Tuner Log
This page is for my experiences with different tuner cards I have used for my HTPC. I hope to add any information on making the cards work better and just sharing my experiences with them. For now it is pretty basic though.
Hauppauge PVR-500 – Dual analog tuners
Hauppauge PVR-150 – Single analog tuner
FusionHDTV – I had this card for a little while and loved it. The one I bought came with a remote and it also had Compontent inputs which was great for playing and recording Halo. The card had great QAM support and had decent OTA reception. A couple of things I did not like with this card were the fact that it seemed to take a little time to change channels but with only a handful of digital channels that isn’t always a big deal. And the fact that it took up a PCI slot was kind of a bummer if you only had 2 slots. The time this card came out there was no other option though because USB HD cards were slim to none and there was nothing else out there. Then came the HDHomerun.
HDHomerun – This is just a cool device in general. Take a tuner card and make it available to any computer on the network. Then make it so you can control it from any computer on the network and then make it 2 tuners. That is basically what you get with the HDHR. It is its own class of device. This is not a PCI tuner, it is not a USB tuner, it is a network attached tuner that you just plug in two coax cables, nework, and power and you are set. The tuner is not as supported as some of the other tuners but it makes up for it with updates that come out at least once a month (so far). I haven’t been able to test with this tuner as much as I would like to so far but from what I have used it is great. HD wirelessly to my laptop is just a great, great thing.
Hauppauge HD-PVR
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q