which tv tuner card?

[tisb0b]

I'm thinking of turning my comp into a bit of a media center pc in the next couple of months so I can watch tv on it below is what I'm looking for:

- pcie-1x
- preferably not ati as they are a bitch to find in Australia
- support for 720p
- comes with bundled goodness ie. remote, software and any other stuff you need.
- fairly cheap but quality
- able to record and play tv at the same time

so what card would you guys recommend?

 

[Rori]

That PCI-E limitation really narrows the field. If you are looking for SD, I've heard good things about the Saber2020 Dual TV Tuner(http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...ail-139-after-rebate/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners). That one should work for you since it uses PAL and SEC in addition to NTSC.

Edit: Oof.... I just noticed that I'm an idiot. You clearly said you wanted something to support 720p and I was too blind to notice it. I don't have any good suggestions on the HD front, especially when you limit it to pci-e only. I don't even know of a pci-e HD tuner card.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Sounds like you're looking for a DVB card, there are only a handful of them that are PCIe but I'm not very familiar with them since the US doesn't use DVB (hence little reason for me to research them).

 

[JBark]

If you don't mind USB, VBox makes an external DVB-T tuner (3550).
http://www.vboxcomm.com/product2.htm

I've got the 3650 (ATSC), and it works just fine.

A little pricey (not sold directly in AU), but the Terratec Cinergy 2400i is a pretty nice pcie 1x dual tuner DVB-T card.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2005/11/19/Terratec-Cinergy-2400i-DT/p1
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/com...25-terratec-cinergy-2400i-dt-mce-edition.html

Also, whatever you do find, please post it here. I'm moving to Perth next year, so I'm going to have to replace my ATSC tuner with something else when I get there.

Edit:
Actually, the 2nd website I found seems to have lots of good info. Seems that all the popular tuners here in the US have DVB-T counterparts.
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/index.php

I've been there before, that's where I initially found the Musical Folders addon for MCE that lets you browse music in folders, like you do with videos and pictures.

 

[tisb0b]

heh thanks for the links guys and the xpmediacentre.com.au looks like a keeper