[mythtv-users] Tuner cards that do HD?

Rod Smith mythtv at rodsbooks.com
Mon Apr 16 16:52:13 UTC 2007


On Monday 16 April 2007 02:02, Geoff Mishkin wrote:
>
> I use the pcHDTV HD-3000 which I highly recommend.

I couldn't disagree more, particularly for digital cable use. I've got two 
pcHDTV 3000s, and neither can reliably tune a digital cable (QAM) signal. At 
best, they work for about half an hour when the computer is first turned on, 
but then they begin glitching out, until the signal is so degraded it's 
unwatchable by an hour or so in. By "unwatchable," by the way, I don't 
mean "an annoying video glitch every few seconds;" I mean "the signal is so 
bad that you're lucky to get a second or two of clear audio and video every 
minute, with artifacts so bad you can't make out what's on the screen for the 
rest of the time, and MythTV reports a 1-hour recording is actually 25 
minutes long." I've replaced one of these cards with an AVerMedia AVerTVHD 
A180, which produces clean digital recordings, although it doesn't have an 
NTSC tuner.

This is a known problem with the pcHDTV 3000, but it interacts with other 
hardware in the computer, so some people encounter it but others don't. I've 
tried swapping quite a few components, and I've tried my cards in two 
different computers, with no luck.

For the OP's purposes, too, the pcHDTV 3000 (and I believe the 5500) use 
framegrabber analog tuners, which increases the CPU load when recording 
analog signals. IMHO, it's better to go with two tuner cards, one analog and 
one digital (or more if you want more than that).

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com


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