Turn Your Computer Into a Digital TV

[Gregg Lengling]

Turn Your Computer Into a Digital TV
     

Find out which add-on card delivers the best HDTV experience on your PC.
Watch today at 9:30 p.m., tomorrow at 12:30 a.m., and Friday 1/24 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
 
By Robert Heron
There's nothing like watching your favorite show at glorious high-definition (HD) resolution. For an HDTV experience that won't break the bank, consider upgrading your PC. Most 17-inch and larger PC displays are capable of displaying HD resolutions. The only thing missing is a digital-television (DTV) receiver.



There are more than 560 stations broadcasting digital television over the airways in the United States. For under $400 you can equip a PC to receive and record this high-quality programming (the picture, but not necessarily the content). Be aware that DTV broadcasts are not available everywhere, but the list of DTV stations continues to grow.


If you're looking for an affordable DTV solution or perhaps the ultimate home-theater PC, look at these:



HiPix DTV-200
AccessDTV Digital Media Receiver 2.0
Win-TV HD


HiPix DTV-200
      Global Telemann Systems' HiPix DTV-200 is our favorite DTV receiver, but, thanks to the lack of any printed documentation, it was the most difficult to install. Full documentation was provided on the CD, but we expect a product like this to include printed directions for installing the hardware.


Compared to the hardware install, the software configuration was quick and simple. The DTV-200 software separates the DTV channels from standard analog broadcasts. This let us quickly scan for the DTV channels in our vicinity without having to scan for regular analog broadcast signals. The DTV-200's seven-button remote left much to be desired, but it worked well as a channel changer and mute device.


The DTV-200's on-screen channel information is the best of the DTV cards we tested. Besides telling you the channel currently selected, it also provides information regarding the content's bitrate, display resolution, and volume.


Recording and playback of DTV content worked flawlessly. However, DTV content can be displayed only full-screen unless an optional connection cable is purchased and the video card supports a VIP 1.1 connection.

 


Despite the minor issues encountered and the too-simple remote, we're impressed with the DTV-200's performance and image quality.


Company: Global Telemann Systems
Price: $399
Category: PC DTV receiver
Platform: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
Specs: ATSC/NTSC compliant receiver; IR remote control; video output: composite, VGA, S-Video; audio output: stereo, coaxial digital
Requirements: 500-MHz or faster CPU; 128MB system memory; 2GB of disk space; two available PCI slots


AccessDTV Digital Media Receiver 2.0
AccessDTV's Digital Media Receiver 2.0 is a DTV receiver that offers a simple setup and an easy-to-understand interface. For $380 accessDTV provides a DTV receiver card and software. For another $20 you can get the "total solution kit," which includes a set-top DTV antenna and additional cabling.


The antenna included with the full package provides good reception, but our local DTV transmitter was in our line of sight, albeit a few miles away. (A broadcast engineer we spoke with suggested using a coat hanger and a piece of coaxial cable as a DTV antenna. If that doesn't work, move on to "rabbit ears" and finally to a DTV-specific antenna.) AccessDTV provided us with an amplified antenna from RDI, dubbed the DTV-2000. The DTV-2000 supposedly incorporates the latest in antenna technology. It was good at pulling in the signals, but we were unable to locate any online information regarding this product.


Because there's no remote control, all interaction with accessDTV requires you to be sitting in front of the computer. Sporting a clean and simple interface, the accessDTV software features clearly labeled buttons providing quick access to most functions. Recording and playback of high-definition content worked without issue. However, high-definition content consumes vast amounts of hard-disk space. Roughly 10 minutes of recorded HD content fills about 1.5GB of hard-disk space.

 


While we found nothing wrong with the accessDTV product, we preferred the on-screen information and user interface provided by the HiPix DTV-200.


Company: accessDTV
Price: $379.95 (DTV card and software); $399.95 (adds DTV antenna and additional cabling)
Category: PC DTV receiver
Platform: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
Specs: ATSC/NTSC compliant receiver; video output: HD, VGA, NTSC; audio output: stereo, coaxial digital
Requirements: 500 MHz or faster CPU; 128MB system memory; 2GB of disk space.

Win-TV HD
Hauppauge's Win-TV HD product has all the features one would want from a PC DTV solution. Unfortunately, not all the parts play well together. Although it's a capable DTV receiver that supports common outputs, we were never able to get our recorded DTV content to play properly despite trying the hardware on different computers. Every file we recorded would stutter and eventually stop.


The Win-TV HD was the only PC-DTV solution of the three we looked at that included a component output adapter. We felt it odd that neither accessDTV nor HiPix included this adapter in the box, as it's a common high-definition interface. For the ultimate in image quality, one would skip analog output altogether and use the DVI output from a decent video card. However, DVI input is usually only found on high-end plasma and DLP displays.


Hauppague's WinTV 2000 software should be a lesson in poorly designed user interfaces. Not only is the interface too small and hard to read, but many key features are camouflaged within a difficult-to-access menu system. Coincidentally, the record and playback features, which didn't work properly, were located within this same menu system.

 


While Hauppauge did provide some printed documentation in the box, our inability to play recorded content and the horrible interface of the DTV tuner software left us wondering if anyone had actually tested this product before shipping.


Company: Hauppauge
Price: $299
Category: PC DTV receiver
Platform: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
Specs: ATSC/NTSC compliant receiver; IR remote control; video output: HD, VGA, NTSC; audio output: stereo, coaxial digital
Requirements: 500 MHz or faster CPU; 128MB system memory; 2GB disk space.


(Poster's note:  For some reason they didn't review the Hi-DTV Pro 2.0 card??Duh...at least 3 of us have it on this forum...wonder why they skipped it.)

[Ron Pollitt]

(Poster's note: For some reason they didn't review the Hi-DTV Pro 2.0 card??Duh...at least 3 of us have it on this forum...wonder why they skipped it.)

Or the Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe for $199.99, isn't that the same for a lot less than the ones in the article?

Ron

[tjjws]

Greg, I'm wondering where you found this review, is it available on the web somewhere?  I'm interested in using my PC's to record and play HD/DTV instead of buying a dedicated unit (TiVo, etc.).  I'm a newbie to HDTV, and thought this method would be easier (since I have the PC hardware).

Thanks!

[Gregg Lengling]

http://www.techtv.com/freshgear/products/story/0,23008,3409693,00.html

But this is by no means the definitive guide...as pointed out there are at least 2 missing cards....myself and MCQ swear by our HiDTV Pro2 cards.......

[mcq]

Swear by... or swear at!?

Seriously, it has got to be the coolest thing I have for my computer. Recording the Superbowl was outstanding.

There were some bugs early on, but their latest software release seems to be very stable. I have been able to record Analog and HD with the scheduler. The software could use some adjusting, but the basics work fine.

One thing that I have not done yet was connect the card to my Sony 61.  That will come in time!:)

[Gregg Lengling]

You really need to hook it up Patrick...I've been playing back things I recorded for months...and I swear I can't tell the difference of whether it's live or Memorex (well actually HardDrive).  Anyhow  I have Shrek on DVD and Shrek on the Drive and Man is the HD version great...better than the difference between "The Fifth Element" Wide Screen Vs the SuperBit version.

[ugyvel]

Could you give us uninformed a short "how-to" on setting up and using a HDTV card in the computer?  I tried checking this out at the AVS forum site, and it sounded like you almost needed a specially constructed computer and was not a simple matter of plugging a card into your computer and running a cable to your monitor.  How difficult is it?  Thanks

[tjjws]

Thanks for the link Gregg.  Just curious, how much disk space did it take to record Shrek?

[Gregg Lengling]

I'll answer both previous questons at one...

It's very simple to set any good computer up for HDTV (by good I mean something P3 or better)...I'm using a P4 with 512 meg ram...and a 80 gb and 200 gb hard drives.  Although just an 80 is enough to get going.  The cards and software interface easily.  Shrek took 19 gb to record.  The only card I'm familiar with is the HiDTV Pro2.0 card from http://www.pc-dtv.com  and I'm really happy with it. Both myself and Patrick (MCQ on the board) have them and enjoy them.  You can loop back to your pc monitor for high res or feed with an inexpensive component video cable to your HDTV. I route to my 61" set and the receiver is fantastic.  It took a month of upgrades to make it all work properly but I was on the cutting edge and there were some original bugs but the support people were fantastic.  They have a BBS (using a style of software like this board) that keeps everyone informed.  Kevin is one of their Software engineers in Korea and he's real responsive.  I had issues with my video card and within 48 hours he had patch that fixed everything.

So it's rather simple to setup and run.  If you want futher information just email me direct off the board and I'll help you.  I'm a glutton for punishment and am willing to have people over to show them how it works...or even if you buy it to help you get it set up.  The only "Caveat Emptor" (that's Latin for "Buyer Beware") is that it's not for appliance operators to get going...it is a small challenge but with a little persistance anyone can make it work.


If I can be of any more help let me know.

[rpine]

I have been "fiddling" with the MyHD card since December and have been quite impressed with its performance.  The latest software Beta release has improved the performance as well as the ability to do everything on-screen via the remote control.  I have it running in an old P2-450Mhz machine with Windows XP and cabled to my TV  and it works great.

Two places for info that I have found invaluable are avsforum.com (especially the "Home Theater Computers " forum) and digitalconnection.com for how-to articles and parts. Is it difficult? Not really, although the frequent software updates (even though they bring great improvements) are sometimes a pain.

Good Luck and enjoy.

[ken]

Has anyone seen similar units for Macs?
    Thanks, Ken

[Joseph S]

Has anyone seen similar units for Macs?
     Thanks, Ken

Unfortunately, there is none. There are quite a few PCI cards to input and produce HD material for $$$, but no HDTV tuner cards. I would love to throw my HTPC out the Window and replace it with my current Mac. Probably, because it hasn't crashed since Oct 2001 range and only 3 times since I bought it 3 years ago. Plus, it is fairly easy for me to maintain thanks to donation-ware programs like Carbon Copy Cloner.

The problems are:

1)No Powerstrip- thus you need a Projector or a DLP RPTV for optimum video

2)No DTS (DD is solved by videolan 0.5.0)

3)No HDTV Tuner card for PVR timeshifting and demo

[sp44again]

Hey Gregg, how long of a run do you have from your pc to your TV? I'm talking cable here.

[Gregg Lengling]

I have an 25' cable that runs from the DB 25 flying lead off the video card.  Then it plugs into my Component Video switcher and a 5' jumper to the RPTV.  Although if I'm doing editing on a recording I unplug it and plug into my 21" monitor and do the editing on there via the RGB output of the card (it's switchable from Component to RGB via software).

[sp44again]

Do they even make a 25" component cable? I think I've only seen 12' max. I would definitely need a 25.