HDTV Tuner Cards - 1080p available?

[Jonchilds]

Looking to put together a HTPC style box (either MythTV if I can be bothered, or a windows alternative) to replace the VCR with some pretty basic specs (AMD X2 5000+, 2Gb RAM, Mboard with ATI 3200 graphics) and need a decent 1080p HD Tuner card and preferably a remote.

Looking at the list on Austins website there are a few there, but some are MCE only, others not supported by linux and all the confusion that goes with.

Can anyone reccomend a good HDTV Tuner for PCI/PCI-E at or under $100 that doesn't need a super strong signal?
I understand the HDTV tuners don't require an outstanding processor as digital signals are already in MPEG2 streams?

I would like to have 1080p recording, but will settle for 720p if that's all I can get and/or an Athlon X2/X3 isn't able to handle the higher resolution...

[MADOGA]

Not sure on cards there dosent seem to be a lot of HD tuners out yet,
have a look at MEDIAPORTAL - free media center - Home for a HDTV interface, its compatable with most common hardware,Im still using mediaportal1

[TORQ]

1080p would be nice yeah, but nobody is transmitting 1080p ... You may find some 1080i cards though.

[Jonchilds]

Is channel 10 not transmitting 1080p, or is it 1080i? They were advertising earlier this year they'll be transmitting in the highest possible resolution...

A "Digital TV" tuner won't do HD channels tho will it - that needs a HDTV Tuner right?

[goof]

Can anyone reccomend a good HDTV Tuner for PCI/PCI-E at or under $100 that doesn't need a super strong signal?
I understand the HDTV tuners don't require an outstanding processor as digital signals are already in MPEG2 streams?

I would like to have 1080p recording, but will settle for 720p if that's all I can get and/or an Athlon X2/X3 isn't able to handle the higher resolution...

I have been using Fusion cards with Linux for 5 or so years. They've been great & well supported. I live in a weak signal area too.

Straight recording hardly requires any CPU time as the data coming down the antenna is indeed MPEG2 and so the TV card can stream it straight to the hard drive as a .mpg file (literally). 480, 720 or 1080 does not make much difference for this, just the size of the resultant file.

The only place 720/1080 makes a difference is decoding for playback. You won't get away with an old Pentium if you want 1080 playback. (In windows, hardware decoding on the video card can help.)

I have an Athlon X2 64 (2.6 GHz I think) and it handles realtime re-encoding & recording to a .avi while at the same time playing back another recording. That is the most I can think of to throw at it and it's fine, so you should be all right.




Edit: AFAIK, most (all?) cards can do full HD and have for years. The cards don't care, it's just a stream of data to them. It's whether the cpu/display can do 1080p/1080i that's the question.

[MisterP]

Worth mentioning that Myth 'currently' (last time I looked ~ 2 weeks ago) doesnt support anything pci-e. Therefore youd be looking at PCI offerings. Check out the compatability wiki here:- Video capture card - MythTV
Also, Myth doesnt currently have a eye candy front end, (the whole Myth frontend is pretty bland) but look at XBMC and MythTV integration and you can make it look better that MCE/VMC.
MediaPortal is also an option, but its problem has always been that its unstable due to constant development, and Windows XP.
Dont worry about 1080p, from what I understand, to fit the new 15 freeview channels into the exisiting bandwidth, 7, 9 and 10 are having to downgrade their HD offerings to fit more channels into the transmission space. I cant find the article, but I think it was on DTVForums that I read this, so apologies if this is incorrect.
Im assuming you have a 'proper' HD tv too (proper as in 1:1 pixel ratio, although I personally dont see the difference)
My personal fave is the Avermedia cards. Never let me down, fast channel change and fairly cheap if you look around of staticice or shopbot.
Id advise away from Austins. Great range, but you can always get it cheaper, and they are the worst place Ive had the displeasure of dealing with when something goes wrong/RMA's.

[taint]

Edit: AFAIK, most (all?) cards can do full HD and have for years. The cards don't care, it's just a stream of data to them. It's whether the cpu/display can do 1080p/1080i that's the question.

Most cards will do HD, but no one transmits in 1080p at the moment. My TV card that I bought 2.5 years ago does HD. HDD space becomes a problem when recording in high def as it chews through about 10gig per hour

[MADOGA]

Edit: AFAIK, most (all?) cards can do full HD and have for years. The cards don't care, it's just a stream of data to them. It's whether the cpu/display can do 1080p/1080i that's the question.

Does this apply to a DVD recorder/tuner/STB in that a SD recorder/tuner/STB will recieve a HD transmission but only show it in SD?

[Jonchilds]

that depends on the individual box. cpu power in the device is rarely insufficient for what the device is intended to playback/record.

[Brougham]

i have a Compro DVB Pci-E card on my HTPC - does Full HD, i'm happy with it. integrates into Vista MC and with the MCE remote 100%.

[XIII]

this may help who knows ?

HD Tuner for Linux - Linux/BSD

HDTV Tuner Card for Linux - Linux/BSD

Computer Retailers in Perth, Western Australia.

[Jonchilds]

So really something like a USB Tuner would be best if I wanted to have the option of running either XP or MythTV?

Analog would be nice, but I'm sure an Athlon X2 would be more than powerful enough to do software encoding to mpeg2/4 right?

System looks like it will be an Athlon X2/X3, 2Gb of DDR2 RAM, Mainboard with Integrated ATI HD3200 Graphics with HDMI out. May end up using a Sempron 1150 though as I've got one laying around with a few bent pins...

[goof]

HDTV through a USB v2 stick is certainly possible, but pushing the bandwidth capability of USB I feel and I would suspect quality is sacrificed to meet the form factor. If you can, get a PCI card instead. A Dvico Fusion for example.

In my desktop I have a digital TV, analogue TV & FM radio combo card. Can't remember the brand, but it's a cheapie (~$20 second hand) from eBay. It works well, although it takes noticeably longer to tune in than the Dvico in my HTPC.

Dual tuner digital TV cards are also well worth considering for obvious benefits.

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (in both my desktop & HTPC) which is the same as what you're proposing. AMD X2, HD3200, 2GB RAM, etc. It easily handles all the stuff you're talking about doing.

(And ATI/AMD have recently released code & shortly documentation so Linux support for their video cards/chips will improve considerably. )