Best analog cable PCI tuner board?

[valnar]

I've been happily using my Hauppauge PVR-250 cards for years now and I know a lot of new cards have cropped up recently, like the ATI Theater chips and NVidia dual-tuner.

If I wanted to "step up" from what I have now for analog recording of cableTV, what should I get? Looking for a increase in picture quality without any decrease in stability.

The card should be PCI, and work in a PCI-X slot. Needs to have drivers that work in Windows 2003, and of course work with SageTV 6.1. I'd prefer a hardware based MPEG2 card like my existing PVR-250, not a software based card. In other words, without being so long winded - What's the best analog capture/tuner card these days?

Thanks,
Robert

[mikesm]

I love my ATI theater 650 card. Great picture from the S-video port. This is a great unless you are looking for HD capability...

Thanks,
mike

[jprine01]

I've used a ATI Threater 650 and Nvidia DualTV and also PVR-500.
They all seem close to the same to me, but if I had to guess Best-Worse Quality Probably the same order I have above.
The prices are also in the same order.. ATI 650 ~120 single tuner, DualTV ~160 dual, pvr-500 ~140 dual

I don't know about PCI-X compatability, if the board can run the PCI-X slots at PCI clock it seems like any PCI card should work?

[GTwannabe]

DualTV has the edge over the Hauppauge cards in video quality. However, that slight advantage is negated by the fact that nVidia killed the card line, which means no new drivers.

I have a TB of dedicated Sage storage, so I just leave my recording quality set to MPEG2 Maximum 12mbit. Quality seems good to me!

[valnar]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

nVidia killed the card line, which means no new drivers.

I was not aware of that. Thanks.

[stroths]

You might want to consider the Hauppauge 1600 as it has an analog and an ATSC tuner. If you use the 6.1x versions of Sagetv, you can use each of these as a separate tuner. You can also record a show on each tuner at the same time.
My headless sage server is running on Windows 2003 with a 1600. I use the ATSC for HD broadcasts through my antenna and analog cable through the other tuner on this card.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by stroths

You might want to consider the Hauppauge 1600 as it has an analog and an ATSC tuner. If you use the 6.1x versions of Sagetv, you can use each of these as a separate tuner. You can also record a show on each tuner at the same time.
My headless sage server is running on Windows 2003 with a 1600. I use the ATSC for HD broadcasts through my antenna and analog cable through the other tuner on this card.

I've got the HDHomerun for my HD needs. I just need an analog tuner better than the Hauppauge I have now. Do you know for sure if the analog portion of the 1600 is better than the older PVR-250?

Robert

[stroths]

I haven't had a 150 to compare to, but I have read that that its comparible to the 150. Mine looks really nice, but I can't tell much difference from my other analog capture card (avermedia 1500) which is several years old.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by valnar

I've got the HDHomerun for my HD needs. I just need an analog tuner better than the Hauppauge I have now. Do you know for sure if the analog portion of the 1600 is better than the older PVR-250?

Robert

I just rewired my Dad's cable setup, RG-6QS with compression terminals directly from the demarc to the equip closet. I can't tell digital cable over S-video on his PVR250 from analog tuned on his PVR500.

Me personally, I am still buying PVR500s for analog work. The H1600 will be on it when Sage supports it's QAM capabilities.

stroths, can you do 2 analog or 2 ATSC/QAM as well? Or is each specific to their purpose?

How many of these Nvidia and ATI cards are compatible in a single system?

[KJake]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I just rewired my Dad's cable setup, RG-6QS with compression terminals directly from the demarc to the equip closet. I can't tell digital cable over S-video on his PVR250 from analog tuned on his PVR500. ...

I was considering getting a nVidia DualTV to replace my PVR-250 because you can still get them from pcalchemy.com. But, with what you're saying here, I think I'm going to redo my cabling a little first. QS = Quad Sheild I'm assuming. I just picked up 100ft of it, and compression fittings. I had been using screw-on connectors because I knew the crimp-on ones were bad. Who knows what kind of cable I've been using. Most of it is pretty flimsy, thin stuff.

Thanks for the tip.

[bcjenkins]

Can you run 4 HVR-1600s in a server? If I can double the HD from 2 to 4 and keep 4 Analog it might be worth the 4 bills. Plus the money I would make back on selling PVR-500 and 2 DualTVs would offset.

B

[KJake]

hrm, well, I changed out cables going to my PVR-250, STB, and HDHR. I think my HDHR likes the QuadSheild cabling the best and, well, the PVR-250 is probably just crap...lol

I think I found one place left on earth that has a DualTV card and I ordered it (PCAlchemey is out of stock now ).

[doc]

Originally Posted by KJake

hrm, well, I changed out cables going to my PVR-250, STB, and HDHR. I think my HDHR likes the QuadSheild cabling the best and, well, the PVR-250 is probably just crap...lol

I think I found one place left on earth that has a DualTV card and I ordered it (PCAlchemey is out of stock now ).

Are you running coax from your stb to the pvr-250, or using s-video or composite from the scart on the back. I used to use coax and wasn't happy at all, but composite/s-video is much better.

[KJake]

I'm using the PVR-250 strictly for analog capture, so I have coax running directly to the 250. I use a WinTV-USB2 for capturing the SVideo from the STB so that I can get all the digital channels the PVR-250 can't get.

FWIW, my cable comes into the house to a powered 1x8 distributer. All the components I mentioned have their own dedicated coax cable from that distributer.