Freeview HD TV Tuners (Pic heavy)

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bloom

38 posts

Geek

#24623 29-Jul-2008 13:07

Tested the 2 most common Freeview HD tuners

Hopefully this will help people decide which TV Tuner is suitable for them

Thank you to Computer Lounge for supplying the test cards

The TV Tuners:

Nova T 500 HD
- Dual DVB-T Tuners (Hybrid)
- Hauppauge MCE Remote
- IR Receiver
- Hauppauge Driver CD
- PowerCinema
- Full size PCI bracket

HVR-2200 OEM
- Dual DVB-T Tuners (Hybrid)
- Dual Analogue Tuners (Hybrid)
- FM Antenna
- Happauge Driver CD
- PowerCinema
- S-video interface
- Full & Mid PCI bracket

In their Flesh

- Nova T 500 HD (top) - HVR-2200 (bottom)

- Nova T 500 HD (left) - HVR-2200 (right)

- Nova T 500 HD

- HVR-2200

- Nova 500 HD + Remote + IR

Testing:

Setup:
Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66ghz
Asus P5K-VM
Leadtek 8500GT HDMI
Corsair 2x1gb 800mhz
Antec Fusion 430watt
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
Media Portal RC2
PowerDVD 8
Monogram AAC

Results:

Main information people have wanted to know is the response of the tuners as people claimed the HVR-2200 was faster.
CPU Usages were identical with a spread from 20~30% on average with both tuners (hardware acceleration)

Time to turn on TV Tuner (average):
Nova T 500 HD # 5.5 seconds
HVR-2200 # 3.5 seconds

Time to change channel (DVB-T average):
Nova T 500 HD # 3.1 seconds
HVR-2200 # 3.2 seconds

There HVR-2200 definitely responded faster to turning the tuner on by 2 seconds although there is no conclusive result so say either responded faster to changing channels, both around the 3 second mark.

Notes:

- Analogue does not support High Definition playback only DVB-T does
- Analogue is required to view Prime, Sky owns Prime and therefore chose to NOT make it apart of Freeview to protect their Sky subscriptions
- DVB-T will view all Freeview channels excluding Prime
- The Hauppauge remote is very easy to setup although you must install the drivers! one click and works for Media Portal
- The HVR-2200 is only available OEM in NZ which excludes a remote and has no IR capability

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205 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#152407 29-Jul-2008 13:35

So it is impossible to one analogue and one DVB-T on the HVR2200? That's a shame

Jizah

241 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 23

#152411 29-Jul-2008 13:43

bloom:
- DVB-T will view all Freeview channels excluding Prime

Not all, there are some only available on DVB-S such as Cue and Stratos.

richms

29097 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#152456 29-Jul-2008 16:42

Can the 2200 record analog from both its tuners at once?

Also, are the white headers along the top an alternate input to the card, Like an AV in for both tuners or similar?

Richard rich.ms

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#152610 30-Jul-2008 09:15

What you cant view prime and record freeview hd at the same time with the HVR2200 card?

Are their any dual tv tuners that can?

ASUS P5Q Mobo / Intel Core2Duo E8500 (3.8Ghz) CPU / CORSAIR DDR2-800 2GB RAM / Sapphire HD4850 (Dual Slot Cooler) Graphics Card / Hauppauge HVR-2200 / Hauppauge HVR-3000 / Corsair 520W HX PSU / Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB Hard Drive / Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler / XP PRO w/SP3 / DVBViewer / GB-PVR

mcraenz

1140 posts

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+1 received by user: 222

#152669 30-Jul-2008 12:32

Are you sure? I'm sure I've watched prime whilst recording DVB-T. Will confirm tonight :-)

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mcraenz

1140 posts

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+1 received by user: 222

#152736 30-Jul-2008 16:35

I can confirm that watching/recording DVB-T and analog on the same card at the same time is possible with the HVR-2200. If this doesn't work for you in MediaPortal TVServer then you need to make sure you have setup your hybrid groups correctly.

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charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#152743 30-Jul-2008 16:54

So you used MediaPortal to record prime? But you couldnt use the HVR-2200 card to releave the cpu of processing when recording?

andrewdixon1000

76 posts

Master Geek

#152750 30-Jul-2008 17:33

The HVR2200 doesn't relieve the cpu of processing, there is very little processing to do. All it does it write the incoming data to disc.

Andy

mcraenz

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#152756 30-Jul-2008 17:58

1. Correct with digital there is nothing to relieve CPU of, just save the stream to disk.

2. With analog the HVR2200 encodes audio/video to MPEG2 this does relieve the CPU. This is very important! Software encoding sucks!

3. As I jsut stated, with MediaPortal TVServer it is possible to watch/record analog and digital at the same time, But to do this you must set up your hybrid groups correctly, Otherwise MediaPortal might try to use a tuner that is already in use!

4. If you have a free PCIe slot you'd never choose the older NOVA T 500 card over the HVR2200.

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fraseyboy

134 posts

Master Geek

#152773 30-Jul-2008 19:24

Was looking for a guide like this a while ago. Good stuff! A few innacuracies but still, good.

Worth noting that analog on the HVR-2200 with mediaportal is very buggy and often gets BSOD's.

mcraenz

1140 posts

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#152774 30-Jul-2008 19:27

I've also heard several reports of BSODs with the ananlog side of the 2200 but NEVER experienced it my self under Vista. If this problem is specific to MediaPortal please file a bug report and include a minidump if possible this really needs to be resolved.

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fraseyboy

134 posts

Master Geek

#152776 30-Jul-2008 19:32

mcraenz: I've also heard several reports of BSODs with the ananlog side of the 2200 but NEVER experienced it my self under Vista. If this problem is specific to MediaPortal please file a bug report and include a minidump if possible this really needs to be resolved.

Maybe its an XP issue... All the reports I've seen have been with XP.

bloom

38 posts

Geek

#152778 30-Jul-2008 19:40

Dam already given it back :( should of looked into that further although assumed it was a known fact
Testing Asus Xonar cards at the moment

Will include the Nova T stick next week, forgot about that one. Can't be bothered with HVR3000/4000

mcraenz

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#152780 30-Jul-2008 19:50

Nice work Bloom; keep'm come'n.

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lchiu7

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#152825 30-Jul-2008 21:31

bloom: Dam already given it back :( should of looked into that further although assumed it was a known fact
Testing Asus Xonar cards at the moment

Will include the Nova T stick next week, forgot about that one. Can't be bothered with HVR3000/4000

I just bought the Nova T 500 HD since I like the fact that it can record two channels at once. I also have a PVR250 in the machine to record TCL cable. Up till now I have been using a HVR900H to recrod DVB-T but it drops out randomly (using gbpvr) so that gbpvr records zero byte files. I have swapped USB ports around but it still occurs. My signal strength is fine (external, fairly new UHF antenna) so it's not signal strength, just that Windows stops recognising the device. A reboot fixes it which isn't exactly satisfactory.

I hope the Nova T 500 HD will be better, being a PCI card,

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