Recommend me a dual-tuner

[LMN8R]

I'm looking for a dual tuner that can offer me the following:

• The ability to record 2 standard SD cable TV shows at the same time.

And...

• The ability to record 1 standard SD cable and 1 HDTV over-the-air show at the same time

Not 4 shows at the same time, of course, but allowing me to pick and choose between the two scenarios. Does such a card exist? Would that actually require 3 tuners? In that case, what's the best standard cable dual-tuner out there?

Note: I do *NOT* need a dual-HD tuner. One SD and one HD is enough.


Thanks!

[Kilrsat]

The only card I can think of that fulfills your requirements is a Hauppauge HVR-2250.

[LMN8R]

I just looked at Newegg - fantastic! Does BeyondTV fully support it?

Also, does it fully support Vista 64-bit bit edition? That's why i'm replacing my PVR-150.

Also, a problem I had with my former DVICO FusionHDTV 5 RT Lite was that, in order to switch between SD Cable and over-the-air HD, I needed to uninstall and reinstall the drivers. Can I switch with a simple software toggle in this case?

[KeeterJ]

Please note: The Hauppauge HVR-2250 has a single 75-ohm antenna connector that is shared by both on-card tuners. The second 75-ohm connector is for FM only.

For me, this has caused problems since I would prefer to use one TV tuner with OTA ATSC, and the other TV tuner with cable. If your cable only includes NTSC analog channels you could possibly combine cable and OTA with a 2-into-1 combiner (a cheap splitter used backwards). But most cable systems also carry QAM channels on the cable. In that case you can't combine the cable and the antenna and feed them both to the 2250 since there are overlapping frequencies. In theory, you could combine them with a carefull selection of low-pass, high-pass or notch RF fillters, but I gave up on that. When I tried to combine OTA and cable I ended up feeding my antenna feed back upstream into the cable which temporarily killed my cable modem. Also, my cable amp is bidirectional and I'm guessing I was pushing at least some OTA frequencies back upstream. Not good. I stopped trying that.

For watching live TV, a 75-ohm switch works to choose cable or antenna, but for unattended BTV recording using dual tuners I went back to my separate DViCO tuners.

I am hoping Hauppauge comes out wiht a new model where the two tuners each have their own connector. (And I hope BTV 4.x can configure them and select them independently)

[Kilrsat]

Sorry, I had forgotten that the second connector on the HVR-2250 is the FM input.

Essentially, there is no single card that does what you need then.

Your best bet is probably 2 HVR-1600s or HVR-1800s in this case.

[LMN8R]

Hmm alright. Well in that case, I'm just going to forego the HD tuner altogether.

In that case, what's the best dual-SD tuner out there that supports both BeyondTV and Vista 64?

[rothe]

The 2250 has provisions for S-video inputs, too. That would allow you to use one or two set top boxes in addition to having the ability to record from NTSC/ATSC/QAM sources.

[LMN8R]

I'm not using any set-top boxes for this, just cable straight from the wall. Dual cable SD tuner recommendations? For now, HD is unnecessary, and I can just add in a single HD tuner later on if I really wanted it.

2 1600s or 1800s would be more than $150-200, far more than I want to spend right now.

[SnakeDoctor]

Originally Posted by LMN8R

I'm not using any set-top boxes for this, just cable straight from the wall. Dual cable SD tuner recommendations? For now, HD is unnecessary, and I can just add in a single HD tuner later on if I really wanted it.

2 1600s or 1800s would be more than $150-200, far more than I want to spend right now.

I have an NVIDIA dual tuner card I got from Snapstream about a year ago that I'm not using any more. Let me know if you're interested. A review and pictures can be found here.

[purplebunny]

You should check out the ATI TV Wonder. I am using the 650 USB, it's hi def on a Vista 32bit, but I do believe it is compatible for the 64bit, as well.

[ijourneaux]

If you are not using cable settop box, then you only need to hook up to the one input on the dual tuner card. I am using a PVR-500 for SD cable without a cable box. I have a separate PVR-150 for use with the cable box. I haven't use one but the aAdaptec dual tuner should work as well,

[thegreatdano]

can u use 4 usb tuners??