TV Capure Cards

tgdrums1990 · Post by **tgdrums1990** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:22 am

What are the best ones, and what are the ones with the best price to performace ratio?

IS there a document or a website that has information about capture cards so that I can learn how to choose the right ones and what all the specs mean?

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:27 pm

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26
http://www.htpcnews.com
http://www.digitalconnection.com/

Those are the places I'd look at. There's lots of information on avsforums on TVs, stereos, etc., and they have a specific forum dedicated to HTPCs. Digital Connection is a HTPC retailer that has some decent prices for tuner cards. They also have some introductory information for beginners. HTPCNews has some good information about building your own HTPC, but the website seems to be down right now.

I recently built a HTPC with an HD tuner card so I could elaborate some more on those. I basically narrowed it down to the DVICO FusionHDTV RT5, Macro Image MyHD MDP-130, and the HD Homerun Dual HDTV Network Tuner, and I finally chose the FusionHDTV. I've read that ATI is putting out a new HDTV tuner.

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:43 pm

I asked the same question on here a month ago and it was suggested to go with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150. I got it from NewEgg for $70. The only hang-up is that you have to download the latest version of Direct-X from microsoft to get all the features to work right, but after that it's been flawless. PVR's are always a bit shady, IMO, and probably have some of the worst driver support of any hardware you can buy, but after I worked the bugs out by upgrading my directx, it has been fine, no problems, crashes, etc.

mimwdv · Post by **mimwdv** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:45 pm

I'm in Australia and our models are a bit different, but I've got an Ultraview (Fusion clone), a real Fusion and a Leadtek. Love the Fusions, but have had constant hassles with the Leadtek.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:35 pm

First - if you let on which country you are in makes it easier for folks here to offer advice.

Second if you have an idea of what signal (cable, satellite, terrestrial, ...) you plan to use would also be handy.

My Avermedia AverTV DVB-T is great and cost peanuts. Full support is now built in to 2.6.18 kernel and is brilliant with MythTV.