Looking for advice for tv tuner card

[cnjbucks]

Hi,

I bought a new PC and it came pre-installed with Windows 7 Premium which comes with Media Center.  I am thinking about getting a tv tuner for the computer so I can record TV shows with the PC.   Does anyone have any recommendations for a card?

I am a TW customer so if you are wondering which provider I have.  On that note, my computer is in the same room as my RR feed.  can I put a splitter on that in order to use the TV card on that same connection?

[brewtownska]

I don't have knowledge of what tuners are available now, but I wanted to ask what your expectations are for what channels you'll be able to record.

Do you plan to record just from TWC, or also OTA (over the air)?  On TWC, do you just expect to use the HD locals (which can be picked up unencrypted via a QAM tuner), or do you want the ability to record most/all of your TWC channels?

For now I'm just assuming you plan to record the High Definition channels.  Most tuners also have the ability to record the analog channels, though some cards require that to be a separate connection as it's a different tuner on the card.

If you are looking to record most/all, you'd need to look for something that interfaces with a CableCard (or whatever they are called now...M cards?), as that's the only way to receive encrypted channels.  That essentially mimics having a cable box, without actually needing the box.  I think there's a small per-month charge for the card.

If you just want to pick up your HD local channels from TWC, that info is already free and clear on the line.  As you mentioned, you could split your Roadrunner connection, then connect that line to any tuner card that can process a QAM signal.  There are lots of cards or USB sticks that can do this, and they're relatively cheap.  How well they work, or which program interfaces best with them is something you'd need to research more (and if you know you plan to use Windows Media Center, that would be a good specific search to see which hardware it plays well with).

Sorry I didn't necessarily answer your question, but I wanted to give you some ideas on what to think about so you really know what to try and buy when the time comes.

[budda]

I would PM Ponies. He is a member here, always has a lot of info on TW and there equipment what works best and what is current. Good source of info and seems he has used the equipment as well which is always a plus. Peace

[Martyus]

Hi,

I bought a new PC and it came pre-installed with Windows 7 Premium which comes with Media Center.  I am thinking about getting a tv tuner for the computer so I can record TV shows with the PC.   Does anyone have any recommendations for a card?

I am a TW customer so if you are wondering which provider I have.  On that note, my computer is in the same room as my RR feed.  can I put a splitter on that in order to use the TV card on that same connection?

As commented by brewtownska, there are several options depending on what you want to accomplish.

I also have TWC and my HTPC is running Windows 7 Home Premium, and I have a few internal tuners: a Ceton InfiniTV 4 (CableCard) tuner, a Hauppauge 1600 (ATSC/NTSC) tuner, and a Hauppauge 1800 (ATSC/NTSC) tuner. With this setup I can watch and record Digital Cable TV channels with the InfiniTV 4 (4 tuners), OTA local HD ATSC channels (2 tuners), and NTSC (analog) cable channels (2 tuners). I also have a couple Media Center Extenders (MCE) connected to the HTPC: a DMA2200 and a XBox 360.

All recordings can be watched on the MCEs and the MCEs provide live channel viewing. For live channel watching, the MCEs allocate a tuner depending on channel being watched.

Ceton InfiniTV 4 tuners: Requires a CableCard and Tuning Adapter from TWC. Local channel recordings can be watched anywhere, on the local HTPC, on MCEs, or on another Windows 7 PC. All the other cable channel recordings are encrypted and can only be watched on the HTPC or MCEs.

OTA tuners: Require an antenna. Local channel recordings (HD) can be watched anywhere, on the local HTPC, on MCEs, or on another Windows 7 PC.  The HD recordings can be converted to other HD formats using a program like VideoReDo and can be burned to Blu-ray.

NTSC (analog) cable tuners: Recordings (not HD - SD only) (i.e. channels 0-99) can be watched anywhere, on the local HTPC, on MCEs, or on another PC. These recordings can be easily burned to DVD using Windows Media Center (on the HTPC or another Windows 7 PC). The recordings can also be converted to other video formats using a program like VideoReDo (SD only).