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Windows => Television => Topic started by: wildcatknh on January 12, 2016, 06:08:27 pm

Title: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: wildcatknh on January 12, 2016, 06:08:27 pm

Okay guys ... I'm looking for some advice.  I've finally decided to cut the cable cord and plan on using MC21 to view my OTA local HD network channels.  I have not yet purchased a TV tuner card for my home theater media PC so ... any advice or suggestions on a tuner card would be greatly appreciated.  Is there anything I should look for in particular?  Anything I should avoid?  Internal card vs. USB tuner?  I don't know much about tuner cards and about the only brand name I'm somewhat familiar with is Hauppauge.

My media PC is not at all top shelf, but anything I play through my MC setup just this side of 4K video is smooth as a ribbon.  So I don't expect to have any issues viewing OTA broadcast thru my MC setup.  Just bought a Mohu Leaf 30 Indoor HDTV antenna.  My network broadcast towers are about 15 miles away and all in the same general direction so I expect a very strong signal.

Current PC Specs:
Hardware about 5 years old
Windows 7 Pro SP1 (soon to be upgrading to Win 10)
AMD Athlon X4 3.1 GHz processor
Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics (1GB memory)
8GB RAM

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: RoderickGI on January 12, 2016, 06:32:32 pm

It would help if you said where you are located. Country at least, maybe area as well, since at least in the USA, OTA broadcasts can vary a lot.

People will then know if you need an ATSC or DVB-T tuner, what other specs are required and so on. Plus they could point you to local knowledge sources, such as local frequencies and channel lists, etc.

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: wildcatknh on January 12, 2016, 07:01:51 pm

Thanks ... didn't think to add that.  I'm about 15 miles outside Cincinnati, OH in the US.

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: RoderickGI on January 12, 2016, 07:34:44 pm

Excellent. I am in Australia, so I will leave it to our friends in the USA to advise, since it is best to get advice from people actually using the tuner cards.

I hope it goes well.

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: JimH on January 13, 2016, 01:54:08 am

Take a look at network tuners like those from SiliconDust and Cetoncorp.  You could read the reviews on Amazon.

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: CountryBumkin on January 13, 2016, 07:17:36 am

If you going to use Over-the-Air source, I would go with the Hauppauge brand http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods.html . It's well proven/tested.

I have two now (the 2250 and the USB stick 950Q) both work very well. No issues with either. The 2250 is a dual tuner internal card (now called the HVR-2255 model).

Title: Re: TV tuner card advice needed
Post by: wildcatknh on January 14, 2016, 03:39:20 pm

Thanks guys.  I was pretty confident with Hauppauge ... but hadn't heard about the network tuners before.  I'll do some more reading on them.