TV Tuner Cards

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › TV Tuner Cards

drummer47

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#59401 5-Apr-2010 09:28

Does anyone out there know what the best TV Tuner card is to use for connecting the TV to the PC? I've currently got a Hauppage, but it doesn't pick up the TV Guide. I'm using Windows Media with Windows 7 on the PC. I live in Hastings, Hawke's Bay.

[Mod edit SB moved to more appropiate forum]

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#314871 5-Apr-2010 09:36

Hauppauge cards are good.

THe lack of EPG isn't the TV card, it's the fact Windows Media Center doesn't support the MHEG5 EPG used on Freeview here in New Zealand. To receive an EPG you'll need to use an external application to load an EPG. There are numerous recent threads on here discussing this.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#314888 5-Apr-2010 10:02

I've used a few different DVB-T cards, I ran them all with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Ubuntu. As sbiddle mentioned it's not your card that has the problem, it's the lack of data coming through with DVB-T. If you want a full week of EPG data you'll have to hook up a satellite connection, try out one of the MHEG5 converters currently under development or use one of the downloadable EPG files (which is what I do, but I use 4TheRecord which accepts xmltv format directly). Results of different cards are as follows:

Hauppauge HVR-2200 - the card I currently use, it works flawlessly with all the operating systems listed

Hauppauge TD-500 - worked properly in XP and Vista, but I've heard of a lot of people having trouble with this card

Asus u3100 (USB stick) - worked properly in all operating systems listed, a friend is now using it with a weaker signal than mine and is having a bit of trouble with it

AverTV Hybrid Volar HX (USB stick) - couldn't get it working properly in Linux, worked properly in XP but couldn't get the analogue signal working, much slower changing channels than the other cards. It now sits on my shelf.