose.

Justin

[Astrotoy7]

cheers logifuse. Ive always wondered about that

When hauppauge or blackgold etc release their tv pack happy dvbs/t tuners with CAM support, this wont be an issue at all

astro

[Pogma]

I can't install* a Hauppage Nova 500 on my xp pro system......and when I look at the help sites, it sounds like they don't support any xp unless it's MCE, so has anyone been able to install a Nova 500 PCI Dual HD tuner?

* the program refuses to install, saying that everything failed to execute

[darkmenace]

I am a self confessed nub when it comes to foxtel and related technical terminology, however, does anybody know if/when it'll be possible to run the foxtel cards (legitimate ones) in the media pc with Vista MC without even having to use the foxtel box? I read on another aussie forum somewhere that it was already a possibility....