HD Card Comparison?

[Mike]

I did a search, but really didn't come up with much detail. Even the list of supported cards seemed small compared to what I see discussed on the board.

I was hoping to find a thread that did a comparison of the various HD cards that are available. Most info seems to be on the Avermedia A180 and the Hauppauge 1600 but I didn't really find many pluses and minuses. Also, I just don't seem to get the concept of the of the HD-PVR. Is it an external tuner similar to the HD home run?

Any info or a link to a good thread would be appreciated.

Mike

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Mike

I did a search, but really didn't come up with much detail. Even the list of supported cards seemed small compared to what I see discussed on the board.

I was hoping to find a thread that did a comparison of the various HD cards that are available. Most info seems to be on the Avermedia A180 and the Hauppauge 1600 but I didn't really find many pluses and minuses. Also, I just don't seem to get the concept of the of the HD-PVR. Is it an external tuner similar to the HD home run?

Any info or a link to a good thread would be appreciated.

Mike

Mike,
I can't comment too much on the A180 or 1600, but I own a HD-PVR and a HDHR.

The HDHR is great for tuning local channels and unencrypted QAM channels. There's a link on Silicondust's web site showing you the clear QAM channels that are available in your area.

The HD-PVR is an amazing device. It's not really a tuner per-se, rather an input device. It is the only device (consumer grade...there are some professional/commercial devices out there) that can accept a HD signal via component cables and process that signal for display on your computer. So, you come out of your cable box, or sat. box, and into your HD-PVR. Sage sees the HD-PVR as a tuner, so you just select that as a video source and you get all of your HD cable/sat channels displayed on your HTPC in real HD.