TV Tuner discussion. (Late 2008)

[Zachstar]

Just something that I feel needs to be discussed.

Lately I purchased an ATI Theater 550 OEM from Ebay at less than 20 USD for card without software I could not lose.

When you purchase a card however you dive into the world of home theater that gets really complicated REALLY fast!

The reason is mainly because of digital TV and Cable which operate on 2 different standards (One uses MPEG-2 and the other MPEG-4) and the tech associated with it.

For my intoduction I am glad I picked a VERY basic analog only card. It allowed me to tune into the basic 60 of comcast cable (The unprotected stuff that you can get right off the line without cablecards or other equipment)

One problem you QUICKLY run into if you use XP (Nonmedia center) or Vista Home basic is the lack of software if you get OEM stuff. I am running a weird solution based on MediaPortal Mysql which is I guess the result of mad open source scientists.

The one thing I have learned is you are NOT going to easily get digital stuff without software and some solution to get to the protected digital stuff on the cable line.

But what about OTA (Over the Air) you say? Yes in Feb 2009 it will be all digital and you will need a digital ready tuner but atleast for the states it seems you are safe enough because of Mpeg-2 use.

If you have somthing like comcast basic and comcast leaves the analog going then somthing like an ATI 550 or some other GOOD quality 20 dollar OEM card paired with a Media Center will equal a good DVR.

Just a bit of ranting and info. Post your stuff and thoughts!

[Zachstar]

Now after that rant the least I can do is recommend something..

If you want something to just make basic use of your Media Center edition and basic cable to record that show on the History Channel that you keep missing due to Real Life. You can't go wrong with the ATI Theater 550.

Why you ask? Because for some damn reason there seems to be more OEM cards (The one with one one tuner rather than the named brands that have 2 tuners with FM) than people know what to do with because I just got mine on Ebay buynow for less than 20 bucks. And on top of that the picture quality is Awesome and it was rated #1 among cards it competed against back in the day.

To get just search "ATI Theater 550" in Ebay. I got the one that costs 8.95 OEM (On the top and shipping from Texas at the time of this post)

Also as of this post I see one PCI model that costs a bit more but has the 2 tuners and FM audio. So just use good Ebay logic and go for the safe deal!

For digital? Well the 550 is not for Digital and I STORNGLY advise doing lots of research before investing in a digital tuner card.

[Zachstar]

Want to know a neat trick?

Have you ever wanted to record what you see on your screen? (Like tutorial videos?) Well I learned a trick from the webmaster of Orbithangar where he had run an S-Video cable from the video card out into the in slot of the TV tuner!

Why do you benefit from this?

Well if you configure things right (COUGH COUGH VLC baby! http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) You can record your video game videos without the performance drop of a software solution. As long as your TV tuner equips itself with onboard MPEG-2 encoding (Like the ATI theater 500) you can just set VLC to record the stream directly to a file and be done with it!

Also you can use VLC to stream out! or whatever else can stream out from the card.

[Zachstar]

Just throwing this out for consideration.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815293003

I am actually thinking about giving this card a shot with my build if my cost cutting has had the effect I wanted. The reason I am willing to give this a try is mainly due to the stunning amount of input choices, it keeps the analog/FM to its own tuner so it can dedicate resources to the digital and you get RCA sound input with your S-Video

And it is ASUS which I have heard great things about and want to try one of their lesser known products.

And WOOT it comes with a Media Center Edition remote!!

I will do more research and report but unless I hear some serious quality problems (So far quality seems better than ATI in reviews) It looks like the digital card (And FM which I am looking for) for me!