TV Tuners

[giyad]

Hi, I have a couple of questions. First, can someone explain to me why you would need 2 TV tuners? I know its something about watching a show while recording another at the same time, but some tuners say they have that capability...

I'm in the process of setting up my home theater system. I have a desktop PC which I am going to install 2x 1TB WD Caviars and turn it into a desktop/media server. I'm going to use Windows Vista Premium to take advantage of Media Center, but I see that I am going to need to buy a TV Tuner in order to record. So I was wondering if anyone had advice on a cheap TV Tuner that does digital cable as well?

One more question, I was wondering if it was possible to replace my cable box completely? I have the Explorer 8300HDC from my cable provider, but I'm renting it. I was going to build a low-end HTPC to put under the TV with a BluRay drive. This way I can consolidate everything into one box. Would this be possible or do I need the cable box?

Thanks in advance!

 

[10010011]

As much as I am a computer nut I would have to say that a Tivo-HD with a lifetime subscription is a more cost effective solution.

PC tuners are fine but there are very few (like one or two) that have cable-card compatibility, and those are quite expensive. So this limits your viewing to only digital cable channels that are sent in the clear. On my local Comcast system only the local networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) are sent in the clear. So I can only really get six or eight digital channels on my PC. I still get the analog extended basic channels, but analog of course.

But if you do indeed chose to go this route I would recommend the Hauppage (I think that's how it's spelled) line of cards as they seem to be the most compatible and have MPEG hardware encoding on-board.

Oh yeah the dual tuner thing is a must have you can record one channel while watching another, or record two channels while watching a previously recorded program. I know I thought we would never need it, but it's amazing how often we are using both tuners in our Tivo.

 

[giyad]

As much as I am a computer nut I would have to say that a Tivo-HD with a lifetime subscription is a more cost effective solution.

PC tuners are fine but there are very few (like one or two) that have cable-card compatibility, and those are quite expensive. So this limits your viewing to only digital cable channels that are sent in the clear. On my local Comcast system only the local networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) are sent in the clear. So I can only really get six or eight digital channels on my PC. I still get the analog extended basic channels, but analog of course.

But if you do indeed chose to go this route I would recommend the Hauppage (I think that's how it's spelled) line of cards as they seem to be the most compatible and have MPEG hardware encoding on-board.

Oh yeah the dual tuner thing is a must have you can record one channel while watching another, or record two channels while watching a previously recorded program. I know I thought we would never need it, but it's amazing how often we are using both tuners in our Tivo.

Whats the advantage of Tivo over my cable box DVR? I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC.

 

[10010011]

Whats the advantage of Tivo over my cable box DVR? I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC.

1) You own the Tivo.

2) The Tivo user interface software is said to be far superior. Compared to the Motorola DVR's I have seen here I believe this is true.

3) If you lifetime subscribe the Tivo you pay no monthly fee and your cable bill drops because cablecard "rent" is only $1.50 (at least in my area) compared to the $15 DVR or $10 non-DVR HD cablebox rent.

4) Not sure about your DVR but the dual tuner Tivo records in HD and has optical 5.1 audio output component video and HDMI.

 

[10010011]

I forgot, to mention...

You can transfer recordings from the Tivo to a networked PC and save them to watch later.

There is software out there that will convert the Tivo files to an MPEG so you can burn them to DVD.

There is also software that will allows you to transfer any video to the Tivo

You can search You-Tube and watch You Tube videos right on the Tivo.

There are games (simple but games)

You can play MP3 files from your PC on the Tivo.

Tivo's recording capability can be expand with an external SATA drive (they also make a 1GB Tivo now)

 

[bandphan]

For the money tivo is the way to go. If you do go the htpc route, dont skimp on the tuner.

 

[giyad]

Thanks for the responses guys!

I think I have decided on the Popcorn Hour route. I figure theres no reason to spend around $800 on an HTPC since I'm storing everything on a media server anyway.

I didn't know there was a lifetime subscription to Tivo, I might look into that. but for right now the cable company is giving me the DVR for free because of the promotion when I signed up, so I'll keep it while it lasts.

 

[10010011]

Tivo's recording capability can be expand with an external SATA drive (they also make a 1GB Tivo now)

That should have been 1TB yes one terabyte Tivo-XL