[XP] TV tuner

[rbc1100]

hello folks, I want to buy a tv tuner card. What do you recommend (Brand)? And should I get one with a pci interface or usb. I am running dual GFX cards, will that be a problem. Will be running XP Pro and Vista home prem. I have a digital cable box in my office, It will work ok with that. I have been lookng at many brands and I am not sure what one to get. Thanks for your thoughts!!!!

[SuperSparks]

Terratec or Hauppauge. I would add the caveat that Hauppauge drivers are OK, but the TV capture software is truly dreadful. They are good cards if used in conjunction with Windows Media Centre or other decent software. I personally perfer PCI cards, but I have used USB in the past and they work perfectly well, so it isn't a big deal either way.

[Teknophobia]

Hauppauge for me (PCI).

TEk

[rbc1100]

I am running XP Pro right now but plan to set my system up to dual boot with Vista as soon as I work the how to details. These cards are set up to run off a cable box or antena from what I have been reading. But the cards I have been looking at are set up for 125 channels. I recieve more than that with the cable box will this card limit my channel selection? Sorry for my ignorance on this subject but I bought a cheap tuner card off ebay, although it worked the software and picture quality sucked. Thanks for the quick replies I will order one tonight.

[rbc1100]

WinTV HVR-1600 MCE PCI TV Tuner Card
I just ordered this, hope its the ticket, its made by Hauppauge.

[rbc1100]

I have another question are there any switches on the market to switch between SATA hard drives so I can get another Raptor and run Vista on it with out having to set my computer up to dual boot. And if so can they be mounted in the front bays. Like with two inputs for the drives and one out to the SATA port on my computer, I am using all the SATA ports exept for the raid ports. thanks

[jdc2000]

If your BIOS supports it, you may be able to select the boot drive through the BIOS when booting without the need for additional hardware or re-plugging of cables.


currently available hard drive selector switches - pricey though:

http://www.industechnologies.com/tec...nformation.asp


from the post below:

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...=231310&page=2

[bugspop1]

The Hauppauge HVR-1600 is a good card. I have it in my main computer. I also have a Hauppauge HVR-950 USB for my laptop computer. This works great too! In one of my other desktop computers I have a Leadtek tuner card, but it's analog. It has a decent picture and I like the software for it better than the software that comes with the Hauppauge. Anyway, I'm sure you'll like your new card!

[guiri]

Guys, is there a tv tuner or tv tuner card that I can use with my Dish Network DVR (digital, Hi Def) but that I can connect to the incoming antenna instead of to the back of the DVR so that I don't have to PHYSICALLY change the channels on the DVR?

Ie, my DVR is dual tuner which means I can record two channels at the same time but can I get a card that has a tuner but that connects to the COAX coming in to the DVR and thus get a THIRD channel I can record at the same time?

Is this possible?

Hauppage said their cards cannot do that because my DVR was digital but it says their cards have digital tuners?

Mind you, ideally I would just find a solution where I can record something on the DVR and then just download it on my computer. Ie, Archos PocketDish but the problem is that it's proprietary format and I can't do anything with it.

Also, my DVR had the capability to use External drives which I use for storage but again, I can't hook those up to my computer as it won't see them because of the proprietary formatting.

Any ideas?

Thanks

George

[rbc1100]

Thanks for the info on the drive selecters. I am not sure what I am going to do yet. I want to be able to run both XP and Vista on this computer. How I get there is still up in the air. As for the TV tuner, It works great although it does not like Windows media player and did not get along with Power dvd until I uninstalled it then reinstalled it. It would not let me play DVD's. I still have to figure what Windows media players problem is.

[Train]

It would not let me play DVD's

Might need the right codecs.
K-lite standard should do the trick.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...codec_pack.htm