Thoughts/Advice needed on HD QAM Tuners?

[-=Jeff=-]

I am waiting for my HD100 to arrive next week. I have my server up and running with 2 PVR-150s I plan on adding HD capability ( Main reason for doing this) for now it will be Clear QAM connected asI don't have my antenna yet.

I was looking/ planning on the HDHomerun, any others I should look at?

my Server is older and I doubt I will use it for playback and it does not have USB 2.0, but I could remove the Audio card and install my PCI USB 2.0 card. and then use a USB tuner..

Ultimately for starting out I will want 2 HD tuners, I will move to 4 HD tuners next year or even 6 if I can handle it all. network is 1 gig at the server and 100 mb at the HD100 Drop for now.. taht will change when I get time to run Cat6.

SO is the HDHomerun the wise choice?

[Conejo]

You should check out what you can actually receive first.

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels

The first portion, 8VSB, is ATSC OverTheAir and the second set is for QAM channels carried by local cable.

There are a lot of digital tuners out there that would work, but if your system is old enough not to have USB2 then it might not be up to the task of recording or streaming playback. I don't remember what the minimum CPU/Bus/Mem/ATA specs are for HiDef.

[-=Jeff=-]

system is a 1.8 G P4 with 768 RamBus RAM.. alos has a 400FSB.. it is from 2002..

I see the requirements for HD playback but I will be using my server for recording and the HD100 for play back, so then the requirements for the server change right?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by -=Jeff=-

system is a 1.8 G P4 with 768 RamBus RAM.. alos has a 400FSB.. it is from 2002..

I see the requirements for HD playback but I will be using my server for recording and the HD100 for play back, so then the requirements for the server change right?

My HDHomerun has been rock solid for me for well over a year. As long as you are happy with ClearQam, then the HDHomrun is perfect. Based on your network setup, it sounds like you are setup fine (I recommend with an HDHomerun to have the server on GB connection to have plenty of I/O bandwidth). As for the HD100, it is only a 100mbps device so changing its connection won't matter (truthfully HD only takes a maximum of 20mbps, so there really is no point to GB connector on the HD100).

As far as your server, it "should" be fine. When it comes to HD, all your server has to do is capture the stream and save it to the hard drive. Hard drive bandwidth and storage space will become your biggest concerns. The amount of RAM "should" be fine (obviously upgrading would be best, but that Rambus ram is just too expensive to bother).


* I keep saying "should" as there are so many factors that come into play, but I see no reason why it won't work.

[-=Jeff=-]

Thanks Paul,

assuming everything works and I am happy, I will upgrade the server.. I might be able to get a PC from my dad, 2.8Ghz P4, 533FSB with 1gig of ram, if I get that from him it will be free.. I also keep watching Frys and Tiger Direct for a barebones system ot a MOBO Combo.