tv tuner-related stories
Posted Aug 17th 2007 8:01AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware
Elgato has released the latest in its line of TV tuners for Mac. The
EyeTV 250 Plus is a USB 2.0 HDTV tuner, although you can also use the $200 box as a standard def tuner should the need arise.
There was a time when Elgato and
Miglia were pretty much the only game in town for Mac users looking to add TV tuners and PVR functionality to their computers. But a few months back, Hauppauge announced that its popular PC TV tuners
were now Mac compatible. So should we read anything into the fact that Elgato is calling this new tuner the EyeTV 250? After all, one of the most popular Hauppauge cards is the WinTV PVR-250.
Name recognition issues aside, the EyeTV 250 Plus looks like a pretty good deal. For your money, you get the TV tuner, Elgato's PVR software, and Roxio Toast 8 Basic for burning CDs and DVDs.
[via
Macworld]
Posted Jul 14th 2007 3:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Hardware
If you're in the market for a combo NTSC/ATSC PCI TV tuner, you might want to check out Vista View's
Saber DA-1IN1-I. That's a lot of abbreviations. Here's what they mean.
This card fits in your desktop, records high definition television from over the air (antenna) sources or your standard analog cable/antenna signals.
The DA-1IN1-I has two separate tuners, meaning you can record 1 analog and 1 digital program at the same time, or record one show while watching another. It supports HDTV resolutions up to and including 1080p, and supports hardware encoding for analog video.
It should work with any modern PC running Windows XP or Vista, although I wouldn't be surprised if it worked with Linux as well.
$99 gets you the PCI card, an audio cable, an S-Video to composite adapter, and the usual instructions and driver CDs. No antenna or remote control included.
Posted Jun 14th 2007 8:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware
Ever since I moved our tower PC from the office to the living room to serve as the home media center, I've been struck by just how loud the spinning fans are in your typical desktop. And that's one of the reasons the
Moneaul 301B looks so attractive to me right now.
While most home theater PCs that come in a stylish case with a a quite cooling system will set you back thousands of dollars, the 301B starts at just $995. It sports:
- An AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4400+ processor
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- 2GB RAM
- 250GB hard drive
- Dual layer DVD/CD Burner
- HDMI out
- A wireless keyboard and remote
- Liquid cooling
- Your usual USB 2.0/Ethernet/Firewire/audio/VGA and other inputs and outputs
Curiously absent is the mention of any TV tuners, but you can pick up a standard or ATSC tuner for under $100 these days. Adding CableCard functionality, on the other hand will set you back over $1000 and probably
several days/weeks of your life that you'll never get back.
Posted Jun 5th 2007 7:17PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware
So you've been meaning to turn your old PC into a home theater machine, but you're not quite sure where to begin. The
MCE-Components database includes a huge list of TV tuners, CPUs, graphics cards, motherboards and operating systems used in media center PCs.
The database was built on information from users who have built their own systems, and you get to benefit from their mistakes (and successes). Want to know if that Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 TV tuner will work with your Abit-NF M2? Just browse the TV tuner section, find your tuner and then check to see if anyone's used it with your motherboard. Or vice versa.
Right now the database consists of 100+ systems and counting. You can add to the wisdom of the masses by contributing your information.
[via
The Green Button]
Posted May 31st 2007 12:29PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Hardware
Amazon has a great deal on the Hauppauge
WinTV-HVR-1600 HDTV tuner. This NTSC/ATSC card normally sells for $90 to $100, but
Amazon has it for $70 after rebate.
The card has two separate tuners, a 125 channel cable/antenna tuner, and an ATSC digital TV tuner that can be plugged into a high definition antenna. In other words, you can use the card to record two programs at the same time, as long as they're from separate sources.
The HVR-1600 comes with a Hauppauge IR remote control and WinTV2000 software which is sufficient for testing out your tuner, but I'd highly recommend checking out Windows Media Center, BeyondTV, SageTV, GB-PVR, Media Portal (for Windows users) or MythTV (for Linux) if you want to take full advantage of this card.
Posted May 9th 2007 2:42PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware
Now that most computers on sale at your local Best Buy or Circuit City are running Windows Vista Home Premium, there are a lot of folks out there with Windows Media Center, although they might not realize it. You can use your PC just fine without ever looking at its 10-foot interface.
Still, market research firm In-Stat projects that
nearly 51 million TV tuners will be sold by around the wold 2011. That could turn what's now a niche market into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Most consumers will probably find a TV tuner bundled with their PC running Windows Vista. But those numbers also include USB tuners and CableCard tuners that probably won't be bundled with many PCs.
Hopefully as the market for PC-based personal video recorders grows we'll see more innovations in the software market with more companies developing commercial plugins for Windows Media Center. Of course, there are plenty of free plugins available today to do everything from singing karaoke to checking the weather forecasts. But there's plenty of incentive for developers to think outside the box with a potential customer base of 51-million people.
[via
The Green Button]
Posted May 2nd 2007 3:08PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware, Software
In a fit of nostalgia, Mike Garcen over at Missing Remote took a trip down memory lane and wrote up a
brief history of HTPC technology.
If you're a long time tinkerer, you've probably been finding ways to watch TV on your PC since the late 90s. I'll never forget the thrill of installing my first ATI All-in-Wonder card, only to realize that garbage in = garbage out. I didn't have cable at the time, and trying to encode digital video from bunny ears wasn't the smartest move I'd ever made.
Ironically, 8 years later I've just picked up an HDTV antenna in the hopes of recording over-the-air high definition signals with a PCI TV tuner.
Garcen also takes a look at some early HTPC cases, remote controls, and HDTV sets you may have had your eye on back in 1996.
Posted Apr 10th 2007 12:15PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Hardware
AVerMedia has released a new USB tuner that lets you record over-the-air HDTV or analog signals.
The
AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB is certified for Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, and Windows Vista Premium.
The high definition tuner supports resolutions up to 1080i, with 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. The box comes with an IR remote control, and an IRB blaster for controlling your set-top-box.
The Hybrid Ultra USB is available now for about $130.
Posted Mar 29th 2007 5:29PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire
Plextor has announced a new entry in the USB HDTV tuner game, the
PX-HDTV500U. The stick-style tuner comes with software that does everything you'd expect including pausing and recording live HDTV.
The tuner supports:
- ATSC recordings
- Automatic channel scanning
- Picture in Picture
- Still picture capture
- 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios
The PX-HDTV500U will be available in North America in April for around $99. Only Windows 2000, XP, or Vista users need apply.
Posted Mar 13th 2007 2:30PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
AverMedia launched the latest member of its AverTV television tuner card line today. The
AverMedia AverTV Combo PCIe is a PCI Express card that can handle HD and analog recording duties.
It's got an ATSC/QAM tuner, and is designed to work with Windows XP, Windows XP MCE 2005, and Windows Vista.
The AverMedia AverTV Combo PCIe card includes a Media Center Remote control. The package should set you back about $120.
Posted Mar 12th 2007 7:21PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
It looks like there's some
bad blood between Elgato and Miglia. The software company behind the popular EyeTV Mac-based PVR software said Monday that Miglia would no longer be authorized to bundle EyeTV with Miglia TV tuner devices.
No reason has been given for the announcement, but Miglia said it would put out a press release Tuesday.
This is bad news for Mac users, but it also seems like a bad idea for Elgato. Miglia is one of the largest companies producing TV tuners for the Mac, and without a TV tuner, customers have no real use for PVR software. It's possible that Elgato is preparing to announce a partnership with another company, or even to launch its own brand of tuners.
Elgato says customers who have already purchased Miglia tuners with EyeTV software will continue to receive support.
Posted Mar 8th 2007 2:40PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
Looking for a cheap way to throw a second, third, or 17th TV tuner onto your media center PC?
Newegg's selling the Plextor PX-TV100U for $39.99. But after a $30 rebate, you can pick this little guy up for under $10 (plus shipping).
The
PX-TV100U is a USB 2.0 tuner, allowing you to record shows in MPEG-1/MPEG-2/DivX. The encoding is done through software, so you'll want a reasonably fast computer, and I wouldn't recommend picking up a dozen of these thinking that you can record 12 shows at once without crashing your PC.
You can also capture video from an analog video source like a camcorder or VCR through the PX-TV100U's composite and S-video inputs.
Continue reading PVR bargain watch: Plextor PX-TV100U USB tuner for $10
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
