Solved! 50$ Tuner Card (PCI/PCI-e x1) for Charter

[gidgiddonihah]

Hi, im new to the whole TV thing. I watch movies and therefore can pick out what TV i want :lol:, but beyond movies, i am CLUELESS . I am looking for a CHEAP (50$) TV Tuner Card for my PC for recording TV. A remote would be very nice, but not required , i need it to work with Charter Cable TV , and it needs to be able to record and view Charter HD channels. I would also like it to work with Windows 7 Media Center (32 Bit). (Edited)

1.) I found Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250, so:
a.) Is it a good one?? :lol: There isn't much to be said around forums or review sites online...
b.) And will it work with Charter?? Im confused on the whole Clear Qam thing...
c.) If this won't work or its not a good one, what would be a good one?

2.) I have a problem with getting the cable to my computer. I have 1 cable jack in my wall, and it is all the way across the room so:

a.) I have the 1 jack hooked up to a cable that leads to a splitter, one cable goes my modem (Which i have a WiFi router coming to it. My PC is on that Wi-Fi connection...). The other goes to a box that looks like a modem and phone box. I don't want to get rid of either one or move my computer, but i don't have anywhere to get a cable to my computer unless i want to run it from 400 feet away in the family room . So any suggestions??
b.) I was thinking of getting ANOTHER splitter on top of that, but it started to speak a foriegn language when it said coaxal.... So what would i get???

Remember that I would like this whole deal to stay right around 50-60$. Would appreciate any help i could get!

My Specs:
Pentium D 945 3.2GHz
3GB RAM
Geforce 9600GT
500Watt Supply
1TB HDD Space

Thanks Ahead

 

[gidgiddonihah]

50 people look at this, and NO ONE has a sugestion?? Even if you give me suggestions on what are good ones around the price range... :lol:

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Was poking around again, and found this list:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=HVR-1600+

Is there any difference, besides if there is an FM tuner?? And are these very good?

 

[rwpritchett]

Does Charter cable offer clear-QAM digital channels? If you don't know, then you need to find out. For some tuner research, I like this site: http/www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/

Just a suggestion, try to get a dual tuner. With a dual tuner you can pull in two streams at once (watch one while recording another, record two at a time, etc.)

Here are some suggestions:
HVR-2250 out of your price range, but it has two hybrid tuners (2 digital, 2 analog) plus FM
A188 Duet I use this one (2 digital tuners) though there are numerous reports of people having troubles with it disappearing after S3 sleep

 

[rwpritchett]

BTW, I also have the HVR-1600 you linked. It's a decent tuner. It has 1 digital and 1 analog tuner. So you can record digital and analog at the same time, but not 2x digital streams.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Umm how do i know that its a dual tuner . Would it have two TV inputs? Or would it say somewhere on it. And do you know where to find out if Charter offers clear-QAM? Ill google it :lol: and see what comes up.

Oh the A188 looks pretty good, and on newegg it is 50$, but it only has one input, which leads me to believe its the single tuner. Wait: nvm i found out that it IS in fact a dual tuner.

Do you like the A188? And what in the world is S3 sleep, ive looked and it doesnt make much sense to me... Why sleep the computer and leave the fans running???

Heres the link for the A188... http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100041 (Edit) But further poking around makes me believe that this will not record Analog... Is this true? And if so, would you recommend the HVR-1600?

 

[rwpritchett]

I do like the A188. I was one of the people who had S3 sleep problems so I had to RMA the card and get a new one from Avermedia. The new card is my favorite tuner and does not have any problems. Low heat, good picture, has the best signal. I purchased my A188 in fall '09 so it is possible that the bad cards have been flushed out of retail by now. Yes, it has only one input with an internal splitter. It does not pull in analog signals.

The HVR-1600 is my oldest card dating back to 2007. It has worked without any issues. It has two inputs- one for digital and one for analog. I used the analog for a brief time to receive standard cable (not QAM). The picture was horrible, very grainy. Because of this I purchased another tuner- an AverMedia M780 Combo which is another digital/analog tuner. The cable picture was not much better than the HVR-1600 and still hard to watch. Digital content was perfect for both cards.

I have since abandoned cable and pull all live TV from over the air. I very briefly used my tuner cards to pull in clear-QAM cable before I canceled. The picture from the digital cable was very good on all cards, but some stations would not come in. I can't remember which stations or if it was tuner specific.

I now use netflix, hulu, and itunes to supplement what I can't get over the air.

An afterthought: last spring they finally came out with CableCard tuners that gives you full access to all digital cable content. They are expensive though, but I thought you should know in case your situation and what you want your HTPC to be warrants paying more $$$.

 

[Wolfshadw]

An afterthought: last spring they finally came out with CableCard tuners that gives you full access to all digital cable content. They are expensive though, but I thought you should know in case your situation and what you want your HTPC to be warrants paying more $$$.

rwp - If you're referring to the Ceton Corp Cablecard tuners, they haven't been released yet. Initially scheduled for March 31st, then pushed back until May 31st. Now scheduled for "Mid Year 2010" (which could mean as late as end of September).

-Wolf sends

 

[rwpritchett]

Yeah, it was the Ceton I was referring to. I stopped following release dates when they announced the $400 price tag SiliconDust is supposed to have their CableCard HDhomerun by the end of the year... hmmm.