Gutty Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 My little bro is building me a PC for home. Not necissarily a HTPC, more for CAD/CAM work, but will be running through my Sony 40V LCD. Simply so i can work at home at night, and not have to setup a desk/office. Alot of the CAM side of things is number crunching by the CPU so i can start a job, then flick back to TV viewing while it does it's thing. Given that this PC will be running through my TV/AVR i figure it might aswell have a tuner card installed, but this is where i'm totally and utterly lost. I've searched around this forum a bit, but to be honest, i really don't know the lingo, or what i'm supposed to be looking for. My brother would normally sort this out for me, but says he hasn't looked into tuner cards for a while, and is too busy with UNI to research it right now. The PC will be a Silverstone LC 13 case, 350GB HDD, graphics card is possibly a Nvidia FX 5700 or similar, 2GB ram, and whatever the latest and fastest Pentium processor is will also probably make it's way in there. Can anyone just reccomend a good, reliable, popular, digi TV tuner card ? Twin tuner would be nice, but not a "must" Dvico Fusion HDTV Dual ?? Leadtek DTV1000 just down the page ?? Sorry for the noob question. Any advice much appreciated Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcrackn Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Just make sure it has BDA drivers (do a search) the DNTV Live cards at www.digitalnow.com.au are popular. Also check out webscheduler you have lots to read about on this forum already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzmike Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Just make sure it has BDA drivers (do a search)the DNTV Live cards at www.digitalnow.com.au are popular. Also check out webscheduler you have lots to read about on this forum already Another vote for both of those - I now have 4 different DNTV cards across 3 machines and they are superb... Australian made and tuned to Australian digital broadcasting. You also get excellent support from the company - indeed, the owner "Renura" is well known across this forum and a few others as well for always being around to answer questions. And WebScheduler is awesome as well - it's free and while it can be a bit difficult to get set up perfectly once it is it is just brilliant. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murrayt Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 nzmike Just for accuracy , you might want to consult on the detail (Renura would be well able to assist I imagine), but I'm sure you will find that the cards are not Australian made as you state above. Yes they can tune to Australian channels, but that isn't particularly difficult given the European standard to which cards and software for DVB-t are built by a range of manufacturers, and to which Australian broadcasters adhere generally. I'm not saying the cards are crap you understand, just mainstream amongst many. WebScheduler is a useful tool but isn't a full featured tool able to deliver the range of performance that many expect. The recent developmental changes it has gone through has probably contributed to some confusion as to function and performance, and a degree of confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sold Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Can anyone just reccomend a good, reliable, popular, digi TV tuner card ? Twin tuner would be nice, but not a "must"Dvico Fusion HDTV Dual ?? Leadtek DTV1000 just down the page ?? I'd be tempted to buy a PCI tuner and a USB tuner (e.g. Leadtek DTV1000 and a TinyUSB2). That way if you ever want a TV tuner to use on another computer/laptop you can just borrow the USB one. Otherwise you could go with 2*USB, Dual tuner USB, Dual tuner PCIe or 2*PCI. As for cards the DigitalNow cards are good, the DNTV Live! software works well though the UI leaves a lot to be desired IMO but depending on how you use it it's not a big issue. I've also got a Compro card which is good, I'm not a fan of the Compro software but it works well with WebScheduler. WebScheduler is a useful tool but isn't a full featured tool able to deliver the range of performance that many expect. The recent developmental changes it has gone through has probably contributed to some confusion as to function and performance, and a degree of confusion. When you consider WebScheduler's intended usage of scheduled DVB recording about the only feature I can think of that it lacks is the ability to record direct to *.MPG, which personally isn't an issue at all. What 'range of performance' are people expecting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutty Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Thanks all for the replies ! Seems my current motherboard is now going into the home PC(new internals for work, old internals into the Silverstone case) and this won't accept PCI express, so the DNTV dual is out of the question. Guess i'll go the Dvico Fusion, or the DNTV single, unless someone can reccomend a better alternative. What can record 2 shows simultaniously and is popular/reccomended ? Thanks again, much appreciated ! Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50mxe20 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 For good advice you might like to PM Renura. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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