Recommendations for HDTV tuner for 3.0.14?

[neilbradley]

I've given up trying to get the ATI HDTV wonder board to work reliably with SageTV. Various problems, ranging from SageTV just plain locking up, jittery video, and hangs when it can't find a station (though the ATI tools all work perfectly). I've burned hours upon hours of fidgeting with drivers and settings and nothing I do seems to work. Even reinstallation of everything and a complete system wipe.

Can someone recommend a different HDTV card to work with SageTV in which they've had good luck? Thanks!

-->Neil

[Goodspike]

Well, that's an interesting question, for given that this is a beta I bet almost everyone has had some of the problems you're discussing. I, for example, with my Fusion 3 Gold, have had lockups, but I think all of them have been when trying to use FSE. Also, stuttering has been an issue at times, but it was not real bad until 3.0.13, especially with the latest NVidia drivers.

The most annoying problem I've had with the Fusion is a small percentage of files won't FF/REW properly. That's supposedly fixed with this latest release, but it's too early to tell.

[wazkaren]

I have both an Avermedia A180 and a Fusion 5 lite. Both seem exactly the same to me. I have a couple of problems with both/either of these cards in Sage (I have not yet tried both of these cards at the same time). Two digital channels are missing from the EPG in Sage (but they show up in other apps). And I have occassional stutters in recordings from the A180 or Fusion 5. 3.0.14 seems a bit improved but I still get the stutters.

Greg

[mkanet]

The Fusion 5 series has marginally better reception. I didn't notice any difference.

If you want the least amount of incompatibility issues, you should get the Avermedia A180. Fusion's drivers are uncessarily complex (5 drivers per card!!!). The chances of hardware conflicts increases on PC with multiple hardware devices when using Fusion card.

In my case, I had stutters and the good old "Zulutcap.sys" blue screen of death when I had 10 Fusion device drivers installed on my PC (For 2 Fusion cards).

[RandyJohnson]

I tried to work with both the AverMedia and the Fusion cards.

The Fusion card did not pick up all of the OTA channels in our area so I am not using this card.

The Avermedia Card's driver does not support more than two cards in the same box which I think is limiting.

Now I am using the Cat's Eye (DTA) 150 and 151 cards.

I have been able to record upto three channels of HD OTA simultaneously without any problems.

With the latest beta 14, I am amazed at how well the DTA cards work.

I am using the nVidia 7800 GTX as the playback graphics card. I also updated to the latest driver release. I just noticed that there is a new Pure Video release and I will upgrade to this tonight.

With the exception of the some EPG problems in Beta 14 I am very pleased with the recording and playback of HD recordings.

I would suggest the DTA cards as they were the only ones that have met my needs.

Randy

[ajuhawk]

Has anyone heard anything about any PCI Express HDTV capture cards in the works? My HTPC only has 3 PCI slots (and I can only use 2 of those since I installed the VGA water cooler) so I'm kinda up a creek unless I start networking capture cards.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by mkanet

If you want the least amount of incompatibility issues, you should get the Avermedia A180. Fusion's drivers are uncessarily complex (5 drivers per card!!!). The chances of hardware conflicts increases on PC with multiple hardware devices when using Fusion card.

In my case, I had stutters and the good old "Zulutcap.sys" blue screen of death when I had 10 Fusion device drivers installed on my PC (For 2 Fusion cards).

I wonder how many of these drivers could simply be disabled if you're using Sage? I once tried to figure that out when I was just using the Fusion app to record (and watch with MyHD). I bet through Sage you might have better luck.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by RandyJohnson

.......
Now I am using the Cat's Eye (DTA) 150 and 151 cards.

I have been able to record upto three channels of HD OTA simultaneously without any problems.

With the latest beta 14, I am amazed at how well the DTA cards work.
.......
I would suggest the DTA cards as they were the only ones that have met my needs.

Randy

I wonder if this is the card that will be available in a bundle when Sage v3 is finally released.

I went the Cat’s Eye WEB site and notice that they have a USB version also. Has anyone tried the USB version?

Several years ago I posted asking about an HDTV bundle. I am still waiting.

[mgalpin]

Randy,

Can you record via the 151's S-Video input in Sage as well as the HD co-ax?

Mike