Which HDTV BDA card(s) do you plan on using with SageTV 3.0?

[mkanet]

I thought it was pretty odd that the DIVCO Fusion HDTV cards were not even mentioned in the first list of tested HDTV cards in SageTV 3.0 beta. I haven't even heard of some of the HDTV cards that were tested with SageTV.

The purpose of this post is to see what HDTV BDA cards are most popular for SageTV users. This poll should be helpful to the developers if they aren't sure which HDTV cards to put a priority on for support.

[mkanet]

PS: I can confirm that BOTH the Fusion cards and the AvertMedia a180 cards have driver support for multiple cards in one PC. I'm not sure about the others.

[stanger89]

When/how did you figure out the A180 had multiple card support?

[mkanet]

Originally Posted by stanger89

When/how did you figure out the A180 had multiple card support?

I emailed them

"A180_WHQL_Drv_V1.2.2.23.zip
Dear Michael,

Our company AVerMedia Technologies, USA, developed a new driver for ATSC TV Tuner card that aloud you to install 2 cards in MCE 2005 and I am sending you this driver. Also, this driver should work with most common HTPC application such Beyond TV, etc.
We are planning to have an official release during Intel Development Forum (August 22-25, 2005).
Please note that you need at least one NTSC Analog TV Tuner in your systems for Windows XP Media Center 2005

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
"

[stanger89]

Cool. And good timing.

[lovingHDTV]

Very nice. I may have to buy another

[salsbst]

I'll use whatever works with QAM first.

[mikejaner]

I emailed them

mkanet,
I have two of the cards right now. Did they actually email you a driver? If so can I get it from you so I can test the second one in my system? I haven't tried to put it in yet, but it looks like they sent you a driver.

[mkanet]

Mike, yes they emailed me one.

[basset]

Has anyone tried the HTV wonder ??

I'm having trouble setting it up ... currently when I select a station to view the whole sagetv just exits and I have to restart it

Thanks
Reinier

Running Beta 3.0.5

[Goodspike]

Is anyone successfully using Sage 3.0 with the Fusion for HD now?

[stanger89]

Seems to work here, except for on a couple channels with weird PSIP info.

[Ryokurin]

ill probably end up doing the hdtv wonder simply because its very easy to find here and is around 150 in stores, probably cheaper online. Im considering going with it and a 550 card actually.

[stanger89]

You can get an A180 or a Fusion for close to 1/2 the price of a "local" HDTV Wonder. And both are capable of QAM which the HDTV Blunder is not.

[sleonard]

I've been looking at the Fusion cards for a long time but haven't heard of the A180 until they were mentioned here. How do they compare with the Fusion's?

[thatdude90210]

The Fusion is probably the better choice because even though the A180 is supposed to be able to do QAM, there is no software available to do that... so can't really count QAM as a plus for the A180.

On the other hand, the Fusion software for watching and recording QAM channels isn't very reliable.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by thatdude90210

The Fusion is probably the better choice because even though the A180 is supposed to be able to do QAM, there is no software available to do that... so can't really count QAM as a plus for the A180.

It's kind of a tossup in this context. The A180 doesn't currently have drivers that can do QAM, but the Fusion can't do QAM outside it's app.

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You can get an A180 or a Fusion for close to 1/2 the price of a "local" HDTV Wonder. And both are capable of QAM which the HDTV Blunder is not.

Thanks, I didnt realize they got that cheap.

[mkanet]

Supposedly the latest Fusion cards can sucessfully tune in to digital channels with bad reception in some cases (mutipath signal reflections confuse most OTA digital tuners).

[mkanet]

*sigh* Recording HDTV and playing back live HDTV with 2 fusion BDA cards in SageTV 3.0.5 bluescreen my entire PC. I disabled one of my fusion cards until the next beta.