pvr, tv tuner advice

travis22 · 07-25-2006, 01:08 PM

i just bought a nvidia geforce 6200 256 mb card and i want to put a tv tuner card in. my issue is that i only have two pci slots so it would have to be an external tv tuner unless there is a way to have more pci slots. what advice can you give?

The General · 07-25-2006, 01:17 PM

Are your two PCI slots in use right now? If there's a modem in one, you can pull that out and stick a TV tuner card in it.

External tuner cards are really low quality compared to PCI one, because PCI is way faster than USB.

travis22 · 07-25-2006, 01:20 PM

well one has a wireless card and the other has a sound card. I might be hooking up to hardwire internet which is onboard, so i could eliminate the wireless.
any adivce on which cards to buy, any good ones that act as a tivo?

The General · 07-25-2006, 02:02 PM

Well the part that would act like TiVo would be software, I have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, it is very nice. I have a computer system next to my TV which lets me rewind and record live TV and watch DVDs and such, it is very nice. I use MythTV to do all that, but any TV tuner card can work like that.

What is your budget, and do you need a dual-tuner? So you can record one station, and watch/rewind/record another? Or do picture in picture.

Also, to free up one of the PCI slots, you could get a USB wireless internet adapter. Just a thought.... :classic:

travis22 · 07-25-2006, 04:59 PM

Yea that makes sense. I might look into usb wireless.
If i use the tv tuner, can i get a y splitter for for cable tv and one go into the tv adn the other into the computer. then i can record on the computer adn watch tv like i would normally? would i need dual tuner or could i do that? also, can i record more than one channel/program at a time with tv tuners?

The General · 07-25-2006, 05:00 PM

If you have more than one tuner, you just need a y splitter to split the cable into each tuner and record more than one station, yes.

Yes, more me the Internet and TV comes from the same cable, so I have a y splitter, one goes to the cable modem and the other goes to the TV.

travis22 · 07-25-2006, 05:19 PM

that didn't exactly anser my question. on tivo you can record more that one program at a time and more than one channel at a time. Can i do that with a tv tuner? Also, instead of having dual tuners, can I aplit my cable tv into my tv like normal and into my tuner card, so that i can watch tv on the tv and also record a program at the same time?

The General · 07-25-2006, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by travis22
that didn't exactly anser my question. on tivo you can record more that one program at a time and more than one channel at a time. Can i do that with a tv tuner?

Yes, with a dual-tuner card like the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 or with more than one single-tuner card.

Quote:

Originally posted by travis22
Also, instead of having dual tuners, can I aplit my cable tv into my tv like normal and into my tuner card, so that i can watch tv on the tv and also record a program at the same time?

Yeah, that isn't a problem. I can watch one station on my TV directly plugged into the cable, and record a show on a different station on my computer at the same time.

Here, I'll draw a schematic of how my internet/tv network works in my house, gimme a few minutes.

The General · 07-25-2006, 05:41 PM

Okay here's how I have mine setup. It's kind of difficult to explain stuff like this in words, hopefully this makes more sense. My MythTV box is connected to the computers so that I can watch the recorded TV shows from any computer in the house, even my laptop wirelessly, it's also plugged into the TV, because it has no monitor.

travis22 · 07-26-2006, 05:18 PM

Thanks, I get it now!!!

Member Login