Need a good Hybrid Tuner card for SageTV and WHS

[crarbo1]

Hello,
I'm looking for a good hybrid (Analog and Clear QAM) tuner that can do either 2 analog, 2 Clear QAM or one of each. This is on a WHS system that has 4GB Ram. The reason I point that out is that my old PVR 500 analog tuners don't work with 4GB and I had to go back to 2GB. So, I want to upgrade my tuner cards.

Anyone had a good experience with the setup I'm trying to achieve?

Thanks,
Chuck

[gplasky]

I think the HVR-2250 would fit the bill.

Gerry

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I think the HVR-2250 would fit the bill.

Gerry

Thanks for the info. I researched this on Newegg.com and some people had some poor reviews for it. Have you used it yourself in a similar setup as mine?

Thanks,
Chuck

[gplasky]

Sorry-no. Other people have used it and for similar reason as yourself. Take the newegg reviews with a grain of salt especially if they don't refer to using it with Sage specifically.

Gerry

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Sorry-no. Other people have used it and for similar reason as yourself. Take the newegg reviews with a grain of salt especially if they don't refer to using it with Sage specifically.

Gerry

Thanks Gerry,
Do you know of any other options?

Thanks,
Chuck

[voorhees]

I have two 1600's on a WHS system, and they work fine. I have tried them with 4GB of RAM and they seemed work fine. I have limited my server for now to 3ishGB for the same issue you have since I have a PVR-250 also. The HVR-1600 will give you one analog and one digital tuner.

[paulbeers]

Last I knew, the only option that has the possibility of recording two QAM or Two Analog, or 1 of each is the HVR-2250. Early on there were some driver issues with the analog (you could only record one analog show at a time, without it having issues regardless if you were recording a Digital stream or not); however, these issues have been rectified and it is now the only internal capture card in my system (all others are external). I recommend it highly as a jack of all trades capture card. I was able to replace my PVR500, add two more digital tuners to my Sage system and switch to PCIE all with this card.

Edit: I should state that I am not using it with WHS, so take my post as a recommendation of the card as a whole and not an OS specific review.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by voorhees

I have two 1600's on a WHS system, and they work fine. I have tried them with 4GB of RAM and they seemed work fine. I have limited my server for now to 3ishGB for the same issue you have since I have a PVR-250 also. The HVR-1600 will give you one analog and one digital tuner.

Thanks for the information. It sounds like a good option but I want a dual tuner.

Thanks,
Chuck

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Last I knew, the only option that has the possibility of recording two QAM or Two Analog, or 1 of each is the HVR-2250. Early on there were some driver issues with the analog (you could only record one analog show at a time, without it having issues regardless if you were recording a Digital stream or not); however, these issues have been rectified and it is now the only internal capture card in my system (all others are external). I recommend it highly as a jack of all trades capture card. I was able to replace my PVR500, add two more digital tuners to my Sage system and switch to PCIE all with this card.

Edit: I should state that I am not using it with WHS, so take my post as a recommendation of the card as a whole and not an OS specific review.

Thanks for the info. It seems like it would be a good card. Just not sure. Did you have any issues with the time not being right with your PVR500? Like it would skip ahead a few seconds at a time while playing normally?

Thanks,
Chuck

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Thanks for the info. It seems like it would be a good card. Just not sure. Did you have any issues with the time not being right with your PVR500? Like it would skip ahead a few seconds at a time while playing normally?

Thanks,
Chuck

To be honest, as soon as I got it, I ripped the PVR500 out. They have never co-existed (even when I was having driver issues with the analog capture, I just thru a single tuner analog tuner into my server as my PVR500 was moved to a different computer).

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

To be honest, as soon as I got it, I ripped the PVR500 out. They have never co-existed (even when I was having driver issues with the analog capture, I just thru a single tuner analog tuner into my server as my PVR500 was moved to a different computer).

Thanks,
I'm looking to get rid of the PVR500 as well since it doesn't work with more than 4GB of RAM. Have you had any issues with the HVR-2250? Do you just install the drivers and then set it up in SageTV for analog and QAM? Or is there a separate program that needs to be run before it goes into SageTV?

Sorry for all the questions,
Chuck

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

I'm looking for a good hybrid (Analog and Clear QAM) tuner that can do either 2 analog, 2 Clear QAM or one of each.

Originally Posted by crarbo1

It sounds like a good option but I want a dual tuner.

It is dual tuner, 1 analog and 1 clear QAM. I was just responding to your original request that stated your were loking for a solution with two of each or one of each.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by voorhees

It is dual tuner, 1 analog and 1 clear QAM. I was just responding to your original request that stated your were loking for a solution with two of each or one of each.

Your right. The way I stated it, It would look like I wanted what you described. I should have said I wanted it to be able to do all of those combinations.

Sorry,
Chuck

[crarbo1]

Another question about the HVR-2250. About how long is it? The PCI-e slot I want to put it in has some important connectors directly in line with it.

Thanks,
Chuck

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Another question about the HVR-2250. About how long is it? The PCI-e slot I want to put it in has some important connectors directly in line with it.

Thanks,
Chuck

Eyeballing it (can't take the card out), looks a hair over 6".

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

... system that has 4GB Ram ...

I would truly suggest that anyone running a 32bit version of Windows to run 3GB or 3.5GB, and never place 4GB in them. You are just asking for problems.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Eyeballing it (can't take the card out), looks a hair over 6".

Thanks. That should be fine.

Originally Posted by MattHelm

I would truly suggest that anyone running a 32bit version of Windows to run 3GB or 3.5GB, and never place 4GB in them. You are just asking for problems.

I'm using WHS, which is 32 bit. Why do you suggest not going more than 3 or 3.5GB?
Are there any advantages of HVR-2250 over the PVR 500, besides doing Digital?

Thanks,
Chuck

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

I would truly suggest that anyone running a 32bit version of Windows to run 3GB or 3.5GB, and never place 4GB in them. You are just asking for problems.

WHS is a server OS and has PAE* (Physical Address Extension) enabled by default. There are no issues running 4 GB (or more) from an OS perspective. It is device drivers and devices that usually have the issue.

Gerry

*x86 processor hardware architecture is augmented with additional address lines used to select the additional memory, so physical address size is increased from 32 bits to 36 bits. This, theoretically, increases maximum physical memory size from 4 GB to 64 GB. The 32-bit size of the virtual address is not changed, so regular application software continues to use instructions with 32-bit addresses and (in a flat memory model) is limited to 4 gigabytes of virtual address space. The operating system uses page tables to map this 4 GB address space into the 64 GB of physical memory. The mapping is typically applied differently for each process. In this way, the extra memory is useful even though no single regular application can access it all simultaneously.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by gplasky

WHS is a server OS and has PAE* (Physical Address Extension) enabled by default. There are no issues running 4 GB (or more) from an OS perspective. It is device drivers and devices that usually have the issue.

Gerry

Gerry,
Thanks for the info. I had upgraded my WHS and everything worked fine with 4GB of RAM except my old PVR 500's. After that I did some research and found out that they don't like that much. Is there a way I can physically put the 4GB in but just utilize 3 or 3.5GB? Or will the HVR 2250 way to allow me to use the entire 4GB. Also, per my message below, are there any advantages of HVR-2250 over the PVR 500, besides doing Digital?

Thanks,
Chuck

[paulbeers]

Advantages:
1. 4+GB of memory is not an issue.
2. PCIE as opposed to PCI (PCI is more or less dying)
3. Has digital tuners
4. Actually is still being made (PVR500 is no longer being made)
5. I don't use the analog tuners (only the composite inputs), but those that do say the analog tuners are better on the 2250 vs the 500

Disadvantages:
1. If you have an older server you wouldn't be able to use it since it is PCIE?