TV Tuner Cards For HTPC Discussion

[sphinx]

I was wondering if somebody with an HDTV wonder card could do me a favor.

I need an ISO of the CD. I lost my CD and I have no idea where it went. And I need the CD to load the DTV decoder so I could watch HDTV on my computer..


Thanks.

[CTVdude]

just call or e-mail ATI... they will send you another one...

I once bought a NON-ATI radeon card off Ebay, called ATI and they sent me an original ATI disk for all the software.

Ati has very good customer service!

[Sarke]

Yeah, that's probably your best bet. I don't think an ISO would be verified either, it would have to be an original CD.

[poisson]

Let me know if you're out of luck with ATI

fish

[Marc Flynn]

DVICO has releaed a new HDTV tuner FusionHDTV5 USB Gold.

Unlike the internal PCI HDTV tuner card, it is a very small external box connecting to PC through the USB 2.0 port. It gets power from the USB 2.0 port too. So no extra power adapter needed. It is a highly portable (the smallest in the world so far) HDTV tuner which is idea for the laptop.

I bought one recently and got some experiences:

1. It is high quanlity made. The small box looks very nice,

2. Installation is very easy. DVICO has released a ALL-IN-ONE driver FusionHDTV Official version 3.2 (2005-12-07) in its website http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/Download/Software.aspx
It contains both PCI card and USB driver. It is very easy to use too.

3. Near Kenndey subway station (Scarborough), Toronto, with a outdoor antenna, I got these OTA digital channels:
D2-1 WGRZ-HD
D2-2 WGRZ-SD
D4-1 WIVB-HD
D4-3 WNLO-SD
D5-1 CBLT-DT
D9-1 CFTO-DT
D23-1 WIVB-HD
D23-3 WNLO-SD
D25-1 CBLFT-D
D43-1 WNED-HD
D43-2 WNED-SD
D43-3 Think B
D53-1 CITY HD
D66-1 CKXT-DT
All these channels have over 70% - 100% signal strength.

It works on cable channel too. I got over 50 watchable digital channels from Rogers cable. Unfortunately they are all 480i programs (that's why they are free I guess).

Ofcource it can receive the analog channels and works very well.

My suggestion is use a very good outdoor antenna to get the OTA digital channels. With a indoor antenna, in my place, there are only two channels can be received. It is worth to invest over $100 on a top lever antenna like DB8.

4. The recording is incredible. You can record the original transport stream (.tp) and native mpeg format (.mpg). The difference between them is the .tp file contains all sub channels --- for example, D23-1 WIVB-HD and D23-3 WNLO-SD, because they are all channel D23, so when you chose recording them as original transport stream, you'll get both of them in one .tp file!
And also there is an option to let you chose recording current sub channel only.
Native mpeg format in the other hand, contains only current channel's mpge2 data format with original transport rate.
Both of these two recording options will let you can keep the original quanlity!

It also has a utility program can convert these original file to DVD or Dixv format.

5. On no good side, first I think it should has two RF input connectors, one for antenna and one for cable. Otherwise you have to switch them all the time. It's not convenient.
Second, unlike DVICO's PCI tuner, this USB tuner uses Conexant's CX25843 A/V decode chip other than CX28832 + LG's 4th or 5th VSB decode chip. I doubt this CX25843 chip is better? I can not compare them. Any comment on this?

6. Over all, it is a very good HDTV tuner for the laptop. The price is $149, cheaper than On Air USB tuner ($249).

[BHoward]

New little review, I moved it to it's own thread

[Wayne]

Are you sure the Rogers channels are digital and not analog? I was under the impression that all of the Rogers channels were encrypted and that you wouldn't get any digital channels via cable with a tuner like this until Rogers supports CableCard. People had reporting being able to view PPV channels in the past but that loophole appears to have been terminated.

[Marc Flynn]

When I use channel autoscan to scan "analog + digital" in rogers cable, I got three types of channels:
analog
digital encrypt 256Q
digital 256Q

The digital 256Q channel can be watch. They are:

D780 - D782 ROGERS SPORTSNET
D788 - D789 CBCNEWS
D799 ROGERS DIGITAL
D825 - D829 WWE SPORTS
D830 CTV
D840 - D851 MUSIC CHANNEL (AUDIO ONLY)
D862 - D867 WWE ON DEMANDS
D880 - D883 FOR KIDS
D901
D930
D931
D1003
D1011
D1050
D1060
D1140 - D1149 FOOD CHANNEL
D1200 - D1208
D1204 CITY TV
D1205 NTV
D1243 FRENCH CHANNEL
D2040
D8310
D8410 - D8443
D8445
D8510

They are all 480i and much clear than the analog channels.

BTW:

For this USB HDTV tuner, because it uses the software to decode the stream, so you need a powerful PC. In my 2.0 GHz P-IV CPU, ATI Radeon 7500 with hardware dxva accelerator + 64MB video memory, it eats 50% - 80% CPUs to show 1080i programs. And you can not do anything else. If you are openning other program like internet explorer, the video and sound will stute at that time.
It has its own software decoder so no other decoder to be need.

[Marc Flynn]

Adding more:

7. It supports EPG. It has its own EPG interface instead linking to titanty's web page. You can chose Schedule, Recording and Manual Recording, etc.

8. It supports timeshift recording too. I haven't try it yet.

[TurboTropic]

Thanks for the review.

Where did you buy it?

[emuu101]

I got one at a home show back in October.

It was from a local Canadian company called Sensuz Media -- http://www.sensuz.com

I've been on their site, but can't find any way to buy it. I contacted them and they said that they some Fusion USB and Fusion PCI cards in stock. If you are interested try contacting them.

They also said that they'll have their ecommerce site ready in early Feb.

[bobbinette]

Have anybody tried this type of tuner to receive HD channels from the air in the Ottawa region? An from the Videotron cable? I might be interrested by this device but I'd like to know if I can receive something in my region...

[mvclear]

I also have the same tuner, bought it in dec/05 from www.snapstream.com to complete my PVR solution. it was 149 USD and came with a silver sensor indoor antenna for free. With the indoor antenna I can pickup 4 HDTV stations with 85-100% signal, I can't seem to pick up CityTVHD, due to the lower power and my location, Brampton N of Highway 7/Queen and West of highway 50 (Albion) I can also confirm you can pickup some unencrypted QAM signals from rogers cable, but I use it strickly for OTA HDTV reception. I use it with the BeyondTV PVR software and another tuner for rogers cableTV signals and it works great. It does require a very powerful PC for HDTV playback, recording HDTV uses almost no CPU at all. My AMD 2600+ struggles with playback if anything else is running as well. A newer video card than the ati 7000 32 meg card would help, but I don't have the cash right now..

MV

[Marc Flynn]

Originally Posted by TurboTropic

Thanks for the review.

Where did you buy it?

From DVICO's "Where to Buy" web page, you'll find some distributors in US.

I suggest Digital Connection.

[kashan]

Originally Posted by Marc Flynn

From DVICO's "Where to Buy" web page, you'll find some distributors in US.

I suggest Digital Connection.

How much was shipping? Did you get hit with any brokerage charges/taxes?