Hauppauge Nova T 500 vs. HVR2200 for Freeview HD

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Hauppauge Nova T 500 vs. HVR2200 for Freeview HD

thejason

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#23152 20-Jun-2008 09:49

Hi,

I looking to but a new TV tuner purely for recording terrestrial Freeview, in particular HD content. I've narrowed it down to the Hauppauge Nova T 500 and HVR2200. Can anyone tell me what the difference is or which one would be best for my situation?

rhysb

435 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 7

Trusted

#139365 20-Jun-2008 12:24

It depens on the rest of you hardware and what slots you have available/free in your pc. The Nova T 500 is an older card that plugs into a PCI slot, while the 2200 is PCIE and is a newer design. While they are both dual DVBT tuners the 2200 also has dual analog tuners with hardware encoders, which means it can be used for analog TV or with a STB (or two) as well. Unfortunatly you are limited to any two combination of tuners at the same time.

If you have a free PCIE slot then you should go for the 2200, if not then go for the Nova T 500. They are both very good cards.

Disrespective

1934 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 146

#139370 20-Jun-2008 12:44

I’ve used both the Nova T 500 and the HVR2200.

The reasons why I stayed with the 2200 were several.

First and foremost, I needed to have the card use a PCI-e slot because I had my only free slot taken up with an analogue card for Prime broadcasts so the Nova T 500 had to go.

Secondly, after using the 2200 for a while I think the channel changes are a little snappier (still nowhere near a normal TV channel change speeds, but changing between channels on the same mux is almost instant with only a slight (1sec to 3sec) delay to other muxes).

And finally I liked the idea of the HVR2200 having the dual analogue tuners as well as the digital tuners in case I ever needed them.

thejason

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#139377 20-Jun-2008 13:07

Hey thanks for your replies, they've really helped. Looks like the 2200 is the way to go.

The card I am currently using is a PVR500 MCE which I love and have no troubles with in both MCE and VMC that why I'm keen to stick with Hauppauge.

One thing that's still puzzling me though is why the HVR2200 is so much cheaper than than my old PVR500?

Disrespective

1934 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 146

#139388 20-Jun-2008 13:58

thejason: One thing that's still puzzling me though is why the HVR2200 is so much cheaper than than my old PVR500?

*Shrug* could have something to do with new tech costing less than old tech these days. Case in point DDR2 RAM is cheaper than DDR RAM in certain sizes. But really, who cares. New stuff for less is always good.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 222

#139521 21-Jun-2008 01:15

I'm running a HVR2200 with MediaPortal TVServer, both anaalog and digital are perfect.

thejason: have no troubles with in both MCE and VMC that why I'm keen to stick with Hauppauge.

MCE and VMC are no good with NZ DVB-T at the moment they may release an update? one day? Check out MediaPortal / TVServer. Free and open source with a big NZ community. :D

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thejason

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#139613 21-Jun-2008 18:54

MCE and VMC are no good with NZ DVB-T at the moment they may release an update? one day?

Yeah, I realise this. My plan of attack is to just leave my current PVR500 VMC setup as is because everything is runing like a dream.

The new HVR2200 card will be going in another non-HTPC I have and I'll use it to record the additional freeview/HD content that my VMC box can't handle.

Hopefully Fiji/Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008 (or whatever they're calling it now) will sort out this Freeview problem?!?