Need Dual Analog Tuner Cards - Is WinTV-PVR-500MCE the best?

[sic0048]

I am getting together a Sage system for my parents. They currently have standard cable TV and I am looking for tuner card options.

I will get a HDHomeRun for clear QAM recordings, but unfortunately that is the local channels only. So I still need a good analog card to record standard analog cable for the rest of their lineup.

I only have 1 PCI and 1 PCI-e (x1) slot available, although I could also look into USB options if needed. Although they are willing to spend whatever it takes to get the job done correctly, I also want to spend as little as possible.

So what are my options?

I know I can get the WinTV-PVR-500MCE card which is a PCI card and has two analog tuners. Are their any PCI-e options that are recommended?

I see that there are a lot of problems with the Saber 2020, so I will not consider that card. This system has to be very stable since my parents will not have any idea how to fix things.

KWorld also has a dual analog PCI-e tuner card called the KWorld PVR-TV PE210, but I cannot find any confirmation that it will work with Sage. Does anyone know for sure? It is suppose to work with VMC, so the odds are good, but I'd still like a confirmed yes or no answer.

Looking at USB options, it looks like everything is a single tuner, so I would need two USB units which would end up costing about twice as much as the internal cards. Does anyone know of a dual analog USB tuner? Or even a analog/QAM combo USB card? If it was stable enough, I could get two of those and drop the HDHomeRun completely and the total cost would probably be the same.

OK - that is a lot, but I appreciate the help, so thanks for reading and I hope someone can give me some good suggestions.

Thanks,

[CollinR]

IMHO it's PVR500 or nothing at this point.

Also Hauppauge should have a dual digital tuner available before long, so you might reconsider the HDhomerun.

Also you can do the HVR1250 for like $40 but it's only 1 QAM tuner.

[sic0048]

I haven't tried any of the more recent HD tuner options, but I know that I personally had trouble getting HD tuners that worked well without issues. That is why I ended up with a HDHomeRun, and I really like the fact that it is a self contained little unit. So I don't have to worry about windows screwing it up or having equipment that makes it unstable.

I've had a MyHD-130 (which didn't work with 3rd party software like Sage), several Cats-Eye USB HD tuners, and a Fusion HD card. They all sucked compared to the HDHomeRun IMHO.

So unless something drastic changes, I don't mind spending $160 for a dual HD tuner that I know will work. I may be a cheap bastard, but I don't mind spending money on equipment that I know will be reliable in the end.

Thanks for the opinion on the PVR-500 That is basically what I thought, but still like other opinions.

[CollinR]

Basically Hauppauge has all the market support, the devices you tried before are all kinda small timers on the fringe.

You'll se all the HD PVR issues resolved much faster then most others and with many more geeks tring.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I haven't tried any of the more recent HD tuner options, but I know that I personally had trouble getting HD tuners that worked well without issues. That is why I ended up with a HDHomeRun, and I really like the fact that it is a self contained little unit. So I don't have to worry about windows screwing it up or having equipment that makes it unstable.

I've had a MyHD-130 (which didn't work with 3rd party software like Sage), several Cats-Eye USB HD tuners, and a Fusion HD card. They all sucked compared to the HDHomeRun IMHO.

So unless something drastic changes, I don't mind spending $160 for a dual HD tuner that I know will work. I may be a cheap bastard, but I don't mind spending money on equipment that I know will be reliable in the end.

Thanks for the opinion on the PVR-500 That is basically what I thought, but still like other opinions.

If you want the standard, then the PVR500 is the way to go. I am not even sure if there are any other dual analog cards out there that are readily available. Most of the readily available cards are hybrids with both an analog and a digital tuner.

[bcjenkins]

If you're not slot constrained, I would go for two HVR-1600s.

B

[sic0048]

I am slot constrained and that is part of the problem. 1 PCI and 1 PCI-e (1x) available. Actually this is another big reason to go with the HDHomeRun for the QAM support I need.

[Mitch G]

FWIW, I recently decided to replace my two HVR-1600s (dual tuner HD/analog card) with ATI 550 cards and I'm quite happy I did. I find the video to be noticeably better. It's not night and day, but still better.
ATI makes a 600 series of cards which have hybrid tuners that support analog cable and come in both PCI and PCI-Express versions.

That said, for a single PCI slot solution, the PVR-500 is probably the way to go and it's not like you'll be disappointed. I wasn't disappointed, per se, with my 1600 cards. It's just that I wanted to eke out the last little bit of video quality I could for my analog cable.


Mitch

[bcjenkins]

The PVR 500 is a 2 slot device if you're using the headers for a cable box. A better design is the NVidia DualTV. I saw one on ebay today for $150.

B

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

The PVR 500 is a 2 slot device if you're using the headers for a cable box. A better design is the NVidia DualTV. I saw one on ebay today for $150.

B

Case slots though not PCI slots.

[bcjenkins]

True, I forget about the micro atx motherboard in the full size case crowd. In my PC cases, usually a 1 to 1 mapping.

B