IR Blaster or new video card

[Jimb50]

I'm in the process of making the leap to digital cable from analog.
I have an older Hauppauge PVR-250 card that does not support a blaster. I'm looking for the solution that will work the best. Should I buy a new tuner card with built in blaster support (HVR-1600) or the USB UIRT? I'd hate to spend $50 for something clunky and slow if $100 will buy a better solution.
Jim

[CollinR]

Depends...

Do you want HD? Do you have an HD display?

The USBUIRT is pretty widely accepted, so with it you can do a wide variety of things not only with SageTV but in addition to SageTV. I would only really suggest against it if you know you can get serial control from the STBs.

I know I would do BOTH, I personally would get a PVR500 and a USBUIRT. I would also keep the PVR250, no need to rip it out unless you only have 1 PCI slot. With that config you can use the 2 tuners in the PVR500 for the cable boxes and hook up a DVD changer Svideo to the PVR250 keep the analog connection you have now. Now you can watch/record 2 digital TV channels while watching a DVD or analog cable. This proves much more to your advantage as the system grows, adding MVP clients and whatnot.

[Jimb50]

No plans for HD until the old 27" Sony starts smoking.
My set-up is really basic at the present time I don't see the need for multiple cards. I've got more than enough to watch with just one. Besides does not multiple cards mean multiple STB's and their monthly fees?
Jim

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Jimb50

. Besides does not multiple cards mean multiple STB's and their monthly fees?
Jim

Only if you need multiple STBs to record all the stuff you want. You can feed a tuner straight analog cable and record the analog channels, usually those less than ch.100, with the capture card's built-in tuner.