sage hardware advice?

[Ron4234]

I'm in the process of building a dual tuner media center to replace my direcTV Tivo. Currently using AMD XP 3000, 1GB Ram, ATI 9800 All-in-Wonder, and a 300gb hd. going to install an ATI TV Wonder as a second tuner. also planning to run an RCA DRD420RE reciever (with a low speed data port) and a sony SAT-B2 reciever with a wideband data port. and sage tv v5. will this all work together? any advice would be great before i spend more money and hours with a hopeless project

Thanx

[Opus4]

I would consider skipping using the AIW as a tuner, since it is a software encoder, which may or may not work that well anyway. A hardware encoder will produce a better quality recording while using next to no cpu time in the process.

- Andy

[Ron4234]

So should i go with 2 tv wonder VE, or is there a certain card(s) that would be better?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by Ron4234

So should i go with 2 tv wonder VE, or is there a certain card(s) that would be better?

I did some searching on the TV Wonder VE and I couldn't find any indication that it has a hardware encoder. Also most of the comments I read were very negative. There is a good review of available TV tuners at htpcnews.com. This should hopefully get you up to speed. I use the Hauppauge pvr150 and pvr500 (dual tuner) cards. Some people use the ATI Theater 550 pro and maybe the new 650. Nvidia also has a dual tuner card called the DualTV MCE, but there are apparently some drivers problem. Check out the linked article. Hope I didn't muddy the waters too much.

Aloha,
Mike