What's the best HD Tuner?

[showson1]

Hi all!
Just got our first HDTV this weekend.. WOW!
Called the cable company and they're sending the HD box to us.

I currently have a Tivo series 2 on the main TV and my SageTV box in the garage and I stream shows to it via an MVP, I just have a PVR-150 in there.

Now, the Tivo series 2 doesn't support HD and I don't want to buy a series 3 since I have Sage. I just want to put an HD card in there and move it into the living room.

Can someone recommend a good HD tuner card?
I'd like to stay around the $100 mark for the card, but am willing to spend more if it's really worth it.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions!

[natrlhy]

I have nothing negative to say about the Vbox DTA-150 and the USB version, USB-A 3560. I only use the USB version due to some nForce PCI bus limitations on my motherboard, but both work VERY well and are rock solid.

Either one can be had for less than $80 at www.jr.com. That's where I go both of mine.

[othy]

I just installed the HDHomerun and so far am very pleased. If you want OTA, there are probably better choices, but it seems to do well with qam. PQ has been great, and dual-tuners is very nice. In my case, it's basically just getting the network feeds, but then I connect my HD STB to an analog tuner (s-video) for the rest of my cable channels.

Of course, it's not a card. It connects via ethernet either to your router or (in my case) directly to the sage box with a DHCP server running. Not as tough to set up as it may sound.

Tim

[jbarr]

I'm having great success with HDHomeRun for qam. With Charter, I get a limited number of "clear" channels, but they do look great.

[showson1]

Thanks for the posts all.
I'm actually looking for a card that will work well with the HD cable box, not OTA HD.

Thanks!

[natrlhy]

That would rule out the Vbox cards

[phelme]

Originally Posted by showson1

Hi all!
Just got our first HDTV this weekend.. WOW!
Called the cable company and they're sending the HD box to us.
...
Now, the Tivo series 2 doesn't support HD and I don't want to buy a series 3 since I have Sage. I just want to put an HD card in there and move it into the living room.

Can someone recommend a good HD tuner card?
I'd like to stay around the $100 mark for the card, but am willing to spend more if it's really worth it.

don't want to throw cold water on your enthusiasm but you're about to get a dose of the reality of HD & content encryption.

it all depends on what HD set top box you end up with and whether you're lucky enough to get HD content unencrypted in your area via cable.

in my case I bypass STB's altogether for HD and use an HDHomeRun because Comcast strangles some of the unencrypted HD content from my Motorola STB DVR (via Firewire) with the copy-once content flag. this flag stops one recording device from passing the content on to another. it's quite annoying... for me, some channels are entirely blocked (i.e. CBS) and some individual shows too (like NASCAR on Fox I've noticed) due to the flag, either way nothing gets through to Sage. that's the danger of cable DVR's. so I punted the cable STB.

this is how I ended up with an HDHomeRun so at least I can get the major networks and some local independents in HD. it's a cool box with two tuners so you can receive OTA and/or cable at the same time. runs about $180. again, in most markets, no 5C encrypted cable content gets through on this box (i.e. the bulk of cable programming).

though you might be lucky and get HD stuff in the clear with your STB and can run stuff straight to your PC via Firewire and no tuner card will be needed! when you get your box find out what model it is and search around here for threads about how to test that out. good luck!