What tuner/s to buy for new system.

[Owen Brent]

Which tuner/s would you buy if you were starting from scratch. This would be for an OTA system. I am not interested in analog, just digital.

[Paul H]

http://www.silicondust.com/

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Owen Brent

Which tuner/s would you buy if you were starting from scratch. This would be for an OTA system. I am not interested in analog, just digital.

Lots of people will suggest a Silicon Dust HDHR. The advantage of the HDHR is the amazing support from Silicon Dust, their software, and the lack of any requirement for hardware drivers for the device. The disadvantage is that they use a tuner/demod which is comparatively poor at picking up OTA signals in a noisy environment (trees, hills, picking up a signal off the back of a directional antenna, etc). If you are using QAM, or you have a clear line of sight to all your broadcast towers (and they are located near each other), then the HDHR is the best choice, hands down. Otherwise, I'd avoid the HDHR and go with anything recent that uses an LG or Samsung based tuner (the Kworld UB435Q is a cheap example at $25 -- like most LG or Samsung based tuners, it gets a strong signal on stations my HDHR can barely get a lock on).

I'm actually looking forward to hearing what tuner/demod the upcoming HDHR Prime cablecard device uses. If they're using a newer/better tuner/demod than in the current rev HDHR, and they support ATSC, I'd get a "prime" just to get better OTA reception. I'd love to ditch my internal/USB tuners.

Drew

[HelenWeathers]

There's also these:
AverMedia HD Duet:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815100041

Hauppauge 2250:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-037-_-Product

I use the AverMedia cards. They only do OTA and QAM (no analog) but cost much less.