Tuner Card for Low Profile Case

[droyalty]

Hello!

I'll be building a media center soon and want to place all in a case to fit in my existing TV stand...thus a low-profile, old-style, pc case.

Question then, since I'll only be pulling OTA DTV signals, no Cable or Satellite signals, I'm considering the Hauggauge 1600. Will it fit into a low profile case?

What other tuner cards do you recommend for my build?

Thanks!

[Ryand833]

The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 will not fit in a half-height low-profile case, as it's a full-height card (Unless there is another version that Hauppauge puts out that I don't know about).
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/produc...a_hvr1600.html

You might look into the new WinTV-HVR-1250. It comes with a full-height and half-height bracket. The HVR-1250 does not have an on-board MPEG encoder, and thus would not be recommended for analog of course, but I bought one of these and recorded OTA HD content. It works great for that purpose, plus they're cheap ($39.99 at CircuitCity.com)
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/produc...a_hvr1250.html
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Haupp...oductDetail.do

I'm just getting into the whole HD scene myself, so I don't know a whole lot about other brands. I did see someone mention they had some issues with the HVR-1250 and the coax input on the card itself, I'll see if I can find that post.

**EDIT**
Found the post, here is the URL: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31048
Here is the quote from the post:

Originally Posted by david1234

I asked the same question last month.

I found the card very sensitive to how the antenna cable was attached- it wouldn't tune anything unless I used a cable without the center conductor sticking out just a bit more than normal.

The picture's good, but not quite up to the ati650, and the tuner doesnt' seem as sensitive.

[droyalty]

Thanks RyanD!

This saved me alot of assembly-time anguish for sure.

The problem w/the 1250 is that it's PCI-Express x1, a slot that I'll be losing to the graphics card (takes 1 x16 slot but will hang over the x1 slot).

I'll probably go w/the 1600 that SageTV is offering as a bundle w/a sage license...the remote is preprogrammed for their software which is a plus. The less hassle the better.

Rather than a low-profile case, I'll start checking out mini/mid-tower cases. I might be able to find the width needed and simply lay it on it's side.

Thanks again!

[Ryand833]

Ahhh yeah I completely forgot that the 1250 is PCI-E x1.

[david1234]

you might look at the Saphire version of the ATI 650. It's pci and short... should be able to find one for around 50 or 60. It's a card that's been bulletproof for me.

[droyalty]

Thanks David,

Newegg has it for $109...yikes! I'll check around for better prices.

Thanks again!

[david1234]

YIKES!!! Sorry about suggesting that- this card was 65 last fall
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815310002

[droyalty]

Not a problem David.

It looks like that particular item is no longer carried...at least the Sapphire brand. They have Diamond brand though...abit pricey for my budget...

I'm watching some items on eBay that I may try to snag..

Thanks!

[jrog]

Originally Posted by droyalty

Rather than a low-profile case, I'll start checking out mini/mid-tower cases. I might be able to find the width needed and simply lay it on it's side.

FWIW, I'm looking at building one of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856167027

it supports the core2-quad processors, and can have full sized PCI and PCI-E. The HD-PVR is USB, and with the HDHomerun on the network as well, it should be able to handle a lot in a small package.

[droyalty]

Thanks Jrog,

This is a nice barebone for sure. Will you use the onboard graphics or a graphics card? If a card, it may take both card positions if it has a cooler or fins that extend into the adjoining card space. Since you're using a usb tuner, no worries there re: card space, and w/the onboard audio, no slot worries there either.

Thanks for the info!

[jrog]

Originally Posted by droyalty

Thanks Jrog,

This is a nice barebone for sure. Will you use the onboard graphics or a graphics card? If a card, it may take both card positions if it has a cooler or fins that extend into the adjoining card space. Since you're using a usb tuner, no worries there re: card space, and w/the onboard audio, no slot worries there either.

Thanks for the info!

Haven't really decided. I was thinking of building a small/powerful sage server and using the extenders, but it would be nice to put a blu-ray in this and use it as a combo. I would think there are HDMI capable video cards that can handle playback of everything that can fit in a single slot as well, but I haven't looked at that route yet. I just love using my extenders.

[droyalty]

I'll keep mine simple and may end up just adding to my current test installation...a system I built 4 years ago w/AMD 2200, Radeon ATI 7550 graphics, in a mid-size tower.

I'll add a big SATA drive, bump my memory to 2GB, and add a couple of HVR-1600s.

Although I can't do live TV yet...no tuner cards...my little system has *no* problems w/streaming video from the web. I hoping that live TV will make <= demands on my undersized system. If so, it should do me until I decide to go hi-def.

No extenders, just s-video to my TV.

[sandor]

HDHR?

i use 2, and they stack right with my gigabit router...

[jrog]

Originally Posted by sandor

HDHR?

i use 2, and they stack right with my gigabit router...

Second the HDHR. They work great, don't add space to any box, or tie up any ports, as they are on the network. Makes a lot of sense if you plan to change a box down the road, as opposed to the 1600s that are PCI only.

[dcardellini]

If you do not need tuners that support QAM (for cable), just OTA digital, the Haupp HVR-950 usb tuners are tiny, low power and work great. I have four on my server (along with two firewire STB cable boxes).

Getting rid of "cards" inside my server has given me great flexibility, and removed yet another heat source inside the box. Also, the coax connectors are a real pain to connect to the server that is in a tight space....the simple usb plugs are a joy by comparison.

[droyalty]

The 950 doesn't have hardware encoding, does it? I'm running very 'light' on processor speed, so any additional requirements, such as encoding, may bring it to its knees.

[dcardellini]

If you are only pulling in OTA from your antenna, every major broadcaster is already transmitting in digital....so you have no need to use the analog capability of any tuner card (esp. when the analog OTA will be stopped in a few months).

The hardware encoding you reference is ONLY for the analog capability of the card. All "digital" tuner cards are simply taking an already compressed, encoded signal and streaming it to a file on your hard drive. This takes next to no processing power (the reason why I can stream 7 tuners at once with no problems).

When you playback this file, either "live" or in future), the tuner card has nothing to do with the process.

It takes a lot of processing power to decode (uncompress) the HD file. You either need really fast processor and the proper software decoders, or have a graphics card that supports hardware decoding of the file.

So again, if you don't need QAM digital for cable, and do not need analog OTA or cable, then the 950 is a small, low-power, inexpensive solution.

Read far down in the following post "Concerning HVR-950"

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post12664483

...and an earlier one in same thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post12657000

[droyalty]

Wow, excellent explanation! So, it sounds as if I may need to be more concerned w/my graphics capabilities rather than tuner capabilities, as-far-as record/playback.

I need to replace my old video card anyway...radeon 7500 (agp). I can purchase a 'major' upgrade for less than $50. The 950 is relatively low cost as well.

Thanks very much for helping me understand!

[dcardellini]

Yep...the radeon 7500 will never do it.

With AGP, your choices are very limited. I have two nVidia 6600 agp clients with no problem on HD content (never tried blu-ray). Need older driver here though, and not sure if the AMD 2200+ will cut it (I use a 3500+ single core).

Not sure about nVidia 6800, 7300, nor 7800.

With ATI, the 2400, 2600 reg and pro cards have agp interfaces...but not sure of success rate here....but maybe ok with a 2200+ processor

I also have an ATI/AMD integrated graphics motherboard (690 chipset) that does a great job with HD (no video card!!!!).....and there is a newer board based on the 780 chipset. This type of upgrade will cost about $200 for MB, processor and memory, but worth considering, with a decent dual core processor.

Or...for something really painless. Put the HVR-950 on your current computer, no changes, run it as the Sage Server (never really using video playback), and spend your $200 on a Sage HD Extender to put by your tv.

[droyalty]

Understood and appreciated...

Question then, my current setup plays internet tv just fine, full episodes from the major networks play without a hitch. Remember that I do not yet have a tuner card...so, will captured video (from OTA) have greater playback demands than internet video?

Regarding video card...the Radeon 1650pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102073
is what I'm considering. I'd love to simply build a new system, but very limited $s presently. I can replace my video, add memory and more disk (all of which I'd need regardless) for ~$150 or so.

Thanks for the help!