Ive been doing a little research but not quite decided what to go for...
planning to get two digital tuners with this months wage packet.

preferably internal pci cards (nope, no slot for a pcr-e terratec dual tuner )

haupauge nova-t mce looks good so far - http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_novatpcimcekit.html

anyone had any experience with them ? or anything better?

Ive never had good experiences with Hauppage stuff, so I tend to avoid.
After numerous problems with an external usb/standalone freeview box I gave up.

I now tend to spec Avermedia or Pinnacle to my customers.

I have an Avermedia I got from Sam, works very well

There might be a conflict problem putting two cards into a single machine though so its worth checking with the manufacturer. I suspect it might be safer having different cards.

ok fair enough,

what about black gold or those club3d cards on tek  :?:

i wont be using the built in software as itll be run off media center xps drivers (BDA) if it makes any difference

I may be missing something, but why do you need 2 tuners?

two tuners =

watch tv and record at the same time
record two channels at the same time

Quote from: SeriousI have an Avermedia I got from Sam, works very well

There might be a conflict problem putting two cards into a single machine though so its worth checking with the manufacturer. I suspect it might be safer having different cards.

Assuming youre using a decent card, there will be no problem. In an MCE machine at work I have two Haupaggue PVR-150MCE cards working perfectly.  MCE is designed to be able to use multiple tuners whether theyre the same or not.

Ok went out and got a Nova-T last night as i was told theyre on offer at pc world, Ã,£50 instead of Ã,£80, about as cheap as most places selling them online.

card works as expected, odd hickup now and again with the supplied software but its looking as good as the freeview box, with a second or three delay switching channels etc.


downloaded media portal (linky) to test the water before i do anything daft like spending Ã,£80 on MCE2k5 oem.

Looks ok, tv card works off the same BDA drivers MCE would use and it picks up the program guide off the ariel as good as the freeview box.

media portal is bit of a resource hog though (.net runtimes) so i can already see me building up the spare machine to run it, otherwise i can say bye bye to gaming & watching tv at the same time

wouldnt it be easier to get a PVR :shock:

something like THIS

im not saying buy that one, but when you consider its the first one i came across, and the fact 2 tuners and a new hdd would cost as much its a good buy

im sure i have seen one with a lan connection somewhere before, but you can transfer files via usb2 which isnt too bad.

just a thought anyway, and you can still use the pc for gaming while recording :mrgreen:

ive got enough bits to make another pc so thats not a problem tbh

plus im not gonna be able to fiddle with a stand alone pvr...
like streaming off the net, watching dvds, playing music, tv stuff...

im very much a tinker  

If youre a tinker: http://www.mythtv.org/

Compro usa make good cards. The Hauppauge MCE300 dual tuner is very good too. Iv done many media centre setups using this card, impressive.

Quote from: maximusotterIf youre a tinker: http://www.mythtv.org/

that looks pretty awsome..... would deffo. set up a system if i could get free sky TV too !

that does look impressive  :mrgreen:

spoilt for choice when you start tinkering  

What about the Terratec Cynergy card.  Ive had one of these for a while in quite a weak signal area and its been pretty much bob on (Linkage

Dont install the drivers that come with it, get the ones from the website as they seem to be bit more responsive.  The same site are also doing a buy 2 avermedia hybrid cards and get a fiver off as well.

Ive had 2 hybrids in a machine recording in MCE, dropped out of mce, ran the avermedia application and used teh SVHS to doa bit of xbox stuff whilst media center was doing its thing