Best Freeview HD PC tv tuners

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Best Freeview HD PC tv tuners

rodloc

55 posts

Master Geek

#90927 3-Oct-2011 17:45

I am looking at building a small HTPC to go with my sony bravia hd tv.

Looking at preferably a cheap option first so i would like to spend around 400 to 500.

Other than playing music on surround sound and recording tv i possibly will use it to surf net and skype (not essential though)

I have a blu-ray player so does not need this.

I dont need HDDs and preferably a linux based system (this is not essential if the pc cards are expensive)

Any advice will be appreciated

mattwnz

20165 posts

Uber Geek

#528660 3-Oct-2011 18:38

rodloc: I am looking at building a small HTPC to go with my sony bravia hd tv.?

Looking at preferably a cheap option first so i would like to spend around 400 to 500.

Other than playing music on surround sound and recording tv i possibly will use it to surf net and skype (not essential though)

I have a blu-ray player so does not need this.

I dont need HDDs and preferably a linux based system (this is not essential if the pc cards are expensive)?

?

Any advice will be appreciated?

I think you maybe pushing it. Basically you want a cheap computer that is also quiet . You maybe best to buy all the components as cheap as possible using pricespy to built the PC, and then put it together yourself.

mattwnz

20165 posts

Uber Geek

#528661 3-Oct-2011 18:38

rodloc: I am looking at building a small HTPC to go with my sony bravia hd tv.?

Looking at preferably a cheap option first so i would like to spend around 400 to 500.

Other than playing music on surround sound and recording tv i possibly will use it to surf net and skype (not essential though)

I have a blu-ray player so does not need this.

I dont need HDDs and preferably a linux based system (this is not essential if the pc cards are expensive)?

?

Any advice will be appreciated?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#528676 3-Oct-2011 19:12

Are you wanting advice just on tuners or a whole PC?

rodloc

55 posts

Master Geek

#528677 3-Oct-2011 19:14

just on tuners mainly

i think i can figure out the rest but any advice would be helpful

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#528691 3-Oct-2011 19:43

rodloc:

I dont need HDDs and preferably a linux based system (this is not essential if the pc cards are expensive)

Where are you going to put your OS and Recorded TV without a HDD?

rodloc

55 posts

Master Geek

#528799 4-Oct-2011 06:53

I already have a couple of HDD one is a TB and the other is 500

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#528966 4-Oct-2011 12:06

Will your PC have available PCI or PCI-e slots, and will it accommodate full height cards, or do you need a USB tuner?

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rodloc

55 posts

Master Geek

#528971 4-Oct-2011 12:09

I am looking at PCI or PCI-e slots preferable not full height cards

but this is not essential if they are not as good as full height cards

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#530611 7-Oct-2011 15:51

I use two Hauppauge TV tuner cards for Freeview|HD reception, both of which I am happy with.

The WinTV-HVR-2200 PCI-e card
The WinTV Nova T 500 PCI card

They both have dual DVB-T tuners (and the HVR-2200 also has analogue capability which I don't use anymore). Both cards are supplied with low profile and full height brackets.

Note: Links to Ascent website for product descriptions, better pricing is probably available if you search.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#530625 7-Oct-2011 16:06

Deev8: I use two Hauppauge TV tuner cards for Freeview|HD reception, both of which I am happy with.

The WinTV-HVR-2200 PCI-e card
The WinTV Nova T 500 PCI card

They both have dual DVB-T tuners (and the HVR-2200 also has analogue capability which I don't use anymore). Both cards are supplied with low profile and full height brackets.

Note: Links to Ascent website for product descriptions, better pricing is probably available if you search.

Deev8 - do you have the problem with the 500 card where the image pixelates every 10 seconds or so? I had this card for a short time but found it unusable due to this problem. There is a thread on the Hauppauge support site but the issue never got resolved.

But back on track - I have two WinTV HVR-900HD USB tuners and they work very well. I have a BTX case so cannot use full sized cards and these allowed me to get around this issue.

One note - how do you plan on getting the EPG? I use a DVB-S card to pull down the full 7+ days then copy this to the corrosponding DVB-T channels (I use Windows Media Centre). The other option is a EPG collector

jim.cox

224 posts

Master Geek

#530630 7-Oct-2011 16:11

I've recently invested in a Hauppauge 4400 tuner card.

Beacuse of the hills around home I needed a satelite card - this one does terrestrial and analog as well

Apart from a couple of minor teething issues, I'm very very happy with it. Works very well indeed

=mjc=
.

PANiCnz

990 posts

Ultimate Geek

#530692 7-Oct-2011 18:53

timbosan:

Deev8 - do you have the problem with the 500 card where the image pixelates every 10 seconds or so? I had this card for a short time but found it unusable due to this problem. There is a thread on the Hauppauge support site but the issue never got resolved.

Thread jack - I have two TD500's, always thought it was a signal issue, now you have concerned time for some investigation.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#530880 8-Oct-2011 13:02

timbosan: Deev8 - do you have the problem with the 500 card where the image pixelates every 10 seconds or so? I had this card for a short time but found it unusable due to this problem. There is a thread on the Hauppauge support site but the issue never got resolved.

No I don't have that problem.

I have read about people having that type of problem in the past, and there are a couple of possible reasons why I have escaped it:

I seem to remember the issue was with the TD-500 card, and not the T-500 which I have.
I also thought that the issue was only seen on Windows 7 systems, and my HTPC runs on Vista.

sultanoswing

814 posts

Ultimate Geek

#530915 8-Oct-2011 15:17

For the graphics card, grab a silent (i.e. fan-free) Geforce 210. It has VDPAU version 'C', so you get a nice picture and minimal load on the CPU. Do you want to run a seperate front end/back end? If not, make sure your system will be powerful enough to cope with recording and watching HD TV, which is somewhat demanding on hardware.

I have the Hauppauge HVR-2210. It's a dual HD and analog tuner card and with a bit of fiddling works perfectly under Linux & MythTV. The HVR-2200 should work right out of the box on Linux.

To grab the EPG data (into MythTV), I've written a very, very simple script which'll do the job. Check out the EPG subforum for more details (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=126&topicid=90470).

FWIW, I highly recommend going the Linux/MythTV route. Without starting a flamewar here, I found Media Centre to be very restrictive in what you can do with it. MediaPortal is quite nice and a bit more open to user customisation. For full tinkerability however, you can't go past Myth. Once set up (and that is the fiddly bit) it's very, very smooth and 'just works'. Emphasis is on the 'once set up' bit though. If you don't like fiddling with MySQL etc, you may be better to stick with the Windows-based options I've mentioned.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#531705 10-Oct-2011 22:14

Deev8:
timbosan: Deev8 - do you have the problem with the 500 card where the image pixelates every 10 seconds or so? I had this card for a short time but found it unusable due to this problem. There is a thread on the Hauppauge support site but the issue never got resolved.

No I don't have that problem.

I have read about people having that type of problem in the past, and there are a couple of possible reasons why I have escaped it:
I seem to remember the issue was with the TD-500 card, and not the T-500 which I have.
I also thought that the issue was only seen on Windows 7 systems, and my HTPC runs on Vista.

Wierd. I have the TD-500 and have no problems. I used to have a HVR-2200 which did have problems though. Seems like Hauppage's QA could do with some work?

Also, if the image pixelates every n seconds, it might not be the tuner, it might be your graphics card/drivers.

The T/TD-500 is good for linux by the way. The HVR-2200 was less supported when I last looked, although I remember having it working.

HTPC: Antec Fusion 430, Intel i3, Gigabyte 1050, Corsair 4x1Gb, Hauppauge WinTv, Logitech z-5500, Logitech Harmony 525, Yamaha Rx-v6a, Samsung KS8000 4k, Windows 10, Mediaportal 1.30, BLU-RAY: Panasonic UB820