Which tuner card for digital TV?

March 8, 2006 12:49 PM

Which standard to get when purchasing a digital TV tuner card?

I'm looking to add a digital tuner card to my computer to receive dtv free air broadcasts. I like the Hauppauge PVR-150 that I have now. Which Hauppauge digital card will work with the broadcasts in central Iowa? What's the difference between DVB and DVB-T? Does "European" mean it is incompatable with DTV broadcasts in the US?

posted by kc0dxh to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Off the top of my head, without looking into it a bit further, stay away from European anything if you're in the US. Europe = PAL, US = NTSC, so I can only imagine further incompatibilities up the food chain.
posted by disillusioned at 1:15 PM on March 8, 2006

The US standard for over the air digital TV broadcasts is generally referred to as ATSC, which is distinct from the DVB standards used in europe.
posted by Good Brain at 1:20 PM on March 8, 2006

DVB is a broadcast system that comes in 3 main variants: DVB-S, DVB-T and DVB-C (satellite, terrestrial and digital). It is widely used in Europe but not in the US, which has its own unique system called ATSC. Anything with DVB on it will not work in Iowa.
posted by cillit bang at 1:22 PM on March 8, 2006

Awww shucks. Well, how about recomendations for ATSC DTV tuners--anyone?
posted by kc0dxh at 1:26 PM on March 8, 2006

Finishing that thought:

So, those hauppage cards don't look like they are going to work. Also, for people who are interested in receiving unencrypted HDTV channels on cable (usually available with their analog cable packages), US cable carriers use QAM modulation for DTV, which is different than the modulation used by broadcast carriers. This is true even when they are carrying programming from local broadcast affiliates. Unfortunately, (H)DTV cards with QAM support are more rare.
posted by Good Brain at 1:27 PM on March 8, 2006

The ATI HDTV Wonder is an excellent off-air ATSC tuner, and works well in Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

If you intend to use any of the other PVR products for software, you'll have a wider selection, but as far as I know, none of them will handle ATSC over cable without some strange firewire-to-cable-settop-box goofiness.

I have a Windows Media Center machine with a PVR-500 (basically a dual-head PVR-250 from Hauppauge) and the ATI HTDV Wonder to receive hi-def signals from Chicago. Works great, love it.
posted by Merdryn at 1:54 PM on March 8, 2006

Theoretically, a QAM capable card should be able to record unencrypted HDTV from cable, but right now, software support is limited. I think MythTV for linux supports a couple of them, but last I looked, on windows, you were pretty much stuck using the supplied software, no support in WinXP MCE, SageTV, nor beyondTV, if I remember right.
posted by Good Brain at 1:58 PM on March 8, 2006

If you just want ATSC, The VBOX DTA-151 is $100.

If you want QAM and ATSC, I'd get the Fusion3. Remember, this doesn't support encrypted QAM. I don't know of any HD capture card that supports encrypted streams.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:57 AM on March 9, 2006

Oh, and if you're thinking of using a linux-based HD card, I'd recommend one from pcHDTV.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:10 AM on March 9, 2006

Sorry for the multiple posts, but the HD-3000 from pcHDTV runs about $170 and supports ATSC and QAM 64/256 (unencrypted). But it's strictly for linux users (Windows drivers are sketchy right now).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:15 AM on March 9, 2006