what is the BEST tv tuner card

[bobbygroz]

what is the best tv tuner card I can buy that supports the snapstream beyond tv. money is no object. I want the very best tvtuner card (pci slot) I can purchase. Radio would be nice too, but not necessary. I need the BEST TV tuner.

I have this happuage tuner now and it works half the time, and the other half it doesnt'. Picture gets fuzzy, reboot and picture gets better.. watch for awhile... fuzzy picture, reboot, etc.

I'm sick of owning a CHEAP tv tuner card and want to buy the best.

Can someone direct me? Does ATI make the best TV tuners?

Thanks!

Bob
http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/imag...c/progress.gif http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/imag...ttons/edit.gif

[tscales]

There is no simple answer to this question. I'll take a stab though. If I was only going to have one tuner, it would be the ATI TV Wonder 650. Hardware encoding SD plug OTA HD in one card. Great PQ.

If you only want OTA and want QAM, then I'd suggest the Dvico Fusion 5 USB. It seems to have the fewest problems running in a multi-tuner situation.

After that, I'll let others jump in.

[ClamsTheCat]

I have had zero issues with my Hauppauge PVR 500 and PVR 150. Both have been great for SD TV. If you are looking to do HD, I would go with the DVICO unit as well (USB).

[Bigbird999]

Are you sure that the card is the problem. FWIW, your problems could be caused by the tuner overheating due to poor case ventilation. That would explain why it gets worse then better on reboot. No problems with Hauppauge 150 here. Any hardware card from Hauppauge or ATI should be good.

BB

[Khris]

As others have said, there is no such thing as "THE BEST" capture card.

I've got 2 Hauppauge PVR 500's and have zero problems with them so to me, they are the best.

[Fickey]

Hauppauge hardware cards are the most widely supported and probably the most mature. However, I prefer the picture quality of my ATI Theater 550 over my Hauppauge 150. It handles fast motion like sports better, light/dark contrast better, and noisy signals better, but has a slightly softer picture. The ATI also has Macrovision built in so you can't play a protected DVD through the card & record it (although I've never wanted to do that, and if you have a DVD burner, who cares?) I don't know squat about HD or QAM.

[mlomker]

The ATI has some great reviews and is probably the best single-tuner card right now. The Nvidia Dual-TV is probably the best dual-tuner SD card.

If you are interested in HD then you might want to wait a little bit and keep an eye on the HDHomerun. When it is fully supported it will be the HD solution to beat, imo. Mine is being delivered today...I don't mind being on the bleeding edge.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by mlomker

If you are interested in HD then you might want to wait a little bit and keep an eye on the HDHomerun. When it is fully supported it will be the HD solution to beat, imo. Mine is being delivered today...I don't mind being on the bleeding edge.

Even though the HDHomerun currently takes some extra work to set up, its worth it. Fonceur has done a great job with his plugin (see my sig) on the HDHomerun and I now get all the unecrypted QAM channels perfectly (not livetv though) with no problems with signal degradation like you have with OTA HDTV. Better yet, there are some unencrypted cable channels that I can get via qam that aren't available OTA.

For SD I have a Hauppauge PVR500 (older version) and like it, but don't recommend anyone buy one today as the newer (read not improved) versions have major issues. I also have a Hauppauge USBPVR2 that I like a lot. I may pick up an ATI550 eventually just to try it out.

[hocky98]

Hello, I'm new to snapstream's forums but not new to tuners, MMC, MCE, SageTV, Beyond TV. I give two votes for ATI 650 Wonder. I have two of them in my Dell PC.

Of all the ATI 650 Wonder did best for me. I also have a OnAir HDTV GT connected to the same PC. Picture quality winner is the ATI 650 Wonder hands down. It works very smoothly under Beyond TV with Beyond Link as well.

I use the ATI's for cable basic extended and OTA HD with outdoor antenna.